Posted on 03/07/2006 6:28:34 AM PST by ex-Texan
Movie legend Sir Anthony Hopkins has criticised film bosses for making "condescending" films
"Audiences aren't so mindless as movie-makers think", he told the Radio Times magazine.
The Hollywood star's latest film, The World's Fastest Indian, is a true story about a New Zealander motorcyclist who broke the land speed record.
Sir Anthony said of the movie: "No sex or violence, and that's refreshing.
"I'm also tired of the camera moving all over the place, with car chases so cut and edited you don't know what's happening.
"It's condescending. Audiences aren't so mindless as movie-makers think."
He added: "If you look at The Shining or Fargo, they photograph it and let actors tell a story. That's the old-fashioned way. I hope it comes back."
The Silence of the Lambs star added that he would not put up with "tyrannical" directors any longer, adding: "I don't take this acting business seriously ... I enjoy acting more now than ever because I treat it as an enjoyable hobby.
"I can't get caught up in the self-importance. People bow to your every wish and you forget where you come from and what you're doing," he told the magazine.
"I recently worked with two actors who wouldn't come out of their trailers for some reason.
"Can you figure that out? It's insanity. Or they complain because their trailers aren't big enough.
"Bulls***. It's a job, like any other, so don't make a big deal. Be polite, treat the crew with respect and don't think you're different.
"I've worked with directors who are tyrannical and sadistic - but no longer. I'd rather do something else."
Sir Anthony, who became a US citizen in 2000, said he would never make a stage comeback.
He said: "I won't return to theatre work. It's monotonous, too much like being in prison, standing on stage in tights.
"I admire actors who can do it, and I'm sure they have a great life, but I can't stay in any one place for too long, or settle into that grey, sombre atmosphere of the Waterloo Road on a wet Wednesday afternoon.
"There's something so depressing looming across the muddy Thames from that concrete breeze block, with the smell of stale coffee, and thinking, 'Oh, God I have to do another matinee', and the luvvies and the darlings.
"They're all right, but I have better interests than sitting in Le Caprice talking about the problems of being an actor."
Now that Narnia is big again,
I urge ALL Anthony Hopkins or C.S. Lewis fans to see a fantastic movie, "Shadowlands." It is the true story of how Lewis, who had already written "The Four Loves," discovered the truest, deepest love, found only in suffering for another, and learnt from his improbable marriage to an atheist, Jewish, socialist, New York divorcee.
And yes, there is one scene that will wrench the heart of any Narnia fan...
I agree completely. There are good movies out there, but one must look carefully. For example, we really enjoyed Secondhand Lions. An interesting story with funny characters.
I get so irritated when they do this that I turn the show off.
It's like the moguls met in secret and compiled a TO-DO LIST OF CHRISTIAN BELIEFS HOLLYWOOD MUST DESTROY. (smirk)
Clearly, they consider every moral tenent believers cherish as fair game for the Hollywood "treatment."
The Academy ratings keep going southward year after year, like the box-office recepts, but Christian-hating Hollywarped would rather keep on destroying American values and annoy Christians than clean up their act.
As one FReeper notably posted: Hollywood loves movies that "give the finger" to red state Americans. The first few times it was shocking -- like watching the high school slut walk off behind the gym for the 5th time. Now it's just creepy.
ping to #22
Watching 24 last night and got bombarded with ads for V FOR VENDETTA, which looks like another comic book brought to the screen, and the ads featured the Houses of Parlament getting blown up. Where is the movie with a positive take on the War on Terror? The producers would make a fortune!
Sir Anthony Hopkins
Born: December 31, 1937, Port Talbot, South Wales
Education: Cardiff College of Drama, Wales; RADA, London
Often called the successor to fellow Welsh actor Richard Burton, Hopkins was a celebrated stage actor (with notable National Theater credits in the 1960s) before making an auspicious film debut in The Lion in Winter (1968), as the scheming Richard the Lionheart.
Hopkins won several awards for his 1975 Broadway debut in Equus, playing a psychiatrist who questions the meaning of his own life when he treats a passionate, disturbed young man who has blinded several horses. Ironically, Burton succeeded Hopkins in the Broadway production and starred in the film version.
Hopkins has played volatile, obsessed characters (the ventriloquist in Magic, 1978; Captain Bligh in The Bounty, 1984), as well as quietly repressed, mild-mannered types (Bruno Hauptmann, the accused kidnapper of the Lindbergh baby, in the excellent 1976 TV movie, The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case; the quiet London bookseller in 84 Charing Cross Road, 1987). He made an indelible impression, and broadened his audience considerably, as Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, the brilliant, cultivated serial killer at the center of Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Shadowlands - thanks for the recommendation. I will search for it.
Yes, we "audience members" may not be quite as mentally adroit and sharp as "movie makers," but we aren't as mindless as they think. We can actually find our way to work in the morning, remember where stores and supermarkets are, and a host of other things too. In fact, just the other day after reading the paper, I reassembled it just as it had been purchased. I was quite proud with myself. /s
Okay...on my list "to rent" list:
Shadowlands
Magic
Thanks!
Most of the current actors have one character that they recycle again and again for every project - they have no depth at all.
A perfect example is Jennifer Anniston, who is supposed to be one of the leading comic actresses of today. No matter what film she's in, her character is always Rachel from Friends, just with a different name and wardrobe. One result is that instead of writing a movie with Jennifer Anniston that actually tells a compelling story in a new way, screenwriters pull some stuff off the shelf that they can build around her Rachel character and then sell to the public. And she's just the most obvious example.
In his first book, Bill O'Reilly related a story about Charlton Heston filming a TV commercial for something or other. He said Heston was unfailingly polite and professional. He looked over the script for a couple of minutes, took a walk around the pool, and then sat down and just delivered the lines perfectly. One take, and that was it. No tantrums or screaming demands for retake after retake. He just did the job he was hired to do without all the prima donna BS. That's what's sorely missing with the current crop of talking Ken and Barbie dolls in Hollywood.
Absoulutlely straight - lots more intelligence in old movies than new movies - Hopkins nails it.
Of course we've seen the culture dumbed down in all other areas so why should movies be any different? The whole thing is a viscious cycle because the dumber things get, the harder it is to reverse the trend.
BTW loved "The Shining"!
pg 13 , I think.
Great article. Good attitude. And "The World's Fastest Indian" is the best film we've seen in over a year.
I loved "World's Fastest Indian" but I forgot if it was PG or PG13. The opening seen when he pegs the throttle and your hear that engine was great. I need that DVD
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