Anthony Hopkins Pretends To Be Hannibal Lecter In Public! | Friday Night With Jonathan Ross

thank you so much for joining us on the show oh hello uh how am i saying you've just flown in from los angeles california yes yes where you live now uh how do you enjoy the lifestyle there were you uh are you a beach person do you like to do a beach person i live in malibu and uh right on the ocean and it's beautiful what a beautiful part of the world that's beautiful do you do you ever use sir the sir part of your um title now to to gain access to things i mean i shouldn't be as you need to but it must help just to get a restaurant table sometimes no i don't use it too much and especially in america uh that must have been a lovely day the the day you got honored uh when you went to get night that was over god that was a long time ago 15 years ago um went to the palace and uh majesty put the sword on my shoulder and then she put a medallion around my neck and then she did that very intimately she said are you busy what does she mean now are you working i said uh yes i am she said congratulations well done thank you very much very much well she know acting is a precarious business she didn't want to see your waiting tables in garfield yeah it was a very very informal ceremony but you know here's the interesting thing about ukraine i think there are many things is that really acting was by no means on the cards for you because you you don't come from a family with any actors in that i'm aware of or indeed even a kind of an artistic leaning or am i wrong no my father was a baker and uh i was hopeless at school just dreadful and my father used to worry and say god knows what's going to happen to him about me and then one day i was 17 back in 1955 long time ago and there was a little clipping in the paper too for a scholarship at the local cardiff college of music and drama and i'd been in the ymca doing a couple of plays and i came from the same town as richard burton and i i went up to burton so scott a long story short i went up to richard burton's house to ask him for his autograph a long time ago and uh he signed his autograph and as he was driving away he's going up to carder farmers park and i thought i want to be like that i want to get away and become famous because i didn't want to work for a living and so i stumbled into the scholarship i wanted to be a musician really but i became an actor so here i am 50 years later by default an actor and in a way it's a nice feeling because i don't ever really feel like part of the acting business which is kind of liberating you know because i don't get caught up in it was there a time was there a point that you remember we think okay i've cracked this this is the point where i know i am accepted as an actor i'm no longer nervous about being found out i'm no longer feeling like i'm in the wrong place because i'm guessing when you started you must have felt a little bit a little bit ill at least in the world oh yeah when you start off you just feel that are you going to make it are you going to be anything and so on and so forth and there's a tough business really tough business young actors asked me today how did you succeed i said i don't know it's a lot of luck um i suppose i'm i was i did my first movie which was uh the line in winter with peter o'toole and um katherine hepburn what a great film yeah it was a good one wasn't it and you know i made a couple of other things said some television here in the studio did it war and peace here this very studio yeah well things have been on that market since then obviously yeah and then i went off to america for a while and i did silence of the lambs and that sort of changed everything well we'll get to that a little bit later but you know let's talk a little bit about lion the winner here because here you are you're working with he said catherine hepburn peter o'toole and hepburn you must have watched her films when you were when you were lad i'm sure yeah i did yeah so to work with it must have been quite something it was it was it was kind of new she was a very she's very tough but she was generous to work with but uh very ultra professional our tool was great as well they both were for me uh a a great launching pad to push me in the deep end with those two you've worked with a lot of star snappy and also kind of a lot of the new wave of stars of course you know you've worked with most of the big names in modern cinema as well is there a comparison is the industry very different now than it was today are the actors of the same cannibal or better or worse what do you think oh i think some wonderful actors run some great great actors uh and i've worked with some of them um i think i don't know uh i think it's a different sort of business now it's all about celebrity and uh i mean a lot of it is about celebrity and you know the red carpet parade and all that stuff and the fashion magazines and the girls and the youth and all everything has changed it's much faster the movies coming out every week i'm not and how many movies are coming out every week but it's a little bit overwhelming uh they're kind of different films now i mean i love cinema and i loved many of the movies i made now but you think about the movies about lion in winter you probably wouldn't get a feeling that made today i would have thought no that cost two million pounds and that's a nothing compared to today yeah that was a lot of money in those days i think it was just about two million and um so things have changed i mean i but this one i've just done called beowulf and that's um an astonishing movie of special effects well this is it's a strange um it's a strange kind of new type of cinema really we're seeing here yeah um how would you describe the the process because you're on screen but you're but you're not on screen are you really that's right you're on screen you're there and but it's in 3d it's like a cartoon it's not animation but it's you and yet it you look like a painting so there you are that's you in the film that's uh some anthony as uh you hogarth is that right they look very handsome don't yeah but you know that wig and that beard i didn't wear that you you wear that for a shot when they put the cameras on you at the beginning for one day they do all this computerized graphic stuff i don't know what the hell it's about and then you go on and you're wearing a jump suit a kind of wetsuit covered in beads and uh so that the computers can pick it i don't know what the hell it's about but anyway it's very effective and so i saw it the other night for the first time after two years and it's all in 3d and the arrows come out of the screen and knives come out and after a while you think oh yeah this is interesting well ray winston plays beowulf and uh we've seen anthony hopkins and he looks kind of like himself in it when they look at way winston there now there's no it's really it's good right you look like he's my wife likes that but there's a great one where he becomes better he's bearable from the film of course and he he's got that action of his and it doesn't look anything like him does it well it's the fight system that's so weird but he comes and he's like i'm beowulf yeah and you kind of go i'm gonna sort those monsters out that's nice let's have a look at beowulf i loved it because you know it's an action adventure movie but the the scenes where you have the monsters in it because it's so integrated with us yeah tremendously exciting stuff it is good it's really good stuff in some ways and easier to make a film like that i would have thought then easier one for you in terms of youtube you're only there for a few days and you do big scenes and you don't have to go back to do close-ups you do it all in one because you've got a room as big as this with the ceiling full of cameras wow i don't even know how to begin explaining it well it's great fun i loved it and i can't think of someone better to play the king you've played kings before in the past couple of campaigns yeah yeah richard the lionheart but i played this as a welsh a drunken welsh king i had it all doing it and i asked zemeckis great director i said how drunk do you want me to play he's just as drunk as you want to so i remember back to my old days and so i had some fun with it you've never been what i would consider not snobby's the wrong word but someone who seems to differentiate between projects in terms of i will only do a certain kind of of work i mean you do out and out entertainment films you do thrillers you've done kind of like more highbrow work as well is there is there an approach you have where you you try and mix and match deliberately or is it just what grabs your fancy at the time that's what grabs my fancy if it's uh if it's um you know they said uh would you like to work with robert zemeckis and do beowulfus yeah and i don't differentiate and i've done some good films and i've done some pretty bad films as well but you keep working i think it's good to keep working i i tend to be a little more choosy now because i'm getting old older and i think i'm still around and they seem to want me so that's okay but that's great and it must be so much fun to know it's a lot of fun to do it um well let me ask you about you know you you mentioned um the different kind of movies you're doing there if we talk about silence of the lambs that could well have turned out to be a disastrous movie could you know you don't know in advance when you're making the film yeah you think about playing that kind of character it could have been terrible of course it wasn't it was i guess it radically changed your life and your career to what extent do you think it changed your work well i'd been in hollywood and i'd worked several films over there and i came back to this country and i was working in the theater which i was never happy and i was i'm not a theater person i people tell me that i was but i i never felt like people loved single mistake i know olivier you stole the show from olivier at one stage in his career well i never felt comfortable in the theater i mean i i admire people who can do it i really do but i used to my attention span is so short i couldn't do it more than two days and that was it i was looking at the calendar but um so i back in 1989 my agent phoned up he said would you like to read this script called the silence of the land i thought it was a kiddies story a children's story so i read it and i thought i knew it was going to be a good one yeah i knew it was one of those going to be successful movie because jonathan demi and jodie foster yeah yeah it's a pretty it's a quality uh setup right there those guys yeah yeah how did you decide on how to play him how much uh input does the director have or the uh the writer of the of the movie and how much do you bring to yourself in the case of hannibal lecture in particular well i just read the script and i thought oh i know how to play this guy uh and the first reading i've not you just it's an instinct you as well and uh whenever i take a part in the film i read it i think yeah i think i can do this and a good director will let you do your thing and will direct you accordingly but um so i had a pretty good idea how to play him are you one of those actors who immerses himself in the role are you at all method in your approach not really no never have been i learned the lines show up and um do i learn the lines pretty well and by doing that uh it sort of acts itself out yeah maybe i'm shallow i don't know but did you did you base him on anyone at all hal the computer in 2001 really remember that one yeah yeah well done dave and i wanted to get this disembodied voice as if he was a a killing machine but that was great 2001 why is that kind of like very cold and yet calculating and unemotional well the trick is i guess to play a man like that to play him very same to play really normal and then let the audience do the work so hello clarice it's not real fbi is there and let the audience do all the work for you you don't have to play crazy have you ever used that voice on the phone to get slightly better yes i remember sitting in the movie theater in um in los angeles and it was a private showing of it and uh i was sitting behind some friends that invited and i tapped them on the shoulder just afterwards i said are you enjoying yourselves i was in an elevator and uh where's essentially i said this is not that long ago maybe 10 years ago i was in an elevator and it was one of those big steel elevators stopped on the fourth floor and the woman got in with a little boy he was about 10 year old kid so i was standing behind them and um as the elevator went down she said what does this remind you of the celebrity said hannibal lecter so i just saw it very quickly and the boy jumped as well will you attempt to do the out do you do that actually it's quite easy you keep the tongue back then i don't know it's such a long time but did you where did that come from it was on the moment when i said eight is liver with some fava beans and a nice candy and a little voice in my head said go and do it i mean i should stop doing it now though i don't know it's not boring it just needs a little bit of housing you've got something you can talk to about this good psychiatrist three times you played it all together yeah yeah the sounds of the answer was enough i guess and but we did the others nicely well you know the other two were fun i mean they weren't they're never going to be as good as that because that was just such a thing but i was asked if i would do them i said okay let's go ahead and do it but uh you know uh what's fascinating about your career if you allow me to get slightly uh to pronounce upon it here is that with just the one simple set of buttocks you've managed to ride the twin saddles of commercial cinema and the art house yeah if you're still with me yeah yeah you know movies like that huge hits huge commercials beowulf i think will be a huge [ __ ] as well because it's great and it's unashamedly uh entertaining and yet you also make the merch and ivory movies which are entertaining but in a very different way of course and i know you've completed another of those i believe yeah i did one in argentina with them you know ishmael merchant died about three years ago yes and uh when james iv so i finished that last new year i think and uh it's called the city of your last destination i hear it's a good movie but i enjoyed working with jim we did uh it was the remains of the day picasso and uh the other howard's end yeah well remains of the day it's one of my all-time favourite films that's a good one isn't it i love the movie and i love your performance in it he's a very easy director james avery he's one of those directors who lets you come to the part and then he doesn't do very much he just points he said so where do you want where do you want me to exit you say or where should i come i don't know that's up to you you're the actor and uh you do take you say okay that's fine okay let's do another one maybe do it a bit faster so he's very easy to direct so he knows what he wants though but he lets it come out of you yeah he just trusts the actor to do it very much like zemeckis does and jonathan demi the best director spielberg they all let you get on with it and then they give you a few pointers a few directions and whatever but that's the best way to they trust you or they wouldn't have employed your guests yeah you get those directors who want to do the performance for you i worked with the one like that he wanted to give you every gesture every i said do you want to do the part so you backed off then i did my hand and they like to look me are there any directors left you you love to work with you approach a job in that way so there's someone here i'm after if ever they need me a particular director or other actors indeed to work with yeah that you actively would seek out their well i suppose i'd like to work with de niro or something like that but pacino um directors i suppose scorsese i worked on some pretty good ones yeah and uh i never i don't think about it much that's the wonderful thing you see i live my life and i don't think about acting at all much i paint and i write music and uh come and do the jonathan ross show yeah but um you know i don't i don't think about it doesn't preoccupy me anymore like it used to when i was a young kid and presumably because you've achieved so much i guess would that be right or just yeah i'm just getting older yeah well then be 70 at the end of the year i'm going down to wales for my birthday well how lovely 70 years ago wow yeah my wife my wife stella she won't tell me what the party's going to be like but i'm going to need a surprise partly yeah well in wales it will be damn i know it would be damp and wet but i know one thing i'm going to meet all the kids i used to play with 65 years ago my little girlfriends they're i met them last august i went down to cardiff and we got together so i would recognize them and there they all are all the people i played with that's going to be so lovely yeah here's a movie you were in a few years back or maybe last year i'm not sure uh which i really loved it was a sweet charming it was a bit of a surprise movie i don't know if you saw it it was called i think it was called the fastest indian or the world's fastest the world's fastest indian uh what a sweet story it was a true story i believe there's a good story it didn't do much box office in america because it's kind of grabby and also because they thought who wants to see the world's fastest running engine but it's about a motorbike guy called and the bike was the indian wouldn't they that's right the engine any motorbike and this is a true story he he actually set a land speed record this gentleman but monroe from new zealand yeah invercargill and uh he was 70 years old when he broke the world record in bonneville flats and it doesn't sound that interesting but it seemed to catch on with the public i really liked it it was a really challenging do you find yourself attracted more to those kind of stories as you get older do you think or is it coming along i'm doing wolf man next year um you're not playing the wolf man are you no i'm playing his dad both mancinia so i become a wolf man as well no do you yeah i come on i'm unveiling the tommy cooper statue down in kai philly in february do you know that i didn't know that was i said that you know tommy cooper i didn't you know what i'd love to know my brother was in a lift for the months oh yeah and he said he made everyone laugh because he climbed on the list he was standing there and he went oh my feet are killing me and everyone burst out laughing because they thought he was joking now i've often thought what if his feet were actually killing him what a terrible thing but you do atomic impersonation don't you that's why i brought it up tommy cooper you're not going to do him as tommy cooper did you ever did you ever meet him no i'd love to i think it's the greatest community the more common wise than time to go for the great yeah more commonwealth's incredible fantastic you must have met them though i didn't need them i met them at a party at sid james's house years and years ago now hang on a second we can't just rush past this seminar you have more come on wise at the party at sid james wow yeah it was down in the [ __ ] vacuum show as 1972 i was on christmas eve and they were there yeah i you know yeah they were terrific and um tommy cooper i never met but i i'd love to met him brilliant talent of course beowulf is opening uh here in the uk november 15th you've got several other movies coming out you you just keep yourself very very busy i guess yeah i have a lot of time off but it looks always looks like an actor's busy if they're influenced because you have a lot of time off after you finish them haven't you just directed the movie for the first time i directed my i wrote one directed it wrote the music just to show off and i'm in it and uh it's called slipstream so um yeah it's a good movie it created a bit of controversy i set out to make it to make people angry it's kind of anti-movie it's a it's a movie which where i break all the rules of the editing and all that and it's like a dream but this is what a bold thing to be doing especially and i don't mean the wrong way but an older gentleman to be doing something which sounds quite radical i mean you know you've obviously you know still got a a lot of interesting enthusiasm oh yeah that sounded like me young keeps me young let's remind ourselves of a little clip of swanton in action way back when uh this was you know obviously a movie to change your life and i think it changed modern cinema as well what a tremendous role or tremendous film that's a performance that's the movie i know what i'm doing tonight i'm getting it out and watching it on dvd hopkins ladies and gentlemen [Music] you

Channel: Friday Night With Jonathan Ross

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Keywords: the jonathan ross show, british talk show, british tv, jonathan ross interviews, Itv, bbc, celebrity, friday night with jonathan ross, Anthony Hopkins, Silence of the lambs, Sir Anthony hopkins, Jodie foster, jodie foster, anthony hopkins, anthony hopkins and jodie foster, silence of the lambs, silence of the lambs 30 year reunion, silence of the lambs anthony hopkins, silence of the lambs anniversary, silence of the lambs jodie foster, actors on actors 2021

Id: P-yVqgaSjQ0

Length: 19min 14sec (1154 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 31 2020