Anthony Hopkins Knew Famous Role Would Change His Life 

Hollywood icon Sir Anthony Hopkins recently spoke about how he was aware that one of his most famous roles would change his life after reading the script. Speaking in an interview, the veteran actor discussed the instant recognition he had for “The Silence of the Lambs,” in which he portrayed the serial killer Hannibal Lecter, and knew it would be a huge moment in his life.

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Anthony Hopkins Knew He Had To Play Hannibal Lecter

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Hopkins starred in the 1991 film “The Silence of the Lambs” as Hannibal Lecter, winning multiple awards and critical acclaim. Taking inspiration from real-life killers such as Ed Gein – who was recently portrayed by Charlie Hunnam in Netflix’s “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” –

While discussing the role with the BBC in an interview to promote his upcoming memoir, the veteran actor explained how he almost instantly realized that the role would be “a life-changer.” Having read just a few pages of the script, Hopkins knew that he had to take the role as the story and character were so good.

Remembering advice from Katharine Hepburn, who is one of the most successful actors of all time, Hopkins knew that he had to take an approach of less is more to make the serial killer as scary as possible.

In his memoir “We Did OK, Kid,” the actor writes that he “instinctively sensed how to play Hannibal. I have the devil in me. We all have the devil in us, I know what scares people.” He went on to explain to the interviewer that you don’t need to be over the top or appear as a monster in an obvious way but rather “you go the opposite way, you draw back.” 

Early on during filming, he decided that he would be as still and silent as possible while on screen. Hopkins also adopted a trick of staring at characters, such as Jodie Foster’s character Clarice Starling. He says, “Don’t take your eyes off the person. That’s terrifying.”

Meanwhile, the Welsh actor also unveiled the origin of his terrifying hiss after uttering the line “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti” in the film. According to Hopkins, he had seen the Hungarian-American actor Bela Lugosi do something similar when portraying Count Dracula in a 1931 adaptation of the story. 

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Anthony Hopkins Reveals Pivotal Moment In His Personal Life

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During another recent interview on the New York Times podcast “The Interview,” Hopkins revealed the moment he knew he had to make a change in his personal life. The 87-year-old, who had a troubled relationship with alcohol throughout his early career, came to the realization that he had to stop drinking or risk killing himself or someone else.

“I was drunk and driving my car here in California in a blackout, no clue where I was going, when I realized that I could have killed somebody — or myself, which I didn’t care about,” he explains. “I came to my senses and said to an ex-agent of mine at this party in Beverly Hills, ‘I need help.’” 

“The craving to drink was taken from me, or left. Now I don’t have any theories except divinity or that power that we all possess inside us that creates us from birth, life force, whatever it is,” Hopkins says. “It’s consciousness, I believe. That’s all I know.”

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