The hidden secret in one of Anthony Hopkins’ most famous lines
Even though he’d been acting since the 1960s, Anthony Hopkins was almost 30 years into a career that was already plenty distinguished when he landed what would become known as his signature role, and the one that first comes to mind more than any others whenever the actor’s name is mentioned.
An Academy Award win for ‘Best Actor’ came his way despite spending just 16 minutes on-screen in The Silence of the Lambs, but his presence and malevolence as Hannibal Lecter was so awe-inspiring that it felt as though he was lurking on the fringes of every single frame.
To prepare for the part of a disgraced psychologist with a taste for human flesh, Hopkins would plunge himself into research and visit prisons to experience the behaviour of convicted killers up close. He’d also sit in on court hearings, study reptiles after deciding that it would be a lot creepier if Lecter rarely blinked, and even took his cues from a college professor he described as “very charismatic, and he was very deadly,” with the lecturer having the ability to “take you apart intellectually.”
There were intense rehearsals opposite regular scene partner Jodie Foster and even the odd burst of improvisational genius, too, but one of Dr Lecter’s most quotable lines in the script originated as a sly in-joke that only trained members of the medical profession would even be able to understand.
“I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti” quickly became part of the cultural lexicon, and while it’s a fitting line for such a cultured and well-educated serial killer, it also doubles as Hannibal cracking a gag at his own expense, one that presumably had physicians rolling in the aisles when they heard it for the first time.
As a psychiatrist, he would have had an intimate knowledge of the effects various drugs and chemicals would have on both the body and the psyche, making the legendary soundbite darkly funny by design. His condition could be treated with monoamine oxidase inhibitors – or MAOIs – but there are certain foods that mustn’t be ingested when taking the medication.
Any foodstuffs or beverages containing high levels of tyramine need to be avoided when prescribed a course of MAOIs, and three of the biggest offenders in that regard are liver, beans, and wine. Effectively, Lecter is confirming that he’s not been taking his meds, which in turn caused him to indulge his impulses for killing, cooking, and eating fellow human beings.
It’s hardly a side-splitter relative to the circumstances of consuming the most forbidden meats of all, but in terms of Lecter poking fun at his penchant for feasting on his fellow man, it’s jet-black comedy at its finest.
