Hopkins once again takes on role as brainy cannibal
Hopkins says the prequel to “Silence of the Lambs” isn’t as overdone as “Hannibal,” and that his performance just flows.
By Barry Koltnow
The Orange County Register

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Anthony Hopkins just doesn’t get it.

He is sitting in the back booth of a restaurant in his favorite Santa Monica hotel, just a short drive from his Malibu home. The walls are covered with glossy black-and-white photos of Hollywood’s most popular stars, from the silent era through the present.

When asked if he could ever imagine himself being worthy of joining this wall of honor, he shakes his head and immediately points out a nearby photo of legendary actor Edward G. Robinson as an example of the level of stardom that would be required.

But then his eyes narrow as he tries to focus on a wall across the room. He leans forward to see better and then, at the moment of recognition, flops back down his seat, embarrassed.

“Well, I guess I am on the wall,” he says with a sheepish grin, before changing the subject.

He doesn’t get that he is one of Hollywood’s most popular actors.

In “Red Dragon,” he reprises the character of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the brainy serial killer who eats his victims, occasionally with a plate of fava beans and a nice Chianti. It is one of the most endearing, and at the same time terrifying, characters in cinematic history. Hopkins, 65, won an Oscar portraying “Hannibal the Cannibal” in the 1991 film “The Silence of the Lambs,” and then played him again in its financially successful but critically skewered 2001 sequel “Hannibal.” Even Hopkins admits that the sequel was “overblown.”

This time, he will play Lecter at a time just before the start of the period depicted in “The Silence of the Lambs.” This is a remake of the 1986 film “Manhunter,” which was based on Thomas Harris’ first novel about the sinister forensic psychiatrist. Brian Cox played Dr. Lecter in the original.

Hopkins used to joke that, after he won the Oscar, he was free to accept movie roles just for the money. He still says “it’s nice to have a little cash in the bank,” but he insists that he did not do “Hannibal” for the money and he certainly did not agree to do “Red Dragon” for the easy payday.

He says he enjoys playing the character, finding it a comfortable fit, particularly the third time around.

“I don’t think too hard, and suddenly it all starts to fit together,” he said. And that becomes the performance. “That is how I approach Lecter. I don’t have to analyze what I’ve done before with this character. It’s already there inside me, and I just let the performance out.”

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.