The movie that “pushed a button” in Anthony Hopkins
Some actors simply transcend their profession and turn it into a sense of artistry beyond the boundaries of mere performances. Anthony Hopkins is certainly such an actor, having made some of the most memorable efforts both in the state and on the big screen, carving out a legacy for himself as one of the all-time greats.
The rightful recipient of two Academy Awards and an Olivier Award, Hopkins started out at the Royal National Theatre and featured in King Lear, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra before turning his talents to the cinematic medium, giving mesmerising turns in the likes of The Elephant Man, The Silence of the Lambs, Nixon and The Father.
Like most actors, though, Hopkins’ love for the dramatic and narrative arts began in his childhood, and he once noted a movie that seemed to inspire him deeply to want to join the acting profession. In an interview with Venice Magazine (via The Hollywood Interview), Hopkins spoke of his early impression of Charlie Chaplin’s 1952 comedy-drama Limelight.
“Yeah, that was a funny, sentimental little film,” Hopkins said. “It was when I was about 13 years of age, and it really pushed a button in me.” Limelight was written, produced, and directed by Chaplin, who also starred in the film and wrote the score, which is further proof of the screen icon’s striking and endless talents.
Chaplin plays a washed-up comedian who stops a dancer, played by Claire Bloom, from killing herself and joins her in the journey to get through life relatively unscathed. Limelight was perhaps one of the most important films for Hopkins, who noted, “I just wanted to be something different. Initially, I wanted to be a musician, then a composer, and then finally, I fell into the acting business.”
Interestingly, Hopkins would later feature in the 1992 biographical comedy-drama about Chaplin’s life alongside Robert Downey Jr, Marisa Tomei and Dan Aykroyd, directed by Richard Attenborough, with Hopkins playing Chaplin’s biography editor George Hayden and Downey Jr playing Chaplin himself.
Discussing his memories of playing in Chaplin as Hayden, Hopkins noted, “Many years later, I was in a movie about Chaplin’s life. There I was, with Robert Downey, Jr, sitting in Chaplin’s garden in Switzerland, and it was there I learned I had just been nominated for an Oscar.” It was around the time of Chaplin that the world had been shown the brilliance of Hopkins through his effort as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.
Of course, Chaplin proved to be a very different film indeed, but it was there that Hopkins’ early interest in the cinema seemed to come around full circle, as though fate would have it that Limelight would inspire Hopkins to become an actor and win an Academy Award. Hopkins remarked, “If someone had told me that while I was watching Limelight 41 years before, I would have said, ‘You’re kidding!'”
Even the best actors of all time have to begin somewhere, and it might just have been the case that, without Charlie Chaplin and his 1952 film Limelight, we might never have seen Anthony Hopkins give some of the best performances that the cinema has ever seen. That would mean no Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs and no further efforts in Nixon or The Two Popes, so thanks to Charlie Chaplin for all that.
