Anthony Hopkins Interview 1978 Brian Linehan's City Lights

I was a scene from magic Anthony Hopkins is quirky and your companion fats I want to ask you something because when we were beginning this there was a voiceover and I was quoting you about saying an actor would have to be crazy initially you thought to accept a role like that when did it change when did you realize you were indeed not crazy accepting the role I think during some of the more complex scenes for example the card trick I play with Ann Margret because of Richard Attenborough who's had such a long career as an actor is in total control another scene when I we were walking by the lake which was a I don't know for some reason and presented enormous difficulties in my mind or imagination as I believe that all problems are illusions anyway and when they do exist they're technical and that the wonderful thing is that at maneuvers and such charges in such control that he made it easy he filmed in bits and pieces he said don't worry nothing can go wrong and so I thought well I'm home and dry and I was because at the end of each day I had to go into the dressing room and wonder how we got through scenes there were days however when I believed that I was crazy and I thought why did I take this part because I want there was one period when I wanted to kill the dummy or the door that's it sometimes it was difficult to coordinate and thinking through you know two tracks of thought it's like trying to and on one or two occasions it became impossible the song when when fat sings the song a sweet mystery of life it was impossible I had to get help in that and we I think we took about two or three days to film that I come to my remembers a day when there was one day in fact when they sent the producer on in the white coat and they said of drag me off screaming and they still kept the camera rolling but all in all it was over it was a great deal of fun and as long as Livia once said he said that acting is the sugar pill to knowledge and I've learned a sleight-of-hand I've learnt ventriloquism and I got paid for him so I was a fascinating role and I'm glad I do it all over again if I was astir what would you do it the same way yes yes I've seen the film four times I sorted the private showings and done I think it's a mistake to go and see the film too many times because I started looking for holes in it yes I do it all over again if problems are illusions is that an understanding that comes to one with maturity if problems are illusions why did you feel you had so many as a younger man well because I've learnt or I'm learning in the process of learning to live in the solution and not the problem anymore ah I suppose I the illusion that I was unique the illusion that I was alone which is a symptom of a vast ego which can only be viewed from outer space I suppose I had a big ego problem and I came to a point at one time it was a slow kind of realization that I was very self-destructive person and that I was not unique that I was not on the outside looking in and that the what other people like me who felt uncomfortable and outside of life and I think that from the about the age of four I remember just feeling totally in the ease I thought everyone else may have been speaking Chinese I mean because I didn't know what they were talking about at school and through the whole of my you know through most of my life until sort of recent years when I came to America and after New York after finished Equus and I realized that I was sort of running out of time as I was running wild you know when I was on the move I felt unworthy to be an actor I felt unworthy of success I felt massive guilt about I don't know what and so gradually it was sort of explained to me to other people by other people and through I think a voice inside myself saying there's nothing to fear you know live and to accept life and accept the good in life and don't be so guilty don't there's nothing to be guilty about there's nothing to be frightened of what I'm saying but I've come around to the understanding is that I have a faith in God which I didn't have before I was too clever and now I'm not clever anymore I try to keep out of my own way you know as much as I can which has given me a sort of peace of mind I mean you know when I get uptight but it's alright I know that there's no big deal anymore nothing is a big deal it's in a way it's a game and in a way I'm off the hook I preface it by saying in a way I'm mostly off the hook I try for example doing magic I don't analyze anymore you know I don't analyze the part I'm playing because I trust that I'm I'm here for some reason I trust that I'm being cared for and that I have a gift which is entrust to me and I don't have to despise it or put it down anymore so I've it's been an interesting journey the last couple of years been the best years of my life maybe it's come with success or no better work and people used to tell me you know you know this you know what's the matter Tony you know you're all right you good actor why quarrel with it nicely well I could never accept that in a deep level and now I've accepted it and I accept it gratefully so in fact I feel sort of uncomfortable when I take credit meaning that I when I approached magic I just showed up I did a lot of preparation all I have to do is be ready I guess and that I try to apply it to my life now and I I just have to get ready you know I just have to do what is asked of me and and do as much as I can without driving myself insane because I there's a negative side of perfectionism in my nature anyway I can only speak for myself there's a negative floor and there's a very dangerous trap and I think one of the biggest killers is ego and when it's the negative side of perfectionism when one starts playing God you know and I mean literally there is a killer there is a lethal part of one's own ego and I've just been very fortunate and blessed really to for today know to be given the opportunity just to live you know because I really was self-destructive when you speak that way about ego and perfectionism you remind me of Hume Cronyn is lying about perfectionism is a terrible burden and what I wish I didn't have hahaha yes and know how he feels but he's stuck with it and I think that perfectionism is something obviously that one's burdened with through life but but resolving the ego I want to ask you about playing the piano as a boy was there a special sense of Solace or comfort for you playing the piano as a boy yes yes um yes I started see I wasn't too sharp at school I wasn't too Swift at school and the only way I was able to overcome all this was to play the piano and develop other skills like I was a very good mimic on impersonating or something and I was compulsive joke-teller I was kind of introverted and not unique but I mean I was just quiet I was kind of isolated nice sampling piano when I was the only child and my mother decided I was going to be in Kearney all I saw film once a kind of semi documentary story film called Carnegie Hall and I had a dream of playing in Carnegie why Carnegie Hall I didn't even know where it was and you went somewhere in the United States but I I studied the piano when I say studied I I tried and uh my I drove my father mad I mean he didn't like the sound from playing and the God bless me no he meant the best he met he didn't mean any harm but I got very confused in that area and so I gave up playing piano but I started all over again and I live in California and we've bought a piano and I'm starting again after 20 years and I'm picking up where I left off and I was too ambitious you see I was to ever said I wanted to play concert standard at the age of 12 and like that when I practice now I still have to write the Institute to practice as if I'm gonna play in the Hollywood ball so I am I take it easy to play for my own and John okay but we'll take a break and come back with more of magic be right back with Anthony Hopkins and one that was Anthony Hopkins with ann-margret and fats in another scene from magic there's no way that you could have known William Goldman when he was writing magic even though you may have known each other during the filming of a bridge too far but I find something almost sardonic about the reality of Anthony Hopkins childhood and your miserable life in school when you say you hated it and you couldn't even find the courage to approach girls until you were in your late teens and the fact that Corky withers in magic is the kind of man without revealing too much of the plot who quart someone he's been infatuated with most of his life through the use or misuse of the dummy and I just wonder without being too psychiatric about it or philosophical if there wasn't some special satisfaction for you in conveying these teenage pent-up emotions and wondering why as a teenager you hadn't had a fats in your life well I I did have a fantasy did you really in a way and I I didn't analyze the Potter not by choice but because I've given up analyzing night I can't analyze part anymore because Atma for example I'll get to the answer as fast as I can how can I ask me for example if I wanted to talk to a psychiatrist about the part you know to analyze the you know the I said no and he said good it's do just do it won't you I said yes I hope so because I've played some strange parts you know I've played disturbed men have played men on trial men in anxious men and so on but it only came to me the other day in Chicago of all places I was on this program tall somebody asked me the question was there any similarity my own life and it suddenly occurred to me yes there was and what I'd used was my instinct but what I I know I go back to my my childhood my lonely childhood and I couldn't communicate so I had a series of jokes and you know repertoire of impersonation and mimicry and all that and that made me fit I was able to bridge the gap you know but I still felt a little uneasy because it wasn't into it is synthetic I wasn't being me I was being all these different people and I guess that's why I came into the acting profession but now I guess I'm in it for the right reason because it's not a therapy for me anymore I think it was I don't know what it was I don't know why I became an act I know I am but in fact in fact that's the doll or the dummy or the figure is in concrete or wooden form if you pardon expression in solid form is all that it was my means of bridging that gap the sad thing about Corki is that he's a person who never emotionally matured and he is a four year old child in an adult body which makes him highly dangerous and and you know without revealing the story it makes him that's a dangerous combination for anyone so fat in fact is the equivalent of my joke telling my impersonations all my feelings valise and the means I had of bridging those sort of gulfs you know and but I didn't realize that at them but I had a wonderful time playing all that rage and all of the anger that's the wonderful thing about being an actor because you can play all these great things you know you can do I'm going to do Hamlet next year and I can't wait to do it in Los Angeles yes with your own company that you formed yes and I'm going to direct it I haven't formed the company I have been invited to do to present it at a company and to use the company it's the South Coast repertory company in Costa Mesa and I'm longing I can't wait to stuff I've prepared the whole production stick me two years you're telling us now Tony that your friend Carol Burnett is going to have to wait to play madame Arkady in that spirit huh you postponed that I wanted to do that she wants to we want to work together yes we have to personally how did you and Carol Burnett become friends how did you meet it was a strange coincidence or miracle I guess IRA good miracle I was on a station in Holland I was doing Bichir for my wife and I were traveling up to Amsterdam and she bought a woman's magazine the business English magazine vogue earthing and there was a story of Carol Burnett in it and she said read then and I read the story about Carol Burnett and how she had experienced some kind of Revelation in her life through yoga spiritual revelation in her life upheaval in the life in the changing and I remember I just gone to my whatever it was change I guess and I remember reading this and I thinking I'd love to meet her I'd love to meet over I know I admire as a comedian I think she's terrific and we came back from Holland because I'd worked with Olivia Nollan did strange links because when we came back from Holland came back to California Olivia was on vacation in California with his wife and three children and they were renting Carol Burnett's house at the beach anyway one night there was a party and it was like walking into a movie magazine it was a Robert Wagner's and we stepped in there and who should be sitting there but Carol Burnett and apparently I'd been her favorite actor so we sort of automatically flew into each others arms and we've become very good friends and we see each other quite a lot you know she's very busy at the moment and her career is taking a whole new turn she's now broken away from her brand of comedy in which she was nervous so we see each other once in a while you know when I think of the acclaim you've received and you've talked you mentioned about the kind of characters you played and whether it's the acclaim for peer and war and peace or doing the Hopman Lindbergh film and everything you have done it seems that people have forgotten the acclaim you receive doing fado a flame a flea in her ear and doing farce and I wonder sometimes if there isn't a burning desire to go out and do no coward or do design for living or anything and say look I can't just suffer in these roles I want to do it's like John standing saying all I ever wanted to do in England was a song and dance routine I never got the chance yes what about you you I said Lance not particularly they sing and dance I'd like to dance maybe I'd like to sing I don't know if I can sing I my wife says she says you've got such a good voice so I didn't get a musical going I didn't know haven't tried that yet maybe I'll do that one day I want to do comedy I've had a wonderful time playing all these complex complex parts they have big mouths because they've helped me know whether I suppose filtered down into my subconscious mind and give me an enormous I've gained from playing them but I want to play like comedy I would love to know account I'd love to do what Burt Reynolds does and I would like I know no better nose on to do what I do and I don't know I I'm having such fun knives in this part of my life and uh but if they offered me another call here for they offered me another whatever Pierre I mean Pierre was the thing the part I loved most I think but if they offered me that's true I think but I want to get off you see people think I'm rather serious I'm not I used to be but I'm not I think you should play the piano more at parties we have to take another break be right back with Anthony Hopkins and one Anthony Hopkins is with us we've been looking at scenes and talking around acting magic were you involved in magic at any time during the more than one year that Norman Jewison worked on the film before his falling out with Joseph E Levine no no you only came into the film with Richard Attenborough mm-hmm it's the middle of last year middle of 77 how did you did you know that Norman Jewison had worked on the project for almost a year oh yes there's a kind of long strangely sort of long story because I've worked with Joel Levine 10 years ago and lion in winter which that bridge tufa my wife said she said you know that I was going to do magic she's a wonderful part for you that's really him but I don't want to know I see if it's wonderful parties but it's an American part I said anyway during the we did the promo tour bridge too far and that mr. I want you to do magic she want me to do magic I said but I thought Norman Jewison was something see now I'm going to do it least I want you to play it it's but I have to work on Joe Lavigne and ice well I find thank you guys but don't pester me with don't tease me with a licen he said we'll read the book guys no I want to know if I've got it or not and I didn't I knew roughly what the story was I knew it was a Marla's part and Joe tease me with adore wicked Joe Lavigne he said he want to play Corky I said I didn't know what you're talking about anyway I did such a kind of I sucked myself out and I decided that come on to know about it until they made up their minds I didn't want to be disappointed phoned me up on Sunday afternoons and you've got it why done such a job in myself I said duh got it he said a you've got Corky I saw I could believe it so I read the book and then I read the script and I thought they were insane nobody complained I mean how could I play this I can't even I can't even pick up a pack of cards they invited the magician when I was in London doing international velvet and Michael Bailey came along gave me a pack of cards he said can you shuffle them I said you know he's for trying that all over the floor Richard Attenborough's color drained from his face and he went kind of choked wide and Bailey said to me said well just we'll learn he said just practice and he gave me some basic moves and I've learned one hand cuts and fans and those Springs and water for Charles and then I learned the coin trick and I'm amazed because I'm probably because I play the piano and I kept a very positive attitude towards it every time I said I can't do it I said I can do it I can a nice and like regularly notes to myself in my script notes all through my script you can do it you can do all this all things are possible and I meditate and that helps me as well and I sort of visualized myself doing it and then I had the so and it was amazing I mean I I did it I want to offer a line back to you and see if things have changed when you said this profession acting is built on quicksand do you remember the line does it sound like something you said about acting yes I said it's uh when I was in New York I believe about acting or the profession I sit in New York built in quicksand you don't know where you are at any time I still don't know where I am I said lots of things which maybe I'll change my mind about what else have you got explain explain something to us though when you talk about security and and dealing with ego and contentment within one's own achievement why when you arrived in New York to do Equus and we know that you did it for nine months and had a tremendous success in New York with it why did you feel free why did you say when I arrived in New York I felt free I'd always had an instinct or a hunch that I would feel at home in America I'd always had the dream of coming to America I'd had the dream that Dylan Thomas had had I guess of coming to America I don't know why and uh I suppose maybe I was what of an American movies when I was kid and I came to New York I did feel free I don't know I'd never felt on my own I'd never felt at home with actors for example never felt at home within this profession when I was in the English National Theater I never felt at home there although I'm indebted to Laurence Olivier and John Dexter and jump high rises on I never forget what you know you know they're helping hand hands but I never felt I fitted in and I didn't know I went back there recently and I I feel uneasy and I don't know I'd like to get rid of that feeling I don't know it's going to take a little time maybe but in America when I came to New York people were very generous I they seem to want they were very encouraging but I know that probably the answers in myself somebody know it's my attitude that I have to change but in England I never feel I've never actually felt comfortable it's a strange feeling but I especially in the acting profession I don't know what it is May it's all probably a hangover from that feeling that I didn't belong you know and because that's my birthplace and that's where I lived most of my life you know that's you know it'll probably take a long time to change those ideas of mine because they probably only my ideas there's probably nothing wrong at all there's none the negative is probably myself I'm sure this I know it is nevertheless the fact is that I've never been so happy everything seems to have happened in my life over here I got to California my life has changed in many ways not only through the acting profession people seem to know seems like what I want and seem to like what I do and I have ended up wanting what I want wanting what I've got I'm I'm more at home with myself I were in California or in New York I feel at home or Canada I know it's all the same constant I I just feel the last couple of years I've really felt at home I thought I've got it together the thing I just feel at ease with myself has it also made you more comfortable in the social scene in terms of the industry living living in California do you find it more fun or greater pleasure now to be with your fellow actors and performers socially if indeed you didn't in England well I the only time I meet actors is in work I stay clear of actors and performers outside my friends are outside the profession of very close friend dates associated me in the in publicity for example but actors know and actresses know I stay well away not because I have any dislike or disregard because I have enormous respect for my colleagues you know but I find that the talking about acting and less isn't professional you know basis like an interview I've been monotonous and boring and I think it's a and I've done and I've done it all I've talked about it endlessly and then I came out of the same door none the wiser and so I stopped talking about it now and I thought I was I was smart enough to have all the ideas and all the answers and I don't have any answers except that I now I just don't it's a pointless exercise it really is an exercise in futility to sit around talking about acting and and I've you know actors can be very boring very very boring and dull and I find an enormous relief to getting the card night and go home and do my job my job get on with my job and go home with night and turn up and show up in time and get a good night's sleep that was the impossible dream from you see because I can do that now I can actually get home I don't have to spend time hanging around the theatre trying to prove myself gaining people's approval when I finished Equus New York I mean the people would stand up and applaud a night then I'd have to go over to the bar and get more approval because I was addicted to approval I've I've been an addictive person I'm addicted to approval I'm addicted to people's applause and there's it's nightmare I think that's a nightmare you know and I've had to learn little bit by little bit and it's a slow process I have to guard against my own ego I have to leave without being tough for myself I don't keep myself in a tight rein now a little bit at a time I have to just let go one way and I said their approval your approval isn't important my own approval of myself isn't more important and then if that fits and then the world will come you know then the world's approval will follow suit generally but I can't please everyone price to try to please everyone you see and unless if somebody didn't like what I did I mean that would drive me insane I couldn't sleep at night trying to be that one person that but one person was probably fast asleep you know while I was awake pacing the apartment you know wondering how I could get their approval and all the enemies were illusions you know they were ghosts in my mind and I remember in California recently a couple years ago somebody said to me they said about one person about a director for example shall be nameless that this man had had tremendous control in my life and this person this friend of mine said listen I can assist you they really have he said you've really given this man power and I realize had given this man enormous power in my life by given I treated him like God and I believed that he was responsible for my very soul and from every talent and I didn't realize that it was a gift and that nobody was responsible running me all I have to be as good caretaker you know just a good caretaker and that lets me off the hook as part of this is a man who recently the last couple of years of your life has said that he has stopped drinking stop smoking and well not a total vegetarian as have you given up meat are you now a vegetarian no I chicken I eat fish well then again smoking and drinking I mean was this was this a matter of discipline physical fitness no it was just a realization one day that I'd come face to face with the reality that I was going to destroy everything if I didn't stop there's a big problem in not only the acting profession but it is big it is a big problem in the whole industry in all life you know I just realized that I I'm you know I'm not being Pollyanna but I realize I was really self-destructing I really was going to go crazy I was driving myself insane I was pouring the booze in I was smoking my lungs to pieces and I was dying slowly bit by bits and I think by the grace of God I've got I was given a message or a feeling inside myself one day that it was all over that I needn't ever struggle or strive or fight anything anymore and my my my drinking and my smoking was really a symptom of a deeper disorder and really what it was was a kind of psychological spiritual disorder and that all I had to do was shift back in line and when I shifted back in line with whatever it is that runs this universe because I'm convinced that I don't run this anymore as I always thought I did I thought everything's okay it always has been okay and it always is okay and I don't need to do those things anymore so I just take it a little bit at a time you know and it still anyway it's like a recovery it's a recovery from I wouldn't have missed it I wouldn't have missed it for the world because it's been a second life for me I'd never have missed it it's been a wonderful life and there was some fun in it but the fun finally went out with fun finally with heart and a part of me died with that but I'm you know I have an affection for that old self and I carry it around with me he's still there but I know that wherever I move the precipice is behind me but as long as I keep moving keep going ahead I don't have to look back again and that I don't have to punish myself well there's nothing to punish no I haven't deserved the punishment I now deserved that a peace of mind because I worked hard for it and I have a relative relative peace of mind and the kind of comfort now in myself I hope whenever I get to smuggle little too pleased with myself um somebody will be there to remind me no just to keep active and keep working we'll take a break gonna be right back with Anthony Hopkins and one Anthony Hopkins is with us but when we talk about acting and revelations can you tell me something why for you particularly the fascination and determination to do Hamlet I mean you said at one point that I hadn't done Hamlet since I was a student at Rada and that you now felt you were ready and you wanted to do it in America why I never I actually have never played Hamlet's immunity doing it rather not even in the acting school I played the ghost once and I played Claudius tunica Williamson's Hamlet and I was too young for them unhappy about the whole thing and as a result of that I thought it was long boring play and actors were silly to want to do it but one day I was walking down Wilshire Boulevard of all places and feeling pretty happy with myself and suppose I had reason to be unknown and suddenly I started saying to be a not to be that is the question I don't know it came from you know kind of something said to me do it and direct it I've been running scared from this director some time ago and I was feeling sore because I'd had enough of certain directors I'd had enough of monsters I've made up my mind that I will never work with him again I hope I never have to come in contact with the monsters again incidentally I think all directors should take a course in acting but anyway I was war and I thought I'll do it and I'll direct it but within 10 minutes the whole concept would come to me and I see Hamlet as a man somebody said to me the other day why do you want to play another neurotic and I don't believe he is I mean when I say I don't believe it is only my interpretation of him as he Hamlet this is an extraordinary man open and free and after the revelation of the ghost that he threw away and soaring and he knows his destiny and he moves and he is being moved by tremendous forces and it's the others around him or other neurotics the Claudius who couldn't wait and grab the crown the Gertrude is drinking herself to death the Ophelia who knew over-the-hill and has never made it the two children of Polonius are so screwed up because they've allowed their father to dominate their lives and here's this man who knows his objective knows his going there those two other creatures Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and he says out of the way for this because if you get in my way I'll kill you and he does but he goes through like a breath of air and I I know I can do it I know my Hamlet will be my Hamlet and I feel powerful enough to direct it and as long as I am objective about it and I've taken a lot of preparation and there's a very close friend of mine called Patrick Watkins who instantly helped me on magic with dialect and the accent and he's going to he's associate director with me and we're going to do it in South Col subject and I can't wait to do it it's taken three years but two years of filtering it down just learning it and it's come it's been written for me it's being directed for me because I write down animes I think where these car it's come from so I just go along with it and so I I can't wait to do it considering the the professional involvement both men have had in your professional life when Peter O'Toole did Hamlet at the National for Lord Olivier did you see it no I was in regional rep that then I was in Leicester remember its opening though I remember its opening and I'd always coming back to a tool like anyway I know I didn't see it but about a tool I first saw a tool because he was very he was instrumental in my acting career I saw him 1957 playing gym reporter look back in anger at Bristol Old Vic and the curtain went up and I'd never seen an electrifying person like that on stage before because he filled the entire theatre this long gangly beanpole of a man and as the most audacious performance I've ever seen and I'd always wanted that clinched it for me I thought that's what I want to be and of course he saw me in the National Theatre in Olivia's production so it is linked and cast me in mine and winter Olivia came back to live it told me I should do Hamlet I asked him in when I was Nylund doing bridge suffice and I want to do Hamlet I want to direct he said you shouldn't direct it there he said do it he said but get a friendly director the friendly stage manager can help you and I'll still follow us advice I asked him if he would direct it but he buddy sweetly said no he couldn't and he's too tired but it's a wonderful play I think it's an infinitely is so much in it and I've got my own way at last I'm going to do it I have had to call my own bluff because I've procrastinated enough life but before I go see now I want to do it because I'm and I think I'm at the right age do it I feel powerful enough to do it now I feel really powerful when you when you speak about Olivia and O'Toole and I'm reminded of a conversation someone had with Paul Scofield they were discussing prophetic considering your movie magic in the theater and Scofield's reply was magic is no concern of ours our job in the theater is to get on with it yes is there room for magic in the theatre in your opinion or is your job to get on with it to get on with it in the magic takes place all life is magical it is magic see because we're the instruments and all problem is a technical once you can go through those problems without avoiding them are backing off them from them because oh you know it's like fear you go through it you go through the problem confront it and go through it then you have released Anna's lastly called it the plane of inspiration that takes off from the runway the runway is the technique the runway is the getting on with it the plane will take off if on Tuesday night however it doesn't quite take off it doesn't matter you can't stop the pain say well I'll go back because I don't feel it tonight you get on with it technically and then on Wednesday night probably it's going to take off again as long as you're relaxed but it really is it's kind of being on automatic pilot and I I think it's and it comes after experience I think it comes out and I think I feel in the happy state of mind now that I have 15 years or 20 years of experience behind me and I think it's used well and and there's a lot of positive out of all the anguish and the pain and discomfort you know they'd been good times the big negative times but Olivia said once when I he was directing Colin Blakely in Juno and the paycock and I was engine and bigger and he said I said you have to find the middle man and Blakely said what you mean he said find the middle man that ease of playing a character Blakely said I only have until next week and it's you won't do it next week it'll take you the next the rest of your life and its really relaxing and letting go you know they boosted the puts one into outer orbit the aggression the arrogance and the ambition and all that that's all very necessary but there's a time when one has to let go and I guess I'm in orbit and I all I have to do is rest assured that it's going to be okay and do what is required of me you know keeping practice keep working I'm going back to the theater I want to go back to the theater and I I'm being kind to myself I oh that's all I can say really then the magic happens Schofield is right you get on with it John Dexter told me in New York he said just get on with it don't analyze do it well John Dexter directed you in New York and a necklace and you played almost for I was at 360 something performances yeah but that is it is it technique that sustained you on those evenings when you know there is no magic are you pushing the right buttons oh yes yeah yes sometimes it's a it's Sisyphus going up the hill with a stone it's sometimes very difficult and it's easy to say well I must love the audience sometimes it's very difficult and people come in late with the chopping bags and all that it is difficult but then that my job is to get on with it and do the best I can and the amazing thing is usually it's when they come back and see what a wonderful performance and when you've been feeling really off and technique it comes back to technique it's a man who received the acclaim you did on Broadway did you want the film version mm no I got over my resentment I prepared myself for the resentment and I got over it fast my wife held the resentment for some time I knew that they would cast a star actor and I think Jack Nicholson was up late Brandon was up in so I got over there I didn't see the film not out of sour grapes or anything but because I it was over I'd done it and I did it recently in in California but you directed it in California it's racist Aaron yes I did I played his entering yes I know both yes so I got over my resentment and I accepted that they were going to cast somebody and I'm glad which burden did it but I didn't see it and I'm glad I didn't do it now all right we'll take another break on that I'll be right back with Anthony Hopkins Anthony Hopkins is with us we were just talking around Equus as a stage and film why when you went back to California did you want to go into the Huntington Hartford theater and act in and direct another production of Equus something you missed in New York no I just wanted to stay out of trouble really I want to keep off the streets it wasn't as if you weren't working Tony well no I wasn't working in fact I was not happening working for about six eight months I was having a rest and I started getting anxious and I phoned my agent up and I said I've got to do something I said anything I said I didn't care what it is he said well let's talk to James do look look the hunt alphadon Jim said to me said Doug would you like to do Equus I spend you just under with the brine bed for this would you like to do it again that's why I'd love to I said I want to directed I said I don't think I can go through it with John Dexter again brilliant man that he is but I said I'd like to do it my way and we were often away you know and uh unfortunately we didn't have too much time to rehearse it but um I got a good class together and I insisted that everyone had a good time learned the lines fast got on with it and they did and it was a wonderful experience touring experience directing my wife was associate producer she was backstage looking after all the problems and which I didn't want to know about and she would tell me those at night on the way home and I'd say okay well we'll get those ironed out and it's a wonderful strange feeling because I'd written in the diary once I said I were to myself I said you know I believe in the power of positive thinking and visualizing oneself I visualized myself being back here once in fact I wrote in a diary I will do Equus in California and then when Brian Bedford did it I thought well that's it and then BOOM so I know I'm going to do my handler exam and I wanted to get it out of my system I wanted to find out what why I ate why I'd wanted to do it so much and I did it and I discovered a whole new interpretation of it and the interpretation was parallel to my own life parallel to the change in my own life in the last three years and it was a revelation to me that I I was I could at that moment become Dysart because the interpretation was mine and it was unique to mock me and it was a it was a really a for me and in in California doing Equus dice art was redeemed it was a play of redemption I believe that at the end of the interpretation in California when I did it was that this Dysart would cut all his losses give up psychiatry give up his wife give up his family and go and write or paint or go off to Greece on his own and meditated contemplate because what he's been faced with his power greater than himself and that there is no point in analyzing and that the child the boy was an instrument in his life and he was delivered because what he'd been facing all his life he was trying to dissect dissect dissect dissect he was an insect and he was dissecting and finally he drove himself Medan the part of him died and finally he was faced with the ultimate truth the ultimate reality and it was a catharsis for him and he says at the end he says what dark is this and he comes up the answer I don't know I know nothing because you know and to ourselves we're nothing and that is what dies out found himself and beyond the play Broughton was nice there was to see the audience being stunned and then pain allows back in the desk from drinking my coffee I'm happy and he would say how he was feeling so fresh I said well I just had a good time they said well we were wiped out so that was a great achievement for me did you know Robert Shaw briefly I knew Murphy I met him twice I worked in the same firm young Winston and I met him I briefly I think was Pasadena mum took the Emmy Award I was very sad to hear about his dad you you

Channel: Brian Linehan's City Lights

Views: 51,486

Rating: 4.9509201 out of 5

Keywords: City Lights (TV Program), Magic (Award-Winning Work), Brian Linehan (TV Personality), Anthony Hopkins (Celebrity), Talk Show (TV Genre)

Id: pmpps5dL6tc

Length: 40min 45sec (2445 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 16 2015