Anthony Hopkins, Extreme Close-up

For a while, I thought he would gobble all of us one dozen journalists alive, licking his oily lips after doing so like he does, as if you didn’t know, in Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal where he played today’s most-feared villain who thrives on human flesh – Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a.k.a. Hannibal the Cannibal, or simply Hannibal for short.

It was all in my mind, thank heavens!

And yet, as Sir Anthony Hopkins surveyed the faces of those around the table, I thought he was trying to see what sort of, ugh, human flesh his palate craved for at the moment – Japanese, English, Swedish, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, or horrors, Filipino? He had an array of choices.

No, Hopkins out of Hannibal’s skin isn’t that "carnivorous." In fact, he looked very serious, sizing up everybody with his intense English eyes. The interview was for Red Dragon, the prequel to Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal in which he reprises the Hannibal role, with Ralph Fiennes playing the title role as serial killer Francis Dolarhyde (a.k.a. The Tooth Fairy/Red Dragon) and Edward Norton as FBI investigator Will Graham. Based upon the first of Thomas Harris’ three novels, Red Dragon is directed by 32-year-old Brett Ratner (Rush Hour 1 and 2, etc.) and produced on an $80-million budget by Dino de Laurentiis.

For a backgrounder, here’s The Film Encyclopedia on Hopkins:

Born on Dec. 31, 1937, in Port Talbot, South Wales. Impressive character lead of British and American stage, TV and films. Of blue-collar descent, he showed little aptitude for formal education. Deciding on an acting career, following two years of military service, he attended the Cardiff College of Drama, then transferred to London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Making his stage debut in 1960 and his first London appearance in 1964, he was soon recognized as a major talent.

In the late ’60s and early ’70s, he was a leading star of the National Theater, specializing in Shakespeare and the classics. He went to America in 1964 to play on Broadway in Equus and stayed for 10 years, appearing in occasional feature films and numerous TV movies and mini-series, impersonating characters from Quasimodo (in The Hunchback of Notre Dame) to Adolf Hitler (in The Bunker) and Yitzhak Rabin (in Victory at Entebbe). In 1992, he won an Oscar Best Actor trophy for playing Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs.

Are you, uh, vegetarian?

"Yeah...uh...Not really. I like fish...I’m not so much into meat. Well, anyway, why did you ask that?"

(Deadpan) Well, I thought you preferred, uh, human meat. I’ve seen you eat human meat in the movies.

(Sounding very serious) "Yes, but I’m an actor, I’m an actor. It’s just a character. I’am an actor."

What do you enjoy most about playing Hannibal?

"It’s a good part to play and I’ve, uh...It’s a good part to play."

Hannibal is now the most-feared villain in the movies. Do you find anything lovable about Hannibal?

"None. No. None."

What’s the most hateful aspect of Hannibal’s personality?

"None. I don’t find anything ...uh... It’s just a character that I play."

After playing Hanibal in Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, I suppose the character is like second skin to you already.

"Yes, yes, I guess so."

Did you still have to prepare for it (for Red Dragon) after playing him twice?

"No, not really. Well, I have to look 10 years younger (for Red Dragon). Any character I play is quite easy. That’s what I am paid to do. That’s what my job is. I make it easy for myself and I know how to do it, so... No need for any more preparation."

You’ve played real-life characters like Nixon and Picasso, but you’re most identified with Hannibal. How do you feel about that kind of "reputation"?

"Fine. Good... good!"

The only thing you seem to have in common with Hannnibal is your being a loner. How do you spend your time with yourself?

"Reading... Playing the piano... Walking... Driving."

What kind of music do you like?

"Chopin, classics."

Some sectors of the media find you to be self-possessed...

"...I’m probably just very selfish. I don’t hang around trying to win anybody’s approval. I may have screwed up a lot of my life, I may have hurt a few people, I’m not a very good husband, I’m not a good father. I’m a roamer. I think I’m a bit of a nihilist, really."

You must find the movies or theater such an escape.

"I’ve never been comfortable in the theater. I just don’t have it, my temperament. I‘ve done it all, but I never enjoyed it. I think it goes way back to when I was a kid; the British theater is very academic, and I’m a very bad student. I don’t like being taught, and I’m very stubborn. When a director says, ‘This is going to be a journey of discovery,’ I want to get my bags and get in the car."

Obviously, you don’t like theater work.

"I hate that awful feeling you have before you go onstage, that dull dread in the stomach, just like a deadness in the center. I feel very trapped in the theater; I can’t bear to repeat things. The second night of a play I think, ‘Oh, God – I did this last night!’ It’s pathetic, going up onstage wanting people to love you. It’s the part of myself I like least, that need for audience approval. I don’t like audiences gawking at me – 500 pairs of eyes watching me. I like the impersonality of filmmaking."

Some Hollywood-watchers say that you don’t take acting much too seriously.

"I hate talking about acting. Actors are so pompous. I honestly don’t know what I’m doing half of the time. Just learn the lines, show up and do it. When people pontificate about acting or directing, I think, ‘Who are these nerds who write all this garbage?’"

Is there any other profession you see yourself in aside from acting?

"Not really. I’m interested in music...I love music and I play the piano. When I was a little boy I did have dreams of becoming a pianist. But I guess I wasn’t meant to be. I found out that I did not have the technical skills. But I love music and I think I am... yeah, I think I’m a musician. Not an accomplished musician but a musician just the same. I love music."

Any other musical preference?

"I also like country western music, I love jazz. I like the impressionists, the romantics and the revolutionaries."

By the way, I read somewhere that you lost 25 pounds for Red Dragon?

"Yeah, I did lose 25 pounds."

How did you do it?

"As I’ve said, I had to look 10 years younger in the movie. You know, as you get older, it’s harder to lose weight. But I trained for six days a week, two hours everyday – mostly – and somehow I was able to do it. I had a trainer and he said, ‘Don’t overdo it; if you do, you’ll damage yourself. I found a wonderful way of building up muscles. All you have to do is go to the gym for about 25 minutes once every eight days. You pick up weights and hold them, first for 15 seconds and then longer and longer as you go along. You leave the weights and not touch them again, until eight or nine days later. The results are amazing! Then you do aerobics and stretching, you walk and run."

What about diet?

"I follow a carbo diet which is less harmful than a high-protein diet. And, as I told you, I eat fish. Light eating in general. Not too much food, some vegetables. But I don’t like broccoli. I like tomatoes; I like salmon."

Have you always been health-conscious?

"No. I nearly destroyed my body years ago by smoking and drinking.’’

What sort of roles do you find interesting?

‘’Oh, I don’t know. Maybe like the ones I did in Nixon, Remains of the Day and The Mark of Zorro.’’

After doing an intensely emotional scene, how long does the effect stay with you?

"I don’t dwell on any scene. I have a mechanism in my mind which switches off as soon as I finish doing a scene.’’

How do you spend your time away from work?

"Aside from what I already told you, I take out my electric car and I just drive as far as I can."

What’s one place that you want to go back to again and again?

"Let me see...Canada, I guess, especially the Rockies where I once filmed a movie (The Edge with Alec Baldwin). I also like Mexico (where Zorro was filmed) very much."

Do you enjoy being alone?

"Yes, I do. Very much."

Why do you work too much?

"It looks like it but it’s not so. I have a lot of time off. I work hard, not too much, and I also know how to enjoy myself."

To what do you attribute your success as an actor?

"Luck. Sheer luck. Mostly luck. You have a little bit of talent and you develop it and you dream of it and you have a passion for it and the enjoyment of it, and then that creates a good fortune. I don’t understand it but that’s how it works. I know actors, who were in college and acting schools... They were so much better than me, they were technically superb. But I was always defeating them in some way. I had a passion for my own life, a desire for my own survival, but I don’t take that much credit for what I have become. It’s mostly good fortune. I mean it’s mostly... destiny, I think."

You’ve been knighted by Queen Elizabeth and now formally addressed as Sir Anthony Hopkins. What does the knighthood mean to you?

"What’s that?"