Posted on 03/06/2006 4:33:28 PM PST by doug from upland
Hopkins lashes out at Hollywood
Veteran actor Sir Anthony Hopkins has attacked Hollywood for its "insanity", "self-importance" and "condescending" attitude to the movie-going public. "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," he told the Radio Times.
"Audiences aren't so mindless as movie-makers think," he continued.
But the 68-year-old, now a US citizen, said he had no plans to return to the stage, calling it "monotonous".
"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," he said.
----- "Be polite, treat the crew with respect and don't think you're different" -----
"I have better interests than sitting in [London restaurant] Le Caprice talking about the problems of being an actor."
The Welsh-born star, who was given a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes in January, also had some harsh words for some of his recent co-stars.
"I recently worked with two actors who wouldn't come out of their trailers for some reason. Can you figure that out? Or they complain because their trailers aren't big enough.
"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."
The actor's latest film, The World's Fastest Indian, casts him as Burt Munro, a real-life New Zealander who broke the land-speed record for a 950cc bike in 1967.
The World's Fastest Indian casts him as a real-life Kiwi record breaker "He's different from any of my other characters," said Hopkins, who won an Oscar in 1992 for playing serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.
"I've played these weirdos, I enjoyed them, but this was easier."
The film reunites him with director Roger Donaldson, with whom he had a stormy relationship while filming The Bounty in 1983.
"He was waiting for me to be awkward, but I've changed so much, put my impatience behind me," he said.
"I've worked with directors who are tyrannical and sadistic, but no longer. I'd rather do something else."
That "something else" includes painting. According to the Radio Times, Hopkins has an art exhibition in May in San Antonio, Texas.
Earlier this year more than 100 of his pen-and-ink landscapes were sold to benefit a local literacy programme.
The World's Fastest Indian opens in the UK on 10 March.
Nice.
I've always loved this guy. A sensible Hollywood actor with talent - VERY rare these days!
Sir Anthony.
And they work for peanuts.
I agree, that was a very entertaining movie. Even Alec Baldwin was good.
The day you make this complaint is the day you are officially old.
IMHO his best work was "O Brother Where Art Thou". I always figured Everett was the REAL George Clooney.
He was hilarious in "Intolerable Cruelty." He still doesn't know beans about foreign policy or U.S. history, though.
Of course, now some Hollywood elitists will find people to say that he acted poorly towards movie crews, etc.
I adore Anthony Hopkins. I saw him on stage in the late 1970's. Too bad he finds theater work monotonous because he was brilliant.
####IMHO his best work was "O Brother Where Art Thou". I always figured Everett was the REAL George Clooney.####
That movie is HILARIOUS, and Clooney's great in his role. He plays a guy who thinks he's a lot brighter than he really is, and who thinks he's a big shot even though he isn't. That's Clooney, for sure. All he had to do was be himself and he did a fine job.
Is he still a fan of Clinton's, I wonder? Talking that way about Hollywood makes me wonder if he wised up and decided the glittery population isn't the cat's PJs after all.And yes,he certainly is an excellent actor.
Hopkins has a superb gift for underplaying a character as well.
Check out a little known gem titled "Juggernaut" form the 1970s.
Loaded with high end English talent focusing on an oceanliner that has several large bombs planted aboard.
Richard Harris is over the top as the Corps of Engineers Bomb De-fuser. While Hopkins and everyone else tries to under play their Scotland Yard and Downing Street colleagues.
A fun little flick!
Jack.
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