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You Relax Within The Verse. You Realize The Structure Of The Verse And Relax Into It. It's Like Swimming. Or Riding A Bike. You Can't Make It Sound Real If You Are Thinking It Through As You Go. You Can't Think Through Shakespeare, You Have To Speak It. And Listen To The Rhythm Of It And Then It Takes You Over. And To Make It Sound Real You Speak As If You Believe It. Don't Act It. Just Be It.

-Anthony Hopkins

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You Relax Within The

Anthony Hopkins

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You Relax Within The Verse. You Realize The Structure Of The Verse And Relax Into It. It's Like Swimming. Or Riding A Bike. You Can't Make It Sound Real If You Are Thinking It Through As You Go. You Can't Think Through Shakespeare, You Have To Speak It. And Listen To The Rhythm Of It And Then It Takes You Over. And To Make It Sound Real You Speak As If You Believe It. Don't Act It. Just Be It.

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I Think Julianne Moore Is Very, Very Good. I've Worked With Her. We Did Surviving Picasso. I Remember One Scene We Did Together. She Had To Have A Nervous, A Mental, Breakdown In This One Scene. I Didn't Have Many Lines. I Just Had To Make Sure I Knew I Came In On Cue All Right. And I Was Just Watching Her Walking Though The Rehearsal. I Thought I Know What She's Doing, "this Is Going To Be Terrific." So They Said, "are You Ready" And She Said, "yeah," "ok, Roll The Camera." And All In One Take.

I Think The Healthy Way To Live Is To Make Friends With The Beast Inside Oneself, And That Means Not The Beast But The Shadow. The Dark Side Of One's Nature. Have Fun With It And You Know, Is To Accept Everything About Ourselves.

Acting Is Just A Process Of Relaxation, Actually. Knowing The Text So Well And Trusting That The Instinct And The Subconscious Mind, Whatever You Want To Call It, Is Going To Take Over.

I'd Like To Wake Up And Look Like Brad Pitt In The Morning, But I Don't. I Look In The Mirror, And I See Me.

That's What Happens If You Don't Address The Darkness In You. You Become Repressed And Depressed And Suicidal.

Acting Is Constricted Because You Have The Lines. But I Improvise With It And What I Learn On The Set. I Improvise Rhythms And Just Changes.

Oh Yes. I'm An Actor, So I Just Learn My Lines, And Show Up And Do It. I Gave It A Little Bit Of Thought.

At My Age, Any Day Above Ground And Vertical Is A Good Day.

I Watched A Film With A Very Famous, Great, Great Actor, I Won't Mention His Name Because Everyone Loves His Memory, But I Thought, "god He Was Acting A Lot." Great Actor, But Nonstop Acting. Wall To Wall, Fitted-carpet Acting.

There's A Thing That If You - Somebody In Faith Is Always Troubled By Doubt, And Somebody By Doubt Is Always Wanted By Faith. So It's A Kind Of Paradox.

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I Was Lousy In School. Real Screwed-up. A Moron. I Was Antisocial And Didn't Bother With The Other Kids. A Really Bad Student. I Didn't Have Any Brains. I Didn't Know What I Was Doing There. That's Why I Became An Actor.

I'm Composing And Writing Music.

Relish Everything That's Inside Of You, The Imperfections, The Darkness, The Richness And Light And Everything. And That Makes For A Full Life.

Richness Of Life

I'm Married. My Wife, Stella - A Beautiful Woman. She's Brought A Lot Of Peace To My Life, A Lot Of Wisdom.

I Just Learn My Lines, Go On Set. Do My Preparation, Whatever That Is. Have A Cup Of Coffee. Say Hello To Everyone. And Be Friendly. "action" - And Then Do It.

I’m Not Young Anymore. I Don’t Wanna Start Over Again.

I Was Called 'dumbo,' Like The Elephant, As A Child Because I Couldn't Understand Things At School.

I've Always Been Hopeless At Everything When I Was A Kid. That's Why I Became An Actor - 'cause I Couldn't Do Anything Else.

Israel Means War And Destruction And We Americans Are Behind This War And I Am Ashamed Of Being American.

Danger Is The Spice Of Life And You’ve Got To Take A Risk Now And Then…that’s What Makes Life Worthwhile.

I’m Not Being Cynical, But When You’re Doing A Movie You Have A Number Of Choices As An Actor. Then You See It All Cut Together And All Of Those Precious Little Pieces You Put In Are Maybe On The Cutting Room Floor. So, You Don’t Have That Much Control. You Have Very Little Control, In Fact.

Some Nights You Might Go Through An Entire Performance And Not Feel A Thing, And The Audience May Have A Much Better Time, 'cause If You're Enjoying Yourself On Stage Too Much, They're Having A Terrible Time Because They Can't Hear You. And If You're A Woman Your Mascara's Running.

When You Are At The Right Age To Play Hamlet You Are Still To Young And Immature To Play It. It Is Much Later, When You Get The Life Experience And The Emotional Power, That You Understand Hamlet Or Macbeth.

Richard Burton Came From The Same Town As Me, So I Thought I'd Follow My Nose, And Follow My Luck. I Think I've Been Very Lucky.

I Always Had A Knack For Improvisation. I Can Write Down The Notes I Play, But Never Really Had A Proper Academic Musical Background. I Suppose I'm Blessed And Cursed By The Fact I Have That Freedom.

I've Felt Like An Outsider All My Life. It Comes From My Mother, Who Always Felt Like An Outsider In My Father's Family. She Was A Powerful Woman, And She Motivated My Father.

It Created In Me A Yearning For All That Is Wide And Open And Expansive. Something That Will Never Allow Me To Fit In In My Own Country, With Its Narrow Towns And Narrow Roads And Narrow Kindnesses And Narrow Reprimands.

People Don't Always Tell You What They Are Thinking. They Just See To It That You Don't Advance In Life.

People Forget That Mozart Wrote For Commissions. There's A Thing In Psychology Where They Think If It's Popular, It Can't Be Serious.

Acting Is About Listening And Reacting. John Wayne Was Right: Acting Is Just Reacting. You Don't Have To Do Much - As Long As You Stay Out Of The Way Of Others. That's Why It Works.

I Don't Know What Acting Is, But I Enjoy It.

The Magical, Supernatural Force That Is With Us Every Second Is Time. We Can't Even Comprehend It. It's Such An Illusion, It's Such A Strange Thing.

Supernatural Forces

If You Don't Go When You Want To Go, When You Do Go, You'll Find You've Gone.

Guilt Is The Thief Of Life.

We're Just Blades Of Grass, And When We Go, We Go, We Never Come Back; One Life . . . Maybe That's True. But I Tend To Believe That This Is Not All There Is. Because My Life Has Been Like A Shadow Of Something Deeper. And I've Experienced That Many Times.

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Working With Katherine Hepburn, She Said To Me, "don't Act." She Said, "read The Lines. Just Be. Just Speak The Lines." I Said, "okay." She Said, "you Look Good. You Got A Good Pair Of Shoulders, You Got A Good Head, Good Face."

We Have A Boesendorfer Piano That I Play Every Day. It Keeps My Brain And My Fingers Active.

Sometimes I Feel Tired And Think I Ought To Give It Up, I Don't Want To Just Retire. No, I Enjoy It All And You Just Keep Going Until The Day Comes When You Can't Do It Anymore. And That's What I Want To Do.

I Know That The Arts Are Important. I'm Not Denying That, But I Can't Associate Myself With All The Claptrap That Goes On Around It.

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My Life Is Not My Own Business.

Interdependence

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If You Don't Follow Through On Your Dreams, You Might As Well Be A Vegetable.

I Don't Push My Luck. I Don't Worry About The Results And Therefore Everything Seems To Work Out Well. That's Something I've Learnt Over The Years. The Whole Thing About The Acting Business Is That It's A Hit-or-miss Game So I Keep My Distance From It.

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I Could Stay Making Nice Safe Bbc Movies For The Rest Of My Life, So I Decided To Risk It. It Was A Challenge, To Work With Oliver Stone.

The Movie Industry Is Full Of Crazy People Who Think That They Are God.

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I Don't Have Many Friends; I'm Very Much A Loner. As A Child I Was Very Isolated And I've Never Been Really Close To Anyone.

I Don't Have People Following Me Around, Like Bodyguards. I Don't Know How People Live Like That. Maybe The Young Movie Stars Have To Live Like That, I Don't Know. But It Seems A Little Crazy To Me. I Don't Think You Need All That Stuff.

If I Spent All My Time Criticising Myself, I Wouldn't Be Able To Function. There Are Actors Who Theorise Till The Cows Come Home. I Haven't The Patience For Them. It's Maybe Shallow, But That's Why I'll Never Be Part Of The Acting Set.

I'm Devious, Cruel, Cunning And Addictive.

On His Hannibal Lector Mask: I've Got It At Home. I Wear It To Bed Every Night.

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I've Got No Need To Prove To Myself That I Can Do Shakespeare. I've Done It.

I'm Most Suspicious Of Scripts That Have A Lot Of Stage Direction At The Top Of The Page Sunrise Over The Desert And Masses Of A Whole Essay Before You Get To The Dialogue.

My Father Wasn't A Cruel Man. And I Loved Him. But He Was A Pretty Tough Character. His Own Father Was Even Tougher - One Of Those Victorians, Hard As Iron - But My Dad Was Tough Enough.

I Never Cling On To Hope Or Certainty. They're The Enemies Of Peace.

I Can't Stand Directors Who Try To Micro-manage Everything. When It Happens These Days I Just Walk Off Set, Saying If They Don't Like The Way I'm Doing It They Can Get Someone Else.

I Came Here In 1974 To Do A Play, And Then I Went To L.a. I Really Like Living In America. I Feel More At Home Here Than Anywhere Else.

My Weak Spot Is That I Don't Like Analyzing So I Tend To Be A Bit Lazy; I Tend To Get Bored Quickly, Which Means I Must Be Boring.

It's Such A Pleasant Surprise When You Come On Set And You Find Someone In Charge Like Ken Branagh Or James Ivory. You Know That You're Going To Do A Day's Work And At The End Of It, It's Going To Be Good.

Pleasant Surprises

Well, Everyone Likes Movies When They're A Little Kid.

Getting Old Ain't For The Faint Of Heart.

I've Played A Lot Of Parts. But I Don't Look At My Feeling Is That This Is A Job. It's Given Me A Good Living.

I've Been Very Lucky. I've Had My Problems In The Past, I've Had My Troubles, But You Move On. I Had A Great Life And I Am Really Thankful For It.

Living With Reality Is A Very Good Trick, It Gives You Tremendous Freedom And It Changes The Structure Of The Molecules Of Your Soul By Living With Reality Because You Don't Expect Anything Anymore. Which Is A Weird Paradox.

How Do You Play Hannibal Lector? Well Just Don't Move. Scare People By Being Still.

I Would Like To Go Back To Wales. I'm Obsessed With My Childhood And At Least Three Times A Week Dream I Am Back There.

I'm Not Unfamiliar With Music, And I Really Do Write Music. I've Gotten A Talent For It. I Don't Have The Technical Skills, But I Do Plan To Learn.

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I Always Liked To Take The Plunge, You Know, I'd Jump In At The Deep End And Hope That I'd Find Land Somehow, Or Hope I'd Float Or Survive. That's More Or Less The Way I've Gone Through My Life.

I Read A Lot, That's My Main Hobby. I've Got An Ipad Which I Store Books On And I Read Voraciously. I'm A Slow Reader But I'm Obsessive. I Make References, Underline Things, Cross-reference. I'm An Autodidact.

Certainty Is The Enemy Of Mankind. If You're Certain About Everything, You Have The Inquisition, You Have Nazis And You Have - That Certainty Is Something To Be Guarded About.

I Don't Waste Time Being Soft. I'm Not Cold, But I Don't Like Being, Wasting My Time With-life's Too Short.

I'm Interested In The Dream And Subconscious Mind, The Peculiar Dream-like Quality Of Our Lives, Sometime Nightmare Quality Of Our Lives.

Non-expectation And Acceptance. Because Expectation Leads To Resentment And Depression, So I Have No Expectations.

People Ask, 'should I Call You Sir Hopkins?' But I Say, 'no. Call Me Tony,' Because It's Too Much Of A Lift-up.

Whether It's Overeating Or It's Overworking Or Over-sex Or Whatever It Is, Alcoholism, Drug Addition, We Push Ourselves To The Brink And Then Pull Back Because It's Kind Of Exciting.

I'm Always Cast In These Strange Men... That's Not Me, Really.

I'm Just An Actor. It's The Way The Script Is Written, And It's Easy. I Don't Have Think About It. When You Receive The Script, You Know Pretty Well How To Play It, Apart From Little Technicalities Like The Accent.

I Like The Good Life Too Much, I'm Not Good At Going On Stage Night After Night And On Wet Wednesday Afternoons.

I Don't Know What Acting Is, But I Enjoy It. I Think We Ask Too Many Questions Of Ourselves. We Make Too Much Importance Of Stuff. But I Do Say To Actors When I Have Taught In Classes, Or When I Sometimes Do A Talk To A Group. I'll Say, “if I Never Acted Again, The World Wouldn't Stop, Nor Would It Stop If I Didn't Stop Acting. That's How Important It Is. I Know It [seems] Important When You're Young. But I Say, “lighten Up. Don't Take It All So Seriously.” All The Gurus And Teachers Will Take Your Money And Run.

I Worked With Steven Spielberg On Amistad... He Seemed So Very Secure In Himself That He Let Me Do Things.

I Wanted To Be A Musician But I Didn't Have The Talent For It, So I Decided I Wanted To Be Famous, So I Became An Actor.

You Look Closely Enough, You'll Find That Everything Has A Weak Spot Where It Can Break, Sooner Or Later.

I Am A Bit Of A Solitude Person - A Solitary Personality. I Like Being On My Own. I Don't Have Any Major Friendships Or Relationships With People.

I Believe I Am Quite Amiable And Affable And Quite Fair, And I've Rarely Worked With People Who Are The Opposite. Moodiness Scares Me. What Gets To Me Is Unkindness. Madness. Unwarranted Cruelty Through Words. People Who Scream And Shout At Work. I Hate Confrontation And Violence. I've Done It In The Past And I Don't Want To Do It Again. I Guess I Want A Perfect World.

I Was Hell Bent On Destruction... It Was Like Being Possessed By A Demon.

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I Know That Some Actors And Directors Like To Have Intensity On Set. I Don't, Particularly. Certainly, If They Want That, That's Fine, But I Can't Work Like That.

Acting's Entertainment. It's Not Brain Surgery.

I Spent Two Years In The Military Service, Then I Trudged Around In Repertory For Quite A While. I Somehow Wound Up At The National Theatre, Though, And Then I Was Definitely On My Way.

People Ask Me How Did You Choose The Part And How Did You Prepare For This Work? I Just Learned The Lines And Showed Up; I Don't Know What Else To Say Because That's All I Know How To Do.

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I Learn Poetry, Learn Text, And That Really Keeps You Alive.

I Tried Acting, Liked It, And Stuck With It. I Saw It As The Way I Would Keep That Promise To Myself Of Getting Back At Those Who Had Made My School Life A Misery.

I Am Young! Being Creative And Keeping Your Brain Occupied Is Very Sensible Because If You Don't You Die, Slowly.

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I Couldn't Say I Ever Dreamt Of Becoming A Composer, A Pianist, Or Anything Else For That Matter. I Have The Kind Of Brain Where Nothing Is Set In Stone.

I Don't Know Why They Gave Me A Knighthood - Though It's Very Nice Of Them - But I Only Ever Use The Title In The U.s. The Americans Insist On It And Get Offended If I Don't.

Actors I Admire? Ed Harris, Or Course, I Think He's Terrific; Because I Know He Always Had To Fight Being What He Looked Like A Lot, But I Think He's A Terrific Actor.

Keep Low Expectations And Life Gets Pretty Good.

Low Expectations

Hitchcock Was Such A Master Of Putting On Screen Things That Made You Uneasy. Somebody Once Asked Him What Frightened Him Most, And He Said The Police. He Came From A Poor Background. I Think He Understood Those Fears.

You Have To Be Pretty Tough To Be An Actor, And You Have To Be Pretty Certain What You Want. You Can't Waffle Through This Business.

I've Got A Great Sense Of Humor.

I Wanted To Be A Musician. I Just Wanted To Be Famous Because I Wanted To Escape From What I Felt Was My Limitation In Life... And I Wanted To Write Music, And I Didn’t Know What I Was Doing And I Never Had The Technique Or Understanding Of It... But I’ve Always Played The Piano And I Can Improvise On The Piano, But The Problem Is That I Can’t Write Down What I Write. I Can Read Music But I Can’t Write Numbers.

If You're In A Successful Play And The Play Is Working Well - I Mean Successful Because The Audiences Like It, The Audiences Respond Well - It's A Pleasure.

I Have A Punishing Workout Regimen. Every Day I Do 3 Minutes On A Treadmill, Then I Lie Down, Drink A Glass Of Vodka And Smoke A Cigarette.

My Weak Spot Is Laziness. I Have A Lot Of Weak Spots - Cookies, Croissants; My Wife Is Always Lecturing Me About This, I Tend To Put It All Down As Habit Or It's Just Acting.

Shakespeare's So Bloody Difficult, And I Don't Like Failure. You Can Fail On Film, But There's Nobody Actually There In The Flesh To Watch You Failing.

I Hate Taxing My Mind With Analysis. I'm Not A Good Analyst. I Cannot Talk About Acting. I Hate Talking About It. I Hate Talking About Analyzing.

There's No Truth In Acting, It's All A Trick, Because You Go On Stage In Front Of Sets, You're On Film - It's All A Trick. I'm Making It Sound Very - I Really Am Demystifying It, But What I Try To Do, What I Do, And I Hope Effectively, Is To Create A Reality As If It Is Happening Now, That You're Fishing For Words Out Of The Air.

I Love To Have A Laugh. I Like To Tease People.

Mortality Is The Great Rescuer, It Finally Takes You Out Of Everything, And That Makes Life Good.read Carl Jung. It Makes Life Richer Because This Is It; None Of Us Know Where We Go And This Is The Fun Of It.

I'm Fascinated By The Fact That We Can't Grasp Anything About Time.

When You're Younger You Have A Lot Of Ideas And You're Probably More Insecure, All Those Things. I Work With Young Actors Now And I See Their Insecurities And I Make Fun Of Them. I Don't Make Fun Of Them But I Make Them Laugh, Because I Know What They're Going Through. When You Get Older You Think 'it's Only A Movie After All, It's Not Brain Surgery.'

There's Many A Good Tune Played By An Old Banjo.

There Are People Who Are Convinced Supernatural Forces Are At Work, But I've No Idea. I Suspect 'possession' Might Be A Psychological Thing, Like Schizophrenia. We All Think We Know Things, But We Don't Know A Damn Thing. Whether God Exists, Why We're Here... Nobody Really Knows Any Of It.

Supernatural Forces

My Weak Spot Is Laziness. Oh, I Have A Lot Of Weak Spots: Cookies, Croissants.

A Conductor Can't Be Too Arrogant With An Orchestra And Try To Impose Himself Too Much.

I Remember Coming To New York, In 1974 To Do A Play Here Called Equis. And I Remember The First Morning Getting Up And Walking Around The Streets And I Thought, "i'm Home." I Felt Really At Peace Here.

When You're Younger You Have So Many Ideas About Yourself; Everything Is Important. It's Not When You Look Back, Nothing Is That Important. It's Only Life.

When I Was A Younger Actor, I Was Very Immersed In It, Very "method" And All That. Now, I Don't Give A Hoot.

I Drank A Lot, But I Wouldn't Have Missed It. I Look Back On It As Sort Of Dreary Enjoyment, Because I Don't Have To Be There Anymore.

I Look In The Mirror And I See The Lines, But I Don't Care. It's A Good Time. I Don't Know Why It's Such A Good Time, But It's A Good Time.

I've Had No contact With My Daughter For Years. That's Her Choice. Anyway, You Move On. If People Don't Want To Bother With Me, Fine. You Know, God Bless Them, And Move On.

Women Never Really Care To Face The Truth When Their Hearts Are Involved.

I Love Roller Coasters. I Don't Get A Chance Often, But I've Gone To Magic Mountain And Gone On The Rides. I Love Roller Coasters.

Beware The Tyranny Of The Weak. They Just Suck You Dry.

I Wouldn't Use The Word 'scared' For My Role As Hitchcock, But It Was My Most Insecure. Taking On Such A Formidable, Giant Personality Such As Hitchcock; He Was One Of The Great Geniuses Of World Cinema. Sheer Genius.

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I'm Not A Health Freak. I Just Work Out Every Day.

Oliver Stone Is A Great Director And I've Seen Many Films Over The Years, But I Try To Create Stuff Out Of My Own Imagination. I Want To Break All The Rules And Mess About With It And Make A Different Movie Just For The Fun Of It.

I Was Trundling Around With My Inadequacies, And Inner Pain And Loneliness. I Yearned, Desperately, To Be Something. I Yearned To Get Out From Where I Was ... Some Deep Discontent Within Myself, Actually Some Deep Dislike Of Myself.

There Is Nothing To Be Scared Of In Movies. It's A Bit Scarier Going On Stage.

I Don't Mind Being A Commodity. It's Given Me A Good Life.

My Father Was Grounded, A Very Meat-and-potatoes Man. He Was A Baker.

We Are Dying From Overthinking. We Are Slowly Killing Ourselves By Thinking About Everything. Think. Think. Think. You Can Never Trust The Human Mind Anyway. It's A Death Trap.

The Way To Make Better Decisions Is To Make More Of Them. Then Make Sure You Learn From Each One, Including Those That Don't Seem To Work Out In The Short Term: They Will Provide Valuable Distinctions To Make Better Evaluations And Therefore Decisions In The Future. Realize That Decision Making, Like Any Skill You Focus On Improving, Gets Better The More Often You Do It.

We All Dream. We Dream Vividly, Depending On Our Nature. Our Existence Is Beyond Our Explanation, Whether We Believe In God Or We Have Religion Or We're Atheist.

I Don't Believe In Nepotism. I Don't Much Like The Idea Of Parents Who Interfere.

I'm The Slowest Driver In The World.

Multiply It By Infinity And Take It To The Depths Of Forever, And You Will Still Have Barely A Glimpse Of What I'm Talking About.

Jonathan Demme Is A Very Sharp Editor Of His Movies.

I Never Make Conscious Decisions.

I Used To Be A Bit Obsessed By Acting But Not Anymore. I Do Enjoy Acting But I Probably Enjoy It More Now Because It's Easier. I Can't Work In The Theater Because To Me It's Too Serious. It's Like Being In Prison For Me. I Admire People That Can Do That But I Can't Do It. I'd Rather Live My Life And Do A Bit Of Acting In Between.

Why Love, If Losing Hurts So Much? I Have No Answers Anymore: Only The Life I Have Lived... The Pain Now Is Part Of The Happiness Then.

I Am Able To Play Monsters Well. I Understand Monsters. I Understand Madmen.

I Just Wanted To Be A Composer; I Became An Actor By Default, Really. I Got A Scholarship To A College Of Music And Drama, Hoping To Take A Scholarship In Music. But I Ended Up As An Acting Student, So I've Stuck With That For The Last 50-odd Years.

Things Have Changed So Much Now. Everything Is Downloaded Onto Computers. I'm Not A Computer-savvy Guy, But With Downloading The Movie Industry Has Changed.

I Love Traveling. I Like To Keep Moving. I Love The Big Open Spaces In America.

I Don't Have A Vast Longing For The Stage.

And I Love A Scary Movie. It Makes Your Toes Curl And It's Not You Going Through It.

In The Theatre, People Talk. Talk, Talk Until The Cows Come Home About Journeys Of Discovery And About What Hazlitt Thought Of A Line Of Shakespeare. I Can't Stand It.

I Play Piano And That's My Love. I Read And I Paint And I Compose Music, So I've Got A Pretty Full Creative Life. And It's Not Because, I'm Obsessively Creative.

The Reward Is In The Doing Of It.

By Giving Up 'the Need' And 'the Want', Things Begin To Happen For You

I Think The First British Actor Who Really Worked Well In Cinema Was Albert Finney. He Was A Back-street Marlon Brando. He Brought A Great Wittiness And Power To The Screen. The Best Actor We've Had.

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