Sir Anthony Hopkins: A Life In Pictures

[Applause] that became inactivated by accident was born in Port Aldrich South Wales not the best student in the worlds of the school boy and just by chance I got a scholarship to the College of Music and Drama in Cardiff 1955 and there was a real fluke I'd never acted before I went did my stint in the theatre in repertory companies in the National Theatre with Laurence Olivier and he was a tremendous power of influence in all our lives in that time the 1960s and he was the director of the National Theatre and he had of course had you know a very significant stage role of screen roles himself so did he ever give you advice or thoughts advise me not to do films well I I had to break my guy didn't break my contract but I got an offer from Peter O'Toole to be in lion in winter with Katharine Hepburn either was too good a chance to miss and but I was in and the contract to the National Theatre in this Laurence Olivier I was already committed to do play Andre and three sisters I was understudying Olivia in dance of death and so on and so forth so I had to ask permission to be released from my contact and so I went to his dressing room and I remember the great man then died he said um so you want to go into films yeah boy I said yes but you should stay here at the theatre learn your craft I said well you did firms didn't you yes and I said well that's what I want to do he's about good okay but you have to honor your contract here so I'd have to fly to Ireland to do bits and pieces in land and so on and that's where it started and um and I was it was a great privilege to work with Olivia and under him and he gave me some pretty good chances look at you I loved you more than Henry and it's cost me everything what do you want I want us back the way we were no that's not it all right then I want the Aquitaine well that's the method I remember we can win I can get you Alice I can make the marriage happen but I got to have the Aquitaine to do it I must have it back it's mine I'll never give it up shall I write my will to return everything would you believe me then where's paper paper burns I love you you'll love nothing you're incomplete the human parts of you are missing you're as dead as your dead leave don't leave me you were lovely ones I've seen the pictures I remember we filmed that on the Camargue in nineteen nineteen sixty-eight generate the 26th hours remember and there was a herb garden and looking over the Camargue and I remember how happened set missions you know you don't have to act the scenery does it for you and she said that says darling van Gogh must have been just boring old landscape painters because the Camargue supplied all that power and beauty and I remember that I remember that moment and working with this great movie star that she was and the sense it was a tremendous powerful boost for me because I I thought him this is something of the oles wanted to do was to be in a movie and in that sort of part was a very showy part for my first bars and is that sense of place when you are filming on location is that important to you absolutely I think the location does it all for you I think John Wayne said you know you don't have to act when you're in Monument Valley for you I think it does yes you you you just absorb the atmosphere so you've had a BAFTA nomination for that role but then a great variety of roles that you took a good so you did I remember now with Nicole Williams was that was there a kind of strategy to take I mean did you take what came along or did you decide that you wanted to show with wider range as you could only I think it's deadly if you make a plan for yourself because it never works out so you have to have a good sense of vision for yourself of what you want and hope it'll come to the best and then go along with as life takes you and I've been most fortunate um I was never comfortable working in the theater I have to admit I I couldn't stand being cooped up for more than three performances the thought of six months performance would tie me crazy when you are starting off with a role and you'll approach in your preparation we talked a little bit about place there what is the first thing that you will look at once you've seen them this week well once I've approved a tongue and feel that the part is you know something that I want to do um I just start by learning the lines and literally as as much as that I I have I don't know if it's a peculiar method but I have a simple method which suits me I like to learn and learn the text so almost by rote or I do it by root and then I find that by doing that I've absorbed so much of the information that's necessary and then show up on the set or the play or whatever it is and relax and do it because the relaxation is the key to it all what do you do with yourself all day sit in the back of the store and read why don't you try selling a book to somebody miss Han to you and then in brackets she's got her i'm helene only to my friends and there's a PS tell the girls and nora if all goes well they're getting nylons for Lent you must be feeling tired yeah not feeling too bad a rebel good lad I mean I don't have defected but it was the most painful scene and I don't know why it affected me because that hospital scene was my father the only died a few years before and I'm not good with people's illnesses I don't like to show grief so for me that scene was very much a part of what life is about and I remember tell him Morris Denham playing that and I remember my father not interested in anything as he was dying and I remember saying there's Frank tell thinking this is so painful to do as an actor because that was so resonant for me any grief any passing because we're and I think own sense of mortality I remember at the end of that day I'm so glad it than the scene was over I had to go quietly to a dressing room and cry that is so painful and I don't know why because did Morris tell him you know this isn't my turn he's a nice guy he wasn't dying he was just acting time but it's like in Shadowlands her she was acting dying but for some reason it gets to you if you hold back yeah and that one line Morris isn't mustn't grumble whole British that whole thing absolutely you have played a notable number of real people and obviously will be coming towards Hitchcock at the end of of this particular attraction for you in that was it no I just play whatever is offered me if they if it's a good part and I mean it's um I love to work I don't I'd like to take terrible challenges I remember Oliver Stone phoning me and saying now watch to play Nixon I see must be out of his mind I said Nixon he said you have to play the President Nixon I said you must be crazy I can't I'm gonna make he said I want you to do it so we met and I decided not to do it either he's crazy no no so I said no I'm going to turn it down he said chicken huh so I said listen I'm gonna be over the Hyde Park Hotel and I meet you so I met among the other daughters tender as I was walking along in the January morning and the wind was blowing the brain was falling I thought well I must be crazy he's the great American director and he's offered me a part of a lifetime it could be a disaster so what just do it nice but um I got to the hotel I was waiting in the restaurant dalla came man chicken huh it's all of us got one way of speaking he's very rude man but he's greater right he said he has a brave prodding you and I said no I'm gonna do it you are I see yeah and then the nightmare started but he was great to work with and he said to me one day because I lost my nerve in the middle of the very first there was something had happened and nothing my god I can't do this we hadn't started filming but he said you're gonna do it is to be scared so what so we all yes I'll tell you about photographers in Vietnam it's just going to do the best you can who cares it's only a movie come on forgot the birds that effect and I thought yeah and it was a great kick in the backside and I went on there to hell but at all I've got a little phrase which I won't go into here because a run rule would screw it that's my philosophy get on with it move now towards something which is the sense for the career-changing I suppose at this stage which is dance of the land okay one afternoon my agent phoned up he said I'm gonna send the script over where are you a I send the dressing he said I'm gonna send us it's called Silence of the Lambs I saw yeah what's the kiddies stories these are notes with Jude Jodie Foster so that's good as Jonathan Demme yes yeah oh what's the kids stories no no so once you read the part of dr. Lecter and I got the script that came over that afternoon and it was a Friday afternoon I was just go to the theater Lee just to get away and I started reading the script and after 10 pages I thought like I can't read anymore because that the part was so powerful so I phoned my agent I said is this an offer he said I don't know I said I won't read any more until I know he phoned me back two hours later Jonathan Demme is coming to see what is an offer and I've read the part and and I knew I knew it was gonna be a life-changer I didn't know why I understand these people for some reason I'm not like it but I understand the guy at the top of the stairs that invisible presence as I understand Hitchcock yours it's I didn't what that's about tonight but I I do understand that kind of character and so I started reading it and going over it and went to America and we started filming and had a wonderful time and I knew that it was I knew that my instinct was right I didn't want to analyze it I remember the first day we were filming and Jodi had been filming about five weeks before me and and I remember driving in Lecter's cell you know Jonathan sing so how do you we're gonna have the camera moved down the Cardoso deeds point of view and sort of Clarisse so how do you want to be seen you want to be sketching or lying on the bed ice no I'd just like to be standing in the center of the cell so why I could smell her coming down the corridor it's your weird so he said okay let's shoot it so I said yeah I said okay guys to them they said okay action camera can go and as the camera was coming to me I was I heard John saying oh my god this guy's so crazy and I knew I got it and Javas days that is so terrifying because I work on the theory that you know the first 10 minutes of the film they talk about this monster where the Crawford the cop tells Jodie Foster you know if Hannibal Lecter and she's Hannibal the cannibal and I know the audience or and then she goes to the asylum children says always a monster so the plan is is to reverse it and play somebody who just stands is a good morning in our way left behind you still wake up sometimes don't you wake up in the dark if you had the screaming of the lamb do you think if you save poor Katherine you could make them stop don't you you think if Katherine lives you won't wake up in the dark ever again to the Raffles screaming of the lamb I don't know Thank You Larry tell me his name [Music] dr. Chilton knife is you I think in knowledge [Music] okay let's go it's your turn doctor oh sorry ma'am I've got orders head put your play brave Clarice well let me know when those lambs dumps me the quality about Lecter is that he's in some terms he's awake very awake and that's a fascinating thing about him he's direct and sustained penetrating penetrating which is very sexual and he understands I asked Jonathan tell me why did you cast me and he said because I saw you in the Elephant Man I said well Wow he said because Jonathan's idea is that lectors a great humanitarian understands the nature of the human psychology disease a psychiatrist and understands the frailty of the human condition but because some fracture in his psychology has given him this edge he knows how to manipulate people and he knows exactly where to very much like Hitchcock knew I think as a great director knew where to prod us all with our sense of mortality he kept waking us up it can happen to you Janet Leigh gets in the car and ends up being killed by Norman bass because there is no certainty and I think with Lecter that's exactly what he has he knows how to penetrate and that's what I did that's right decided when I was doing that performance to be relentless relentless don't blink to be hypnotic and of course Jonathan Demi and Jodie Foster and it's a wonderful combination and the whole crew and everything you know and what did it change for you that Rob because you you won Best Actor a leading Actor awards from both Oscar and and indeed BAFTA as well but in terms of the way that people saw you in terms of the kind of scripts that came to you after that what changed well they wanted me to only play maniacs from them I said no I know no no and I didn't want I mean I did another two of those films and you know did them better for worse but I didn't want to go on playing that guy and I didn't want to glorify this monster um but it did it did change things I think you think so you think it would but it does change in sometimes it doesn't I mean I I remember getting the Oscar and I thought well now I can make some bad movies now I've made sense sometimes if I move these as well I said okay you know he just I don't know I don't know well it put me on the map as they say please leave me alone miss Kenton this is my private time you're invading it yes I'm invading your private time and I yes what's in that book come on let me see are you protecting me is that what you're doing would I be shocked ruin my character let me see it [Music] all of that film was saturated with the essence of England around it I mean we started scenes in Weston appear the very first things we ever filmed which actually appear at the end of the film and you didn't have to feel anything it was one of those when she's late afternoons in November 19 when it was 1992 and I remember sitting there with am a Thompson and just you didn't have to act anything he just had to be very still in and look at the lights around you and the lights of the deserted Holiday Resort and that's life finally you've come to the end of it all the end of the road I think I don't know I watching these films now I haven't seen them for a long time but I get a sense of that I don't mean this to be an effect but I think there's a good sadness in all of us I feel it as an actor it's I think we all have it I mean go through life you know we think I mean I I love looking at into old movies like old documentary movies and they speeded up you know Paris in 1910 New York in 1925 and life is lecture tortured and then graduate flowers go for life Jim what is die and I think what it is for me personally is the sense of mortality that I find so enriching it sounds weird but I do I find it so enriching I think our young said once you reach that horizon and the point in life and you see mortality then there are no guarantees whether there's anything beyond a nought but then whatever one's spiritual beliefs are that the mortality is the most extraordinary exciting thing because to live in uncertainty we have no certainty at all and I've just been doing a film about Hitchcock and his thing was that he wanted certainty Hitchcock was terrified uncertainty so therefore he put it into all his films and the powerful figures know with the feminine and I I find watching things like that I thought just now I thought that's what it is that some maybe if that's why I've been employed as an actor is that I have that sadness I don't say it's more marked or I've got the market on sadness but I because I think I'm an actor I may come from Wales or something or my mic maybe it's to do being Welsh my father struggled all his life and I find that so moving you know that people struggle they get nowhere and I was so lucky I've got to keep fighting but Eve for the country these people running things the elite just soft chicken they don't have the long term vision anymore I just want to cover their ass and meet girls and tear each other down oh god this country is in deep deep deep trouble buddy I have to see this through yeah mother would have been respected no less of me I'm sorry buddy I just wish you knew how much I love you that's all it took me a long time to fall in love with you dick but I did it doesn't make you happy you want them to love you oh no I'm not Jackie they never will dick no matter how many elections you win they never will I met Lynn Len garment who was this very close friend lawyer there in New York together after the Yom you won't have Nixon to kick Ron anymore in the 60s before he became president and them Len garment after the Watergate went to visit him in San Clemente and he was taken around by Nixon taking on them you know a little go-kart and never done down the beach I said Nix Thomas was choosing his suit walking on the beach Shaw and that he said I felt so touched by a missile and as we said goodbye he came down to the drive to see me off my car and I suppose thanks mr. president as you can call me dick and I should consume he said I have an instinct just to put moms and I'm Anthony but like this so I tried to touch him and that was Nixon and in a strange way I think that that was his tragedy in a way we can point we can but you know that was his tragedy he couldn't feel he couldn't he couldn't express himself and you watch um watch the films on him his power is so evident so I understood that by playing him yeah and you were also to play another President of the United States the singer was this in Amistad for students Wilbur's Oh John John Quincy Adams yeah very early president of yeah that's right very early and and a complete you know a transformational with you see in a moment how I'm physically obviously playing a lot older and but looking remarkably like the photograph so daguerreotype of John Quincy through two films the same time Azzaro and that so I'd file at the Mexico City to do that with Stephen and then fly back to Mexico City to do we are I'm schizophrenic doing two movies at the same time yes right so you're walking very carefully yeah I'm a little crazy but I mean i'ma start is actually course the film that now with Lincoln coming out he's is a sort of companion film to Lincoln in some ways because it gives you the whole context for the anti-slavery movement yeah and indeed John Quincy Adams the president having been initially quite resistant to the idea of standing up yes the the bit we're about to see is is the courtroom scene where he actually makes the kind of pivotal speech I was there to help the whole abolitionist seven pages of don't yes and hope but the but the walk and the stance and the voice and with the face everything that's completely well I had a long time to learn all that speech in them Steven was a great director who worked as indeed was Oliver Stone and I had a wonderful time on it however it wasn't hard work it was very enjoyable did love research and so if long resisted asking you for guidance perhaps we have feared in doing so you might acknowledge that our individuality which we saw some Revere is not entirely alone perhaps we were feared in an appeal to you might be taken for weakness but we have come to understand finally this is not so you understand how we've been made to understand and to embrace the understanding that who we are is who we were you received a BAFTA fellowship in 2008 and of course we haven't mentioned the knighthood which have been 15 years or so before that a huge great range of rules in between including ones involving amazing special effects than Alexander and the Thor and Wolf of course well you were there but not there is it were but let's move on to talk about Hitchcock did you ever meet Alfred Hitchcock I did a Mittleman um a Friday afternoon in now Angeles it was in 1979 I was with my agent who happen to be Hitchcock's agent name is George Jason a wonderful agent he's in telangana and then we were having lunch and I said this Alfred Hitchcock's I know he said would you like to meet him I see yes so we've finished our meal we walked on the length of the restaurant and there was Alfred Hitchcock enormous and George said and he just received his knighthood you see Sir George said good afternoon sir Alfred is hello George how are you very nice to see say hello to Lydia this is a client of mine Antony hawkers charmed I'm sure very good luck to you and you couldn't hear him covering up his London accent because in America it sounds rather posh and the Baroness because of the enormous weight biking here because you can I can hear there's the land another so that's enormous ly portentous voices thick but then the film I will tell in Marin there's a scene where I were talking about mortgaging the house my group revert back to London I said wish we could do things as they were in the old days love remember was like they really make films in those days he's a rough working-class boy so that enormous personality presented to the world audiences was the Hitchcock burst nation really also I mean we see him as a kind of master of manipulation as yes as the extraordinary thing about Hitchcock I think that the central theme everyone comments on the inaccessible beauties Grace Kelly Kim Novak Tippi Hedren even Mary st. Orin genitally and it's extraordinary that the power of the feminine in his films is the power Grace Kelly the power in psycho is a dead woman mrs. Bates and I think my little theory is that it was Hitchcock's feminine side I mean the creative feminine the power of his creativity that made this from so unique and he I mean I think the way he worked with the actress were that with women stars was unique I mean he made them look and they were already beautiful but he knew how to film them he knew the difference between these two psychologists there's a wonderful moment in at the end of rear window and grayscale has been trying to get James Stewart to change his way of life and marry her and live in Manhattan not go wandering through the jungles of Cambodia whether but he's a Noxon photographer and right at the end they'd a new mall right at the end because James Stewart with two broken legs asleep in the chair and you pan over to her and she's lying on the couch with ordinary shoes and jeans on reading in the Himalayas or something she looks over check that he's asleep and they get never the twain shall meet I think that was Hitchcock's tremendous sense of humanity he and this he was a great romantic I'm vertical was his great romantic film which was slashed to pieces about the critics now it's regarded as the top of number-one film now look here I have a modest proposal to make if you're willing to leave the shower sequence as it is I will reshoot the opening love scene to your exact specifications in fact I would welcome your personal supervision on the set to my specifications or of course my dear fellow if only audiences could fully comprehend how tirelessly you work to help us entertain them while protecting them from filth and indecency they had this great sense of humor he said what Madeline Carroll she said the first day she arrived on set on the 39th session mr. Hitchcock this is my best side and she just laughed and Janet Lee said that since I knew John Lee and she said to go to his house for dinner if he was nothing because he could make you laugh at anything he pulled jokes and everyone and he had a wicked sense of humor but he's also pretty remote and could be fairly Stern but all in all she and James stood northern Perkins but it all got on so well [Applause] [Music]

Channel: BAFTA Guru

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Keywords: BAFTA, BAFTA Guru, British Academy Of Film And Television Arts (Award Presenting Organization), creative, career, film making, TV, gaming, actor, advice, movie, movies, movie making, sir anthony hopkins, anthony hopkins, westworld, hannibal, silence of the lambs, thor, thor ragnarok, odin

Id: EbrWTHanxbI

Length: 31min 5sec (1865 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 20 2017