“It is a great privilege to be an actor and still be alive”

Anthony Hopkins will turn 83 on December 31 at the foot of the canyon, showing an inexhaustible talent that grows with each new project. After masterfully incarnating Pope Benedict XVI in The two popes, by Fernando Meirelles, for which he was nominated for an Oscar this year as best supporting actor, his name rings out strongly among critics in the face of a second golden statuette -the first was achieved by The silence of the lambs-at the upcoming Hollywood Academy ceremony for his extraordinary performance as an old man trapped in senile dementia in The father, feature film debut by French playwright Florian Zeller, who adapts his own acclaimed 2012 play and transforms it into a film that excited the Sundance and Toronto festivals, won the Audience Award in San Sebastian and aims high for garner multiple nominations in awards season.

“Hello everyone. How is the situation of the pandemic in your countries?” asks from Los Angeles a dynamic and curious Hopkins in a telematic interview to The vanguard and other international media to promote the film, which opens in theaters this December 23. His appearance and his kind voice destroy his reputation for being surly with the press and they also have nothing to do with that other octogenarian Anthony with a strong character who begins to lose his memory and violently rejects each of the caregivers that his daughter Anne ( Olivia Colman) hires to help her in her daily routine. His character is that of a man who has always lived independently and now begins to doubt his family, his own mind and even his reality, complicating the relationship and the plans of his patient daughter to move to Paris and placing the The spectator himself in his dramatic situation thanks to a confusing puzzle that Zeller wisely constructs with changing characters and settings.

The ravages of disease

The actor plays Anthony, an octogenarian who begins to suffer from dementia and doubts his family, his own mind and even his reality

When Zeller wrote the script, he always had in mind the Oscar-winning actor who gave life to the fearsome Hannibal Lecter, that’s why they are called the same and even share the same date of birth on screen.

The protagonist of What remains of the day He acknowledges that he was “touched” when he read the script and decided to immediately meet with Zeller and co-writer Christopher Hampton. He enthusiastically accepted the role, but filming had to wait for his participation in The two popes . “Only very occasionally does it happen that they offer you a story that really grabs you. I feel like I’ve been very lucky these last few years with the work I’ve done on the show. Westworld, like Benedict XVI, or in King Lear with Emma Thomson, but the truth is that playing Anthony was very easy because he had an excellent script and director and I am the same age, I feel his melancholy and my brain is old enough to understand what he is going through. ”

Playing Anthony was very easy because I am the same age, I feel his melancholy and my brain is old enough to understand what he is going through

Anthony HopkinsActor

He also adds that it was fantastic “to get up in the morning, go to the studio, it was a small set, no need to rehearse. I just had to learn my lines and let myself go.”

Hopkins stresses that “being part of this story has been having the best time of my life.” Filming lasted very little, just four weeks. The British-American actor has only words of praise for an “extraordinary, kind and instinctive” director who trusted his actors and “knew what he wanted much better than other filmmakers I have worked with” and praises Colman’s work with superlatives. in the skin of his long-suffering daughter in fiction. “Olivia is the best, the frustration she transmits is heartbreaking. And it is that living with someone with that disease can drive you crazy.”

Hopkins does not play tennis, but he believes that their scenes together were something similar to playing a game in which each gave the best of himself. Colman nods from London. Mature Queen Elizabeth II from the hit series The Crown entered the project just after winning the Oscar for best actress for her Queen Anne of The favourite, thus helping to close the funding needed for this independently produced film. “I would have done my role for free,” says the British, who was Zeller’s main choice, enthusiastic about the humanity and empathy that the actress gives off.

I have three children, my parents are older, and dementia is a disease that worries me. Acting with Anthony has been a pleasure, he is an actor who makes things easy, real “

Olivia ColmanActress

“Many people have had to deal with dementia for generations. I have three children, my parents are older and it is a disease that worries me. Acting with Anthony has been a pleasure, he is an actor who makes things easy, real, so seeing him confused and sad in his role made me imagine my parents in such a situation, “he says. “Anne has been a beautiful character to create,” says the actress, who fell in love with the text as soon as it fell into her hands and still can’t quite believe it was Zeller’s first film. “There was an atmosphere of absolute trust on set and he put it all together simply. And it was wonderful going to shoot with Tony every day. I have admired him since I saw him on the show. Parkinson from the BBC and that’s why I wanted to dedicate myself to acting, but I doubted a lot because as there were no actors in my family I didn’t know if I could do it, “he admits with a slight smile.

I am the luckiest person in the world to be able to work in this profession for so many years. It’s the best life I could have ever dreamed of

Anthony HopkinsActor

A jovial Hopkins maintains that he feels fit and that, looking back at his life, “I marvel that I am still doing what I do. It is a great privilege to be an actor and still be alive. I am the luckiest person in the world to to be able to work in this profession for so many years. It is the best life I could have ever dreamed of. “

And do you follow any method to take care of a memory that has a good reputation? “I read a lot, I paint and play the piano every day, which is an excellent exercise for my brain and coordination. I also memorize scripts. It’s easy. My wife – Colombian Stella Arroyave, who has directed him in the psychological drama Elyse– he tells me: ‘You work very hard’, but for me acting is not working because I have fun. That keeps me alive. The process of acting is reacting, as Humphrey Bogart said. And that’s what I do. My motto is to make things easy, to go doing … I watch my cat, play with him, have a cup of tea and marvel at life. In life there is nothing to gain, nothing to lose, “he says.

Hopkins is not at all in favor of getting too entangled in his characters or of doing preliminary tests “because the essence is lost.” Simply, “I follow the script, I relax and I enjoy.” And that is what this man capable of achieving the most demanding interpretation from the most absolute simplicity intends to do the rest of his life.

I read a lot, paint, memorize scripts and play the piano every day, which is an excellent exercise for the brain and coordination

Anthony Hopkins

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