Being an actor is peculiar business: Anthony Hopkins

Veteran actor still doesn’t know how he picks roles

LOS ANGELES: According to Anthony Hopkins, who is known for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, being an actor is a very peculiar business. The legendary British actor is back on the small screen with Jonathan Nolan’s Westworld wherein he plays the role of the enigmatic doctor Robert Ford, who has both a fascination and a casual disregard for the creature he has brought to life.

When asked what attracted him to the project, Hopkins said he had no idea. “Well, my agent phoned me one day and said, ‘Would you like to be in Westworld?’ I asked her, ‘What, the old movie?’ and she said, ‘It’s HBO’,” he said, in a recent statement. “I hadn’t done television in years! They sent me the script and I said, ‘Play Doctor Ford? It’s all very complicated.’ I agreed to do it … this was back in 2014,” Hopkins added.

The Meet Joe Black star went on to reveal how he responds every time someone asks him why he chose to become an actor. “When people ask me, you know at these interviews – and I’ve done so many of them over the years – why I became an actor, I’d just say, ‘Well, it beats working doesn’t it?’,” said Hopkins.

“They say, ‘Why did you take this part?’ Well, nobody else will do it. It baffles them because they wanted me to give a controlled answer like, ‘Well, I did it because of the arc of the part and the narrative’,” added the 78-year-old. “But I said, ‘I have no idea.’ And it’s not a pose … I mean it! It’s a very peculiar business, being an actor.”

The Oscar-winner also said he is not cynical but he just does not have any opinions about anything anymore. “Maybe that’s just ignorance, but I don’t care,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2016.

Like Life & Style on Facebook, follow @ETLifeandStyle on Twitter for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.