The only time Anthony Hopkins felt like Clint Eastwood: “I’m amused by the irony of it”
He’s played a cannibalistic serial killer, a Norse god, a pope, a vampire hunter, a pioneering surgeon, several figures from the Bible, and more Shakespearean heroes than you can shake a first folio at. In short, Anthony Hopkins hasn’t just excelled at acting, he’s basically completed it.
The Welshman’s long and decorated career has brought him into contact with pretty much everyone considered to be amongst the cream of the acting crop. To list all of his famous co-stars would take the better part of an entire week, but one name he’s surprisingly never shared the screen with is Clint Eastwood. Considering they’re roughly the same age – Eastwood is one of the few actors still working who can claim to be older than Hopkins – and have achieved the same legendary status, you’d have thought they’d have crossed paths at some point. That’s not to say that one hasn’t had an effect on the other, though.
In 1993, a 56-year-old Hopkins sat down for an interview with The New York Times. After getting recognised a few times, he mused on his status as a celebrity, one who some label as a sex symbol. “I’m amused by the irony of it. My hair is falling out, and my sight is getting worse,” he said. “I feel like Clint Eastwood in In the Line of Fire running next to the car, which showed the good grace and humour of getting old, being vulnerable to age and death.”
In the Line of Fire is a political thriller that was released the same year Hopkins spoke to the Times. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, Eastwood plays an ageing Secret Service agent assigned to protect the President of the United States from an assassination plot. In one famous scene, Eastwood’s character, Frank Horrigan, is running alongside a car, something he would have been able to do relatively easily in his younger days. Horrigan is getting a bit long in the tooth, however, and this exercise leaves him panting and out of breath.
Age is as big a villain in this movie as John Malkovich’s Joseph McCrawley. Horrigan is regularly pushed to his limits, with Eastwood’s shock of grey hair standing out in a field of youthful browns or blacks. These limitations are what makes In the Line of Fire so interesting. Its lead character is vulnerable in a very believable way, making all his accomplishments more impressive. It could be considered a forerunner to the ‘Geri-Action’ genre, but that would be doing it a major disservice.
On facing up to his own mortality, Hopkins mentioned two of his then-recent films that tackle the subject head-on. “Both Shadowlands and Remains are about life, our mortality, seizing the day,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s got its appeal, but it is a great compliment.” Shadowlands is a biographical movie about CS Lewis (Hopkins) and his relationship with a younger poet named Joy Davidman, played by Debra Winger. As for ‘Remains’, that’s short for The Remains of the Day, a film in which Hopkins plays a butler who looks back on his life and rues the paths not taken.
Hopkins’ comments about getting older are so funny when you consider that both he and Eastwood are still working over 30 years later. The former won a ‘Best Actor’ Oscar in 2020 for his role in The Father, making him the oldest winner ever in that category.
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