It has already become customary on social networks to see actor Anthony Hopkins (Oscar winner for his impressive role as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Innocents) dance salsa, take some good cumbia steps and recently enjoy the song La Pollera Colorá, but behind all that waste of energy distilled by the British there is a Colombian.
This is his wife Stella Arroyave, who left her native Popayán to seek a future in the United States. She wanted to dedicate herself to acting, but ended up giving herself over to other arts such as painting and a love of antiques. She set up a gallery in Malibu that Hopkins once came to. They met, fell in love and after a dating relationship of more than two years they got married in 2003.
“I was asking about an article when suddenly a very beautiful woman appeared and gave me a big hug. She was very spontaneous and I found her to be an interesting woman. Even though I had just gotten divorced, I didn’t want to be in a relationship again, but I asked for her phone number and we became friends. I called her several times to say hello and one day I decided to invite her to dinner,” the 84-year-old actor recalled in an interview with Bocas magazine.
You can read: Anthony Hopkins demonstrates his good rhythm dancing ‘La pollera colorá’
The actor acknowledges that the encounter with the Colombian changed his life. He left depression, alcohol and began to enjoy every day. Arroyave has accompanied him in that transformation and has even acted in her husband’s projects such as Slipstream or The Human Stain, the latter shortly after they met. As well as Elyse, a drama directed by Hopkins’ wife.
I asked for her phone number and we became friends. I called her several times to say hello and one day I decided to invite her to dinner.
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“He tells me all the time to stop worrying and live for the moment. She taught me to enjoy life. I was about to kill myself years ago because of alcohol, I was on the edge of the precipice but I took a step back and now I know that every day I live is a gift “, The Oscar winner has emphasized in several interviews when referring to his 66-year-old wife who also takes time to paint and be a film and television producer, that her taste and optimism have given her husband balance.
“I have tried to learn as much as I can about the Latino culture. She has tried to teach me to speak Spanish, but I’m really not good at languages. What Stella did achieve was to make me interested in painting. She found some years ago on one of my desks old scripted papers that had drawings and strokes painted on them, and she told me: ‘you have to keep doing this.’ She encouraged me to continue painting and polish my techniques. The same with music, she made me play the piano and start composing, “she revealed in the talk with Bocas.
More information at: Hopkins: from acting secrets to his life with a Colombian.
On a lower profile, Stella has also been essential to Hopkins’ social media performance, infusing him with that Caribbean spirit and a bit irreverent and bringing him closer to Colombia and to those who have followed his career as an actor.
“I am married to a woman who has an optimism that is proof of everything”, is another of his frequent phrases when he tries to describe the personality of his wife, who has also made him love arepas and, of course, Colombia.
CULTURE
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