Anthony Hopkins On Katharine Hepburn's Temper | The Dick Cavett Show

[Applause] someone was not applauding thank you and good evening uh there's a little town in wales uh called port talbot which probably could coast on its reputation for a century or so for having produced richard burton uh the actor but remarkably it went right on and produced another brilliant actor who happens to be my guest tonight mr anthony hopkins a few years ago when mr hopkins put aside a career as a top stage actor in england came over here to our benefit he appeared in such a bewildering range of roles especially in tv dramas on tv that it was really hard to tell who or what he was he was the elderly villain of i q b seven you remember uh he was the young vet in all things bright and beautiful andre and warren peace uh the kidnapper bruno huffman in the dramatization of the lindbergh case story and uh on and on and even now in his new movie magic he is at least two personalities we will explain that later anyway tonight we have the pleasure of meeting the real him he will you welcome please anthony hopkins we meet again [Music] i have a terrible feeling i might be wrong about the pronunciation of the town in wales is it um yes well we say port talbot over here uh but it is the same town burton came from this uh in fact we were brought up i suppose uh we lived within about uh a mile of each other but they didn't know each other didn't know each other the first time i met him in fact was in quest after he took over from charlie perkins does everyone born in portal but uh have a mellifluous voice and a penchant for the ground well they say it's something to do with national temperament or uh something to do with the weather probably or uh the welsh chapels i suppose it's something to do with uh maybe climate i don't know what influences um i suppose had something to do with uh goodness knows what i wish i had been to wales you know i have a grandfather for i had a grandfather from wales carmarthen yeah now is that north south eastern southwest not far from where i live dylan thomas spent a lot of time in kamathen when he was a child that's right yes swansea and then there's a child called lauren i believe that's included that's beautiful that's where my grandfather was born my grandmother was brought up there in fact really yeah we may be related how are you nice to see you good to see you katherine hepburn was quoted in one of the magazines recently um correct me if i have this wrong she said something to the fact that first god made england ireland and scotland and then corrected his error and made wales that's right that's a wonderful remark yeah she she was she filmed um the corners green in north wales and i spoke to her uh recently on the phone and i asked what it was like and she said oh my gosh god's country and i thought it was a lovely mock but northwoods is even more beautiful than south wales north is is more beautiful yeah yeah my ancestors from the north uh at all i wonder i don't know they moved a bit and then came to america how uh how did you find hepburn was she intimidating at all no she was wonderful it was the first film i'd ever been involved in and i didn't know uh one end of the camera from the other and naturally you know i was uh rather nervous of her and uh the first day on set with her doing a rather complicated scene i did everything wrong i fell over cables and i got my cloak jammed in the door and she asked me if i was frightened of the camera or if i liked the camera so i said i don't know what you mean she says well do you like the camera i said well yes i suppose so she's why do you play the whole scene with the back of your head to it and then she's proceeded to help me uh understand the camera and because i've been brought up in the theater and i trained in the theater you know and i just come out of the national theatre with mellifluous sound and all that so she was very helpful and uh no she was wonderful and she was really wonderful very demanding of herself she would turn up at 6 30 in the morning and uh speak off-camera lines for us you know she was wonderful she's probably the best person i've ever worked explain what that means uh and speak off-camera lines for us uh some actors don't uh you know turning up to do um a shot like there's a close-up on me and uh the other actor like catherine hepburn has done her scene before and uh she would stand up off camera to speak my lines uh her lines back to me to cue me for the close-up and some i remember one day we had to finish the night before and they were still waiting for my close-up or something like that or on the reverse shot and uh she turned up and it was 6 30 in the morning and she stood the other side of the camera and she gave her performance and i hear that many actors don't do that a stand-in can read the lines and but it's very disturbing if you get that yeah i think actors should well i like doing the lines off-camera as well but she's very generous uh to other actors so it has a great reputation for that and there are stories that have never really come out i know one in which in case she was making a movie in europe and there was a wonderful character actress that had been brought over for the part but the director didn't want her when he saw her and uh hepburn took her aside and said you're dressed wrong come over to my place and we'll fix your hair and i'll just loan you an old dress and so on and so on and save the part for her yes and she does that sort of thing a lot was it lying in winter the film that you that was the first one yes yes yes yes you did yes with peter o'toole yeah so it was uh it was a baptism of fire with hostel and they were both wonderful i mean really extraordinary peter and catherine i did show with her once she hit it she hit him once and yeah yeah she did at least yeah she did she's getting very angry with him but she adored him she loved him can you give an example of the hepburn temper she won't mind either happen temper uh oh one day uh let's see yes i was supposed to be on set for a photograph session and i hadn't been told so i was blameless but the assistant director hadn't told me but nevertheless i i wasn't going to carry the blame for that but i they said you must get back on set you have photographs and uh when i ran back on set i was you know i didn't know what was happening she's my guy where are you how do you think you're doing and she said you're not professional nice it wasn't my fault and she was going to hit me and uh she so she hit the first assistant direct instead no and then she apologized immediately yeah she hates being kept waiting and she doesn't she loathes non-professionalism and um quite right too and uh but she's a wonderful person to work with and she was she she's very just i mean when she grew up that day she forgave her herself first and then the rest of us for her temper in that order yes she has a way of redeeming herself somehow the people she's been angry with oh i end up liking her perhaps more yes i hope miss barbara streisand won't mind my telling this but streisand met her once and went backstage last time hepburn was on broadway and barbara said i didn't know her bio i didn't know her theatrical history and made them and she made the mistake of saying to her is it a big change for you ms hepburn to be on broadway you know hepburn had done 15 plays and edward said i've done broadway rapport thank you nice to meet you goodbye that was her interview that sounds like that sounds like yes she doesn't waste too much well actually one day she invited us out for dinner and uh she's always she always goes to bed at 8 30 or 8 o'clock but she made a deal where she invited the whole cast out for dinner one night and uh at eight o'clock she threw us out of the hotel that's since you've had yourself a goal uh we were thrown out yes she goes right goes to the door and stands there and you know that it's made the mistake of trying to serenade her window you know outside and she threw water at him [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The Dick Cavett Show

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Keywords: anthony hopkins, anthony hopkins young, anthony hopkins interview, anthony hopkins dick cavett, the dick cavett show, dick cavett, katharine hepburn, katharin hepburn dick cavett, dick cavett interview, anthony hopkins and katharine hepburn, the lion in winter, Peter O'Toole, classic interviews

Id: bai_9GRspuI

Length: 8min 12sec (492 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 17 2020