subject: Anthony Hopkins Biography and Movies [print this page] Anthony Hopkins Biography and Movies Anthony Hopkins Biography and Movies
Welsh-born, veteran actor Anthony Hopkins has spent over five decades practising his skills resulting in a distinct style of acting that is admired the world-over, bringing something special to all Anthony Hopkins movies. No Anthony Hopkins biography would be thorough without mentioning his tremendously dedicated acting methods.
The well-versed actor Anthony Hopkins admits that script studying is his main strength in acting expertise, (despite being dyslexic). He reads each script precisely 250 times. The distinguished actor believes 250 to be the magic number and once said "I save the acting for when the director says, Action". This is the system regularly employed by the classically RADA trained actor in all Anthony Hopkins movies, determinedly believing that rehearsals are not entirely necessary and much to the further annoyance of directors, he isn't happy to do retakes!
The legendary Sir Laurence Olivier acted as Hopkins' mentor, his acting career having commenced on the stage at the prestigious National Theatre which Olivier had asked Anthony Hopkins to join. There was much touring around the country and often Hopkins would find himself scrabbling around for work. At that time he began to take solace in alcohol, an addiction to which he was to battle against for many years. By his own admission, Hopkins had been a loner since school days and the more well-known he became, the more he shunned the glare of of the public. Following the stage, Anthony Hopkins movies were first TV films and dramas. Following the TV epic War and Peace, in which he plays Pierre, Anthony Hopkins had become at this point in time well-known in the UK and his movie career began to take off in the States.
Anthony Hopkins the renowned actor immensely embraces roles where he can study a character well, relishing the challenge he cleverly executes so often, as he did in The Bunker 1981, where he plays Adolph Hitler, during his demise and very last days before he was defeated. Hopkins' award-winning performance was so credible, above all in the final scenes of Hitler's ranting hysteria and madness - an initial affirmation in Hopkins' career of his talent to portray madmen and monsters expertly.
However, it was not until 1991 when Anthony Hopkins finally won his Oscar for best actor, for his portrayal of the ultimate cannibalistic monster Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of The Lambs, the movie that heralded Anthony Hopkins' international fame and was the medium for a succession of notable Anthony Hopkins movies.
Hopkins played President Richard Nixon in the movie Nixon 1995, initially outraged by director Oliver Stone's proposal of himself, a British actor playing an American President. Eventually, Hopkins gradually came round to embarking upon the character, while he knew it was taking a risk at this time when he was at the summit of his acting career, following his Oscar-winning performance in 1991. Anthony Hopkins spent over 50 hours studying video footage of the, by then departed, President in preparation for the movie Nixon, perfecting his mannerisms and accent, embodying the spirit of the man, as opposed to simply his physical appearance. An Oscar nomination was forthcoming for Hopkins powerful performance in the lead, and combined with the spectacular photography and music score, the movie is a really enjoyable drama from start to finish, being one of the all-time popular Anthony Hopkins movies.
Other Anthony Hopkins movies linking the eminent actor's exceptional skill at character study include Surviving Picasso 1996, where Hopkins portrays the artist Pablo Picasso, playing out the monster in the woman chasing, self-centred, controlling artist, and character study comes into play again - this time he even resembles Picasso, so the accomplishment is even more credible!
Several books of Anthony Hopkins biography have been written, one of the best being "A Three Act Life" by Michael Feeney Callan, detailing the actor's fascinating life from 1937 to present day.
