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Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs

Through his luminous acting career Anthony Hopkins has done highly lauded work in films such as Magic, The Elephant Man, 84 Charing Cross Road, Dracula, Legends of the Fall, The Remains of the Day, Amistad, Nixon and Fracture. But critics and fans alike will all agree that Anthony Hopkins best role is his portrayal of the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. So good was his performance that Anthony Hopkins was awarded an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1991. His co-star Jodie Foster also won Best Actress for her role in the film. Other prized won by Silence of the Lambs included awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. The job that Anthony Hopkins did in his character portrayal was so commendable that though he was on screen for little over 24 minutes for, his work won him the Oscar giving him the distinction of having one of the shortest lead performances to win an Oscar.

Anthony Hopkins success continued in the role of Hannibal Lecter on two more occasions in Hannibal in 2001 and Red Dragon in 2002. And his success has been such that the character has been named the number-one film villain by the American Film Institute.

In fact Anthony Hopkins  almost did not take up the role. He had just returned to Britian to make a career on the London stage, having failed at making a success of his Bollywood career. He had all but given up on the same, saying “Well that part of my life’s over; it’s a chapter closed. I suppose I’ll just have to settle for being a respectable actor poncing around the West End and doing respectable BBC work for the rest of my life.” Imagine the loss to the History of film villains if Anthony Hopkins had not taken up the role of Hannibal Lecter?

And Anthony Hopkins has become invaluable to the success of this series.  In fact the fourth film in the Hannibal series, Hannibal Rising, was a major flop. Anthony Hopkins did not act in it.

Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs is a post from: Anthony Hopkins

Acting History of Anthony Hopkins

Anthony Hopkins, who is now considered to be one of the greatest living actors in the world, was born on 31 December 1937, in Wales, to a baker. While he has played many a great role, his most applauded has been Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. This success was followed by its sequel, Hannibal, and its prequel, Red Dragon. But work wise, Anthony Hopkins has a lot more films than that to his credit. He has been in film such as Magic, The Elephant Man, 84 Charing Cross Road, Dracula, Legends of the Fall, The Remains of the Day, Amistad, Nixon and Fracture.

Anthony Hopkins’ had been working in repertory for many years, but his acting career really took off in 1965 when Sir Laurence Olivier invited him to join the Royal National Theatre. Anthony Hopkins was appointed Olivier’s understudy. He got his chance in the spotlight when Olivier got appendicitis. Anthony Hopkins filled in for him in a production of August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death. Later Olivier, mentioning Anthony Hopkins in his own autobiography,  said of him that, “A new young actor in the company of exceptional promise named Anthony Hopkins was understudying me and walked away with the part of Edgar like a cat with a mouse between its teeth.”

But as Anthony Hopkins was bored of doing the same roles over and over, he decided he would prefer to be in films. His small-screen debut happened in a 1967 BBC broadcast of A Flea in Her Ear. Another break followed in 1968 when he acted in The Lion in Winter. In this film, Anthony Hopkins played Richard I, acting alongside prodigious actors such as Peter O’Toole, Katharine Hepburn, and future James Bond star Timothy Dalton.

Over the years Anthony Hopkins became more established as a television and film actor.
But despite the host of top-rated films he has acted in, Anthony Hopkins’ favorite role was Burt Munro, whom he portrayed in his 2005 film The World’s Fastest Indian. He gives the reason for this as the similarity between himself and the character of Burt Munro.

Acting History of Anthony Hopkins is a post from: Anthony Hopkins

About Arise Sir Anthony Hopkins

Renowned Welsh actor who has made his name on the global stage, Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, CBE was born on 31 December 1937. Throughout his spectacular career Anthony Hopkins has mad his name on film, stage and television. Today he is considered as one of the greatest actors of all time. Of all the roles he has played, he is most renowned for his convincing rendition of the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs which he then reprised in its sequel, Hannibal, and its prequel, Red Dragon.

But while the actor has been a huge success, life has not been a bed of roses for this versatile and brilliant actor.  This is made clear in biographies about Anthony Hopkins. There are two that will be mentioned here. These include “Arise Sir Anthony Hopkins”. 

The synopsis of Arise Sir Anthony Hopkins says that Anthony Hopkins is one of the most versatile and challenging actors alive. He was born in Wales in 1937 to a baker. With such talent often comes great tribulations. Apparently, Sir Anthony Hopkins was a misfit growing up. Arise Sir Anthony Hopkins talks about the obstacles he encountered growing up, including failing at school because of his predilection towards pursuing various forms of art rather than his studies.

Though he is such a great actor today, Arise Sir Anthony Hopkins says that Sir Anthony Hopkins walked out on the National Theatre and wasted many years of his acting career in alcohol abuse. But its not all sad and depressing. Arise Sir Anthony Hopkins has managed to get his act together and his life has become about a series of happy endings. Not only has he been awarded numerous accolades including an Oscar he was actually conferred with a knighthood in 1993.

If you’re looking to get into the head of this amazing actor with a twisted past and trouble path, Arise Sir Anthony Hopkins  is an intimate biography that illuminates one on the obsession and ambition that goes into the making of such a cultural icon as Sir Anthony Hopkins.

About Arise Sir Anthony Hopkins is a post from: Anthony Hopkins

The Acting of Anthony Hopkins

 Famous actor Anthony Hopkins is well known as a highly convincing actor who enters into the skin of the character he’s playing, making it hard to differentiate between the character he’s playing and the man himself. This is probably because Anthony Hopkins particularly well known for the preparation he puts into the roles he plays. In fact, confessing his secret, Anthony Hopkins has admitted that he goes over his lines, memorising and repeating them more than 200 times if required. His goal is to be able to say the lines with thinking about it at all, hence his natural delivery.

So natural is the delivery of the lines that its almost impossible to believe how much effort has gone into being able to deliver them in that state. However there is a flip side to this. For instance, the room for improvisation is lessened considerably, though not omitted completely. But due to the perfection achieved by Anthony Hopkins, he also gets irritated about having to do too many takes or if he’s working with a director who habitually departs from a script. What’s more, as there is only so much information one can store in the human brain’s equivalent of Random Access Memory, Anthony Hopkins has also mentioned that he is unable to remember the lines once he has forgotten them. While other actors pride themselves on being able to remember their film lines for years afterwards, Hopkins is not one of that crew.

Often directors have to go out of their way to accommodate their actor’s varying styles. And Anthony Hopkins is no exception in this regard. Richard Attenborough, who has worked with Anthony Hopkins in five films, had to go to great lengths to accommodate the diametrically opposing approaches of his two stars, namely Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger. While Anthony Hopkins liked to do a fresh take, keeping rehearsals to a minimum, Debra Winger liked to rehearse a scene over and over. So Attenborough would stand in as Anthony Hopkins during rehearsals with Winger and Anthony Hopkins would only be called in for a final rehearsal and take. But Attenborough did not mind this at all. Quite the contrary. He has sung Anthony Hopkins’ praises saying he has “this extraordinary ability to make you believe when you hear him that it is the very first time he has ever said that line. It’s an incredible gift.”

The Acting of Anthony Hopkins is a post from: Anthony Hopkins