Main course: Sir Anthony Hopkins continues to trudge through vaunted career

Tuesday, March 12, 2002 | 8:20 a.m.

Sir Anthony Hopkins is a man who exudes style and grace. Even when his onscreen character is eating people, you expect that he will be dressed for dinner, use the correct fork and drink the appropriate wine.

His savoir faire is not ostentatious, but rather a natural facet of a gentle, pleasing personality that at times is at odds with the characters he portrays in motion pictures such as Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs," a role for which Hopkins won a 1991 Academy Award for Best Actor.

The 64-year-old member of acting aristocracy was in town last week to attend ShoWest, a four-day convention for motion picture-industry professionals most of them theater owners and operators.

At the ShoWest awards ceremony Thursday night Hopkins presented the Screenwriter of the Year award to his friend, actor Julian Fellowes. Fellowes received the award for Robert Altman's "Gosford Park," which is also up for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Fellowes is a contender for the award for writer of the Best Screenplay Written Directly for Screen.

"This was Julian's first screenplay," Hopkins said.

His voice soft and understated, hallmarks of his acting style, Hopkins chatted as he sat on the sofa in the office of his friend, Sun President and Editor Brian Greenspun.

Even dressed in blue jeans and sneakers, Hopkins personified class.

A few days before his arrival in Las Vegas, the world's most lovable cannibal had just completed filming his part in what he says will be his third and final portrayal of Hannibal Lecter.

The film, which is still in production, is titled "Red Dragon." It is tentatively scheduled for release at the end of this year.

"I've enjoyed it, but I don't want to do another," Hopkins said.

His first role as the sinister psychiatrist with the penchant for having people for dinner began with "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991). That film was followed by last year's "Hannibal."

Novelist Thomas Harris first introduced Hannibal Lecter in his 1981 book "Red Dragon," which was turned into the film "Manhunter" in 1986. However, the cannibal had a very small part in the original story.

"Red Dragon" is not a remake of "Manhunter," but rather a new adaptation of the book by screenwriter Ted Tally (who also adapted "The Silence of the Lambs" for the screen) and director Brett Ratner.

Hannibal's role has grown in the new version of the "Red Dragon" story.

"I was reticent about doing Red Dragon,' then I read the script," Hopkins said. "My agent said, Just one more, that's it.' "

The cast also includes Ralph Fiennes, Edward Norton, Emily Watson and Harvey Keitel.

The plot (which is a prequel to the previous stories) involves the search for a serial killer by a former FBI agent portrayed by Norton, who enlists the aid of the flesh-eating psychiatrist.

"I will be back in the same jail cell as in Silence of the Lambs,' " Hopkins said.

He said he will have four major scenes, spread over the length of the film.

"They will be very, very powerful," Hopkins promised.

To accommodate the busy actor, his shooting schedule was compressed into three weeks, which he completed almost two weeks ago.

With Hannibal Lecter safely behind him, Hopkins said he is looking forward to the future. In five weeks he heads to Canada to shoot "The Human Stain," co-starring Nicole Kidman.

The film, in which Hopkins will for the first time bare a great deal more than his soul on camera, is an adaptation of Phillip Roth's 2000 novel of the same name. The cast also includes Ed Harris and Gary Sinise.

"I'm very excited," Hopkins said. "It's a powerful script, and Nicole is very good."

He said the story is a tragedy. Shooting is already under way in Canada.

Meanwhile he awaits his next film release, "Bad Company," directed by Joel Schumacher and co-starring Chris Rock. It is scheduled to hit theaters in June.

The premise of the film is that a Harvard-educated CIA agent is killed in the middle of an operation, and the agency recruits his twin brother (Rock), a black, street-wise hustler, to replace him. An experienced agent (Hopkins) is sent in to give him a crash course on how to be a company man.

Since Rock is considered one of the country's top comedians, one would assume the film is a comedy. But Hopkins isn't certain.

"I don't know what it is," he said. "Chris Rock is a comedian, but I'm not Jack Lemmon or Jerry Lewis. I'm very wry -- I've got a good sense of humor, so I'm a balance to Chris Rock's antics."

Hopkins seems to leap from one picture to the next, but he said that is an illusion. He has lots of time off between films, when he indulges himself in such pursuits as walking, playing the piano and reading.

And he is a volunteer teacher at an acting class in Santa Monica, Calif.

"I get paid in cookies and coffee," he said.

Hopkins notes that many of the actors working in Hollywood today are more interested in the celebrity status rather than the art of acting, but that most of his students are serious about learning their craft.

"They want to work in the business, but it's very tough," he said. "There's a lot of rejection."

There are a lot of good actors who can't find work.

"And there's nothing you can do about it," Hopkins said. "It's the luck of the draw. Some have the talent, but they may never be able to use it.

"My advice is just to keep plugging away in the face of rejection."

Hopkins did not have to face a lot of rejection at the outset of his career. "I was very fortunate," he said with characteristic modesty.

Hopkins was born in Port Talbot, South Wales -- the same town as Richard Burton. In 1961 Hopkins won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and made his professional stage debut in 1964 in a production of "Julius Caesar."

In 1967 Hopkins joined the National Theater Company and was the understudy for Laurence Olivier in several classical productions.

After a distinguished career onstage, Hopkins began to branch out into television and motion pictures.

"I was very, very fortunate," he said. "It has some to do with talent, but a lot to do with opportunity."

He has appeared in about 60 motion pictures, but says he doesn't have any favorites. However, two readily stand out in his mind: "Remains of the Day" (1993), in which he played a butler, and "Nixon," for which he received a 1995 Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

"Nixon was a tragic case," Hopkins said. "He was an extraordinary man who was tragically flawed. I found him to be a fascinating man."

It doesn't bother Hopkins that of all the classic roles he has played over the years, including that of Hamlet, he won the Oscar for Hannibal Lecter.

"It's all a game," he said. "I don't mind. But I don't want to go on doing that role. There are much more interesting roles, and I suppose I will go on working till they tell me to stop."

archive