The crisis that changed Anthony Hopkins’ life: “People were frightened of me”
Sir Anthony Hopkins is in a league of his own. The Welshman is a living legend—an actor whose immense talent and enduring appeal have captivated generations of film fans. Hopkins earned his first Oscar for ‘Best Actor’ in 1992 for his chilling portrayal of Dr Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. Nearly three decades later, in 2021, he won his second, this time for his heartrending performance as an Alzheimer’s sufferer in The Father. At 83, he became the oldest winner of the ‘Best Actor’ Oscar, breaking a record held by Henry Fonda for nearly 40 years. However, Hopkins’ journey to success hasn’t always been smooth.
His personal life has been anything but smooth. He has a daughter he doesn’t see, claiming in one interview to have no idea whether or not he has any grandchildren. He has suffered from depression in the past, crediting his third wife, Stella, with helping him get through his darkest days. “She met me ten years ago when I was shut down,” Hopkins told The Standard in 2012. “I didn’t feel shut down at that time. I felt I was quite happy. But I was dealing with slight depression. Not trusting anyone. Certainly not trusting women.”
Perhaps Hopkins’ most damaging demon has been alcoholism, which affected him during his youth. “My big moment of crisis came when I realised I was a fall-down drunk,” he told the New York Times. “I was wrecking my marriage and friendships. I wasn’t a hell-raiser like Peter O’Toole, just dull. No charisma. A pain. People were frightened of me.” Thankfully, the star was able to overcome his drinking problem, cutting out alcohol in 1975. This wasn’t easy, though, as it now meant he “had to come to terms with crippling self-doubts, running away from responsibility, trashing things.” The story has a happy ending, though, as Hopkins revealed, “The idea of ‘I’m no good,’ is finally, boring. And people take you up on it.”
According to the man himself, his drinking really was a problem. “When I first came to LA in the seventies, I was drinking up a storm,” Hopkins said to The Standard. “Everyone else was doing drugs but I just thought: ‘This is it. No more booze’. I’d had a couple of warnings. People told me: ‘You’ve got a nice career ahead of you, you should clean yourself up.’ But I didn’t do it for the work, I did it for me.”
At this point, Hopkins had made a breakthrough in the film industry. He’d appeared in the likes of Young Winston, A Bridge Too Far, and Tony Richardson’s film adaptation of Hamlet, in which he played the villainous Claudius opposite rising star Nicol Williamson.
Hopkins’ revelation to the New York Times was in 1991. In 2023, he posted a video to social media celebrating 47 years of sobriety. The video was extremely hopeful, with the actor sharing his experiences (both positive and negative) of the process. He said, “I am a recovering alcoholic, and to you out there, I know there are people struggling in this day and age of cancel and hatred and non-compromise, children being bullied. I say to this: Be kind to yourself.”
Through his honesty and acceptance of his past mistakes, Hopkins stands as a role model to anyone struggling with any kind of addiction. He has managed to take what could have been a very dangerous situation and use it to build his confidence in himself and his resolve to never reach that place again.
