Few would argue about the fact that Anthony Hopkins created one of the greatest villains in movie history with Hannibal Lecter. But since reprising that indelible role in the sequel Hannibal and the prequel Red Dragon, many have felt that Hopkins hasnt stretched himself. All that will change when people see his portrayal of Burt Munro in The World's Fastest Indian. Already a New Zealand legend, in 1967 Munro set off to test his bike at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. With all odds against him, he set a new speed record even today his world record remains unbroken.
Check out the official website for The World's Fastest Indian
Daniel Robert Epstein: How did you get involved with The Worlds Fastest Indian?
Anthony Hopkins: Roger Donaldson sent me the DVD of the documentary he did on Burt and the screenplay he wrote. I watched the documentary and thought that it was very good and I read the script the next day. Then I called him up and said that I'd like to do it.
DRE: After all these years how do you play such a wide eyed and innocent character?
AH: I'm just an actor. It's no big deal. It's like me when I came to America. I'm pretty wide eyed. I'm always taken by surprise with things and that's how I've treated my whole life. I'm always in a state of surprise. I moseyed onto this train called show business many years ago and I'm still going. Ive had a great time.
DRE: Back when you worked with Roger on The Bounty [released in 1984] the two of you used to scream at one another and argue. Have you both just mellowed?
AH: Yeah, we met again about three or four years ago at a party and we'd both mellowed out a bit. A lot of water had passed under the bridge and I thought we'd work together again and then this came up. As you get older you get more sensible and get a bit of perspective on things. I'd figured out some years ago that the director is in charge of the movie. That doesn't mean to say that every director is good or that every actor is good but the director is the boss. I remember on the first day that we were filming Worlds Fastest Indian we ended up doing 15 takes for a few scenes. Roger is a perfectionist and since that was the program I thought I'd just go along with it.
DRE: Roger seems like a true journeyman.
AH: Roger is like Burt. He has got a passion for motorbikes, cars, speed and has a lot of physical courage. He's been up Mount Everest and been around the Matterhorn. He's an adventurer and his work is like that. When you're on the set with him he's always got Steadicams, he's improvising and moving fast. I'm more of a Clint Eastwood type guy. If a shot looks good enough I'm like, That's good enough. Sean Penn was telling me about Clint Eastwood because Clint goes, Did you get the shot? Was it in focus? Good. Lets move on. I love that. But I like Roger too.
DRE: Do you regret the way you once acted?
AH: No, I don't regret. That's the way that it was then and when you're younger you have a lot of ideas and you're probably more insecure. I work with young actors now and I see their insecurities and I make them laugh because I know exactly what they're going through. As you get older you think, It's only a movie after all. It's not brain surgery.
DRE: Burt feels like his whole life has led to competing at Bonneville Salt Flats. Have you had a moment like that in your life?
AH: I felt like that when I came to New York 30 odd years ago. I remember getting up in the morning at The Algonquin Hotel on September 13th, 1974 and I went out to get a newspaper on Fifth Avenue and I thought, I'm home.
But I remember doing that scene where Burt arrives at Bonneville and I got quite emotional about it because it was similar to my own life.
DRE: How important is it to be accurate portrayal of a real person?
AH: I played Richard Nixon and I can never become accurate as Nixon because I don't look anything like him and I don't look anything like the real Burt Munro. Rich Little came to the set of Nixon because he does a great Nixon. I resisted doing Rich Little because if you do that you become a mimic. If you strive to get it absolutely accurate then it's not a performance. It's a mask. You might as well wear a funny little Richard Nixon head or a little Munro mask. That's not what acting is about so you just airbrush it in there. On set Roger would say, Anthony, you've lost it a little bit this morning. Lets watch those sounds. But the New Zealand accent was easier for me because Burt sounds a little bit Irish.
DRE: Which role was the most difficult for you?
AH: Nixon because for me to play an American President is a bit of a stretch of the imagination. Oliver Stone is an amazing director who put the pressure on me. I didn't want to do it and I turned it down. But then he came to meet with me in London and said Chicken, huh? I had a moment of clarity and I thought, I can stay in Britain and play nice boring, safe parts on the BBC or I can work with this crazy director in America and maybe fall on my backside or make a success of it. So I thought I would take the risk. When we started rehearsing and I realized that I was in the hands of a great director. He puts a lot of pressure on you and you get to a point where you either crack or you get it and he was relentless until I got it.
DRE: How has your approach to acting changed over the years?
AH: I've always had the same method over the years, which is to learn the lines and then I go through the text over and over. If I do that a number of times I get a rhythm in my head and then it just clicks. Then certain rhythms of speech will take me into another area and I'll begin to feel like someone else. I'm not schizophrenic or anything, but it's just another rhythm of my own self.
DRE: Do you still play music?
AH: Ive always played the piano and I wanted to be a musician. I wanted to write music but I never had the technique or the understanding of it. I can improvise on the piano but the problem is that I can't write down what I do. My wife Stella heard me playing and said, That's beautiful. Why don't you get some help? So I phoned up a composer she knew. I went to his studio and he gave me the freedom to use this synthesizer keyboard. Eventually I composed a big piece called Margam and it is being performed in May by San Antonio's Symphony Orchestra.
My wife has also gotten me to do some paintings as well so we're combining an art exhibition and this symphony. I did these little beautiful felt pen drawings of landscapes. I'm not saying that I'm Picasso or anything, but I do enjoy the freedom of free expression without knowing anything about it.
DRE: I read that now that you are happy you no longer want to play villains or psychotics.
AH: Yes but my next film is with Ryan Gosling and I play a man who kills his own wife because she's having an affair. But it's not Hannibal Lecter even though this man is a little strange. The cop who arrests him is the man she's been seeing and it's a revenge thing.
DRE: I read youre narrating the Young Hannibal film.
AH: No Im not. Thats a complete rumor.
DRE: Do the Hannibal films ever feel like a yoke around the neck?
AH: More like a birthmark. People always want me to do the fava bean speech all the time. One time someone asked me to do it and I just [mimics falling asleep].
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official website for The World's Fastest Indian
Daniel Robert Epstein: How did you get involved with The Worlds Fastest Indian?
Anthony Hopkins: Roger Donaldson sent me the DVD of the documentary he did on Burt and the screenplay he wrote. I watched the documentary and thought that it was very good and I read the script the next day. Then I called him up and said that I'd like to do it.
DRE: After all these years how do you play such a wide eyed and innocent character?
AH: I'm just an actor. It's no big deal. It's like me when I came to America. I'm pretty wide eyed. I'm always taken by surprise with things and that's how I've treated my whole life. I'm always in a state of surprise. I moseyed onto this train called show business many years ago and I'm still going. Ive had a great time.
DRE: Back when you worked with Roger on The Bounty [released in 1984] the two of you used to scream at one another and argue. Have you both just mellowed?
AH: Yeah, we met again about three or four years ago at a party and we'd both mellowed out a bit. A lot of water had passed under the bridge and I thought we'd work together again and then this came up. As you get older you get more sensible and get a bit of perspective on things. I'd figured out some years ago that the director is in charge of the movie. That doesn't mean to say that every director is good or that every actor is good but the director is the boss. I remember on the first day that we were filming Worlds Fastest Indian we ended up doing 15 takes for a few scenes. Roger is a perfectionist and since that was the program I thought I'd just go along with it.
DRE: Roger seems like a true journeyman.
AH: Roger is like Burt. He has got a passion for motorbikes, cars, speed and has a lot of physical courage. He's been up Mount Everest and been around the Matterhorn. He's an adventurer and his work is like that. When you're on the set with him he's always got Steadicams, he's improvising and moving fast. I'm more of a Clint Eastwood type guy. If a shot looks good enough I'm like, That's good enough. Sean Penn was telling me about Clint Eastwood because Clint goes, Did you get the shot? Was it in focus? Good. Lets move on. I love that. But I like Roger too.
DRE: Do you regret the way you once acted?
AH: No, I don't regret. That's the way that it was then and when you're younger you have a lot of ideas and you're probably more insecure. I work with young actors now and I see their insecurities and I make them laugh because I know exactly what they're going through. As you get older you think, It's only a movie after all. It's not brain surgery.
DRE: Burt feels like his whole life has led to competing at Bonneville Salt Flats. Have you had a moment like that in your life?
AH: I felt like that when I came to New York 30 odd years ago. I remember getting up in the morning at The Algonquin Hotel on September 13th, 1974 and I went out to get a newspaper on Fifth Avenue and I thought, I'm home.
But I remember doing that scene where Burt arrives at Bonneville and I got quite emotional about it because it was similar to my own life.
DRE: How important is it to be accurate portrayal of a real person?
AH: I played Richard Nixon and I can never become accurate as Nixon because I don't look anything like him and I don't look anything like the real Burt Munro. Rich Little came to the set of Nixon because he does a great Nixon. I resisted doing Rich Little because if you do that you become a mimic. If you strive to get it absolutely accurate then it's not a performance. It's a mask. You might as well wear a funny little Richard Nixon head or a little Munro mask. That's not what acting is about so you just airbrush it in there. On set Roger would say, Anthony, you've lost it a little bit this morning. Lets watch those sounds. But the New Zealand accent was easier for me because Burt sounds a little bit Irish.
DRE: Which role was the most difficult for you?
AH: Nixon because for me to play an American President is a bit of a stretch of the imagination. Oliver Stone is an amazing director who put the pressure on me. I didn't want to do it and I turned it down. But then he came to meet with me in London and said Chicken, huh? I had a moment of clarity and I thought, I can stay in Britain and play nice boring, safe parts on the BBC or I can work with this crazy director in America and maybe fall on my backside or make a success of it. So I thought I would take the risk. When we started rehearsing and I realized that I was in the hands of a great director. He puts a lot of pressure on you and you get to a point where you either crack or you get it and he was relentless until I got it.
DRE: How has your approach to acting changed over the years?
AH: I've always had the same method over the years, which is to learn the lines and then I go through the text over and over. If I do that a number of times I get a rhythm in my head and then it just clicks. Then certain rhythms of speech will take me into another area and I'll begin to feel like someone else. I'm not schizophrenic or anything, but it's just another rhythm of my own self.
DRE: Do you still play music?
AH: Ive always played the piano and I wanted to be a musician. I wanted to write music but I never had the technique or the understanding of it. I can improvise on the piano but the problem is that I can't write down what I do. My wife Stella heard me playing and said, That's beautiful. Why don't you get some help? So I phoned up a composer she knew. I went to his studio and he gave me the freedom to use this synthesizer keyboard. Eventually I composed a big piece called Margam and it is being performed in May by San Antonio's Symphony Orchestra.
My wife has also gotten me to do some paintings as well so we're combining an art exhibition and this symphony. I did these little beautiful felt pen drawings of landscapes. I'm not saying that I'm Picasso or anything, but I do enjoy the freedom of free expression without knowing anything about it.
DRE: I read that now that you are happy you no longer want to play villains or psychotics.
AH: Yes but my next film is with Ryan Gosling and I play a man who kills his own wife because she's having an affair. But it's not Hannibal Lecter even though this man is a little strange. The cop who arrests him is the man she's been seeing and it's a revenge thing.
DRE: I read youre narrating the Young Hannibal film.
AH: No Im not. Thats a complete rumor.
DRE: Do the Hannibal films ever feel like a yoke around the neck?
AH: More like a birthmark. People always want me to do the fava bean speech all the time. One time someone asked me to do it and I just [mimics falling asleep].
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 11 of 11 COMMENTS
joshgeyer:
Worlds Fastest Indian is an amazing movie.
cowpunk3rd:
A class act. Both of them actually... AH and DRE.