SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Forgive me, but as a child, you were known as Elephant Head?
ANTHONY HOPKINS: Yes, fondly by other schoolkids. I was a bit skinny, but my head was uncommonly large. And kids used to call me Elephant Head, but simply because they said that I had nothing much inside it.
SIMON: That's the man now better known as Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, the Academy, BAFTA, Primetime Emmy and Olivier Award-winning actor best known for his roles in "Where Do We Begin," "Silence Of The Lambs," "Remains Of The Day," "Thor," "The Father" and many more and all the great classics on stage. He's written a memoir of his life, which has been filled with high achievement and long dark passages. It's called "We Did OK, Kid." And Anthony Hopkins joins us from our studios in Culver City, California. Thank you so much for being with us.
HOPKINS: Pleasure. Thank you.
SIMON: What did your childhood feel like?
HOPKINS: Certainly had no problems. My parents worked hard to give me the best life they could. It - you know, it was hard work. My father was a baker. My childhood, in fact, was noneventful. But in school, I wasn't very smart. I wasn't bright at all. So I just withdrew into myself, and I just did my own thing. My father was worried. And I remember him saying - in Easter 1955, my school report arrived. He said, I don't know what's going to happen to you. You're hopeless. Terrible. And I said to him - it was Easter 1955. I said, one day, I will show you. I'll show both of you. I said, one day, I'll show you. He said, well, I hope you do. My mother said, I'm sure you will. And I remember he tore the report up and threw it on the empty fireplace. And something shifted at that moment. I was 17. Something shifted.
SIMON: In the book, I was left with the impression that something was set off in you as a schoolkid when you saw the film of Laurence Olivier's "Hamlet."
HOPKINS: Yes. I was - remember, in 1949, I was in - sent to this boarding school. And I remember the headmaster said Saturday night, we all had to be in the assembly hall, and there was a screen. And I think, ooh. We're going to watch a movie. It couldn't be. And he said, all right. We're going to see Mr. Olivier's "Hamlet." And I thought, oh goodness - "Hamlet," Shakespeare. The lights went out, and then the opening music of William Walton's music for "Hamlet" by Laurence Olivier.
(SOUNDBITE OF WILLIAM WALTON'S "MAIN TITLE (FROM HAMLET, 1948)")
HOPKINS: And it was so astounding, and it was a grand opening. And then they cut into the palace, and you see Olivier doing the one scene - but o, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAMLET")
LAURENCE OLIVIER: (As Hamlet) O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt.
HOPKINS: And something in me clicked. I remember thinking, that is what I want to do in my life. Twenty years later, the same actor employed me at the National Theatre.
SIMON: Laurence Olivier was then the director of the National Theatre.
HOPKINS: That's right, yes. He was directing the National then. But Olivier took an interest in me because he admired strength, physical strength, and I had that. I was a bit of a brawler. And so I was offered to understudy him in Strindberg's "Dance Of Death. And then he went into hospital. He - Olivier. And they phoned me up there. They said, well, you're on tonight. I thought, what? So I went on stage for him. And I went on the stage, and I had this confidence that came to me. And I don't know to this day. It was maybe from fear, but it certainly was there. And from then on, you know, it progressed through many years, and I've always been employed. I went through my ups and downs with - in my life, but I believe that something in my subconscious mind was preserving me.
SIMON: Yeah.
HOPKINS: Because then I went through the years of alcoholism. And I think in those days, when, you know, actors in Britain - I mean, that's where you met, was in the pub. And then the years passed by, and I realized I was getting in trouble.
SIMON: Doctor and nurse and - when you were in "Equus" on Broadway...
HOPKINS: That's right.
SIMON: ...Gave you a warning, right? Yeah.
HOPKINS: But I knew secretly that there was something not right till 1975. And I was driving my car here in Los Angeles, drunk, and I lost my car. And somebody said, no, you didn't lose it. We found you on the road with the lights on. And I realized I could have killed somebody in my car. And that was it. I said, I need help. And I made a phone call, the fatal phone call. And on the Monday morning, 29 of December 1975, some voice in my head said, it's all over. Now you can start living. And it's all been for a purpose, so don't forget one moment of it. Now go about your life. And that's why I called this book, "We Did OK, Kid."
SIMON: Yeah.
HOPKINS: And the book is really then addressed to my father, I think. I'm very moved about what he tried to do for me.
SIMON: And what did he try to do for you? 'Cause I got the impression he could be a hard man to impress.
HOPKINS: Well, that was good, too, because he was tough. So was his father, and so am I. Get on with it. That was his motto. Stop complaining. He'd been through the war years and all that, you know, and his father before him. Those guys had a big struggle to survive. So I don't mess about with, you know, touchy-feely stuff. I'm - I believe that if you're going to live, you've got to live. Make mistakes. Fall off the horse. Get back on the saddle and ride. And now at 88, I'm very aware of what a great power life is, and even greater is mortality.
SIMON: I feel the need to ask the guy who played Hannibal Lecter - how do you play a human monster?
HOPKINS: Oh, it's a simple trick. You play the opposite. Never do the obvious. Play somebody who's standing up straight in his socks. Good morning.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SILENCE OF THE LAMBS")
HOPKINS: (As Hannibal Lecter) Good morning.
Clarice Starling.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SILENCE OF THE LAMBS")
HOPKINS: (As Hannibal Lecter) May I see your credentials?
And it's the terror...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SILENCE OF THE LAMBS")
JODIE FOSTER: (As Clarice Starling) Certainly.
HOPKINS: ...Of somebody who's so rational, so sane, but inside has a monstrous mind.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SILENCE OF THE LAMBS")
HOPKINS: (As Hannibal Lecter) If I help you, Clarice, it will be turns with us, too. Quid pro quo. I tell you things, you tell me things. Not about this case, though - about yourself. Quid pro quo. Yes or no?
SIMON: I'm chilled.
(LAUGHTER)
HOPKINS: But I'm not like that. But we have access to all the dark stuff that's - because we are...
SIMON: Yeah.
HOPKINS: We try to make sense as we stumble along this broken highway of our lives.
SIMON: How are you feeling now?
HOPKINS: Wonderful. Just lucky to be alive. I wake up every morning thinking, I'm still here (laughter).
SIMON: I'll say. You have some poems at the end of this book and excerpts of poems.
HOPKINS: Oh, yeah.
SIMON: I'm thinking now of Eliot.
HOPKINS: Ah, yes. It's the end of "Alfred Prufrock." And this poem really reaches deep inside me, and I don't know why. Very much like...
SIMON: Yeah.
HOPKINS: ...The Olivier "Hamlet." And when my father was very ill, and I took him out for a drive. And we went down to the beach at Southerndown in - and he was tired. He was exhausted. He said, what's that poem you used to recall? I said, you - "Alfred Prufrock." He said, but what - yeah. What was that? And we were standing on the cliff edge - on the cliff, looking down at the bay. He said, can you say it to me? I said, yeah. All right. What do you want me - he said, that bit about getting old. So I said, OK. Well, here we go.
(Reading) I grow old. I grow old. I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers and walk upon the beach. I've heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me.
HOPKINS: That's all I can recite. It's too overpowering. I can't do any more than that.
SIMON: I think the fact that you did those lines - I will count it as a real blessing of my life. Thank you.
HOPKINS: I can't even do it because it kills me.
SIMON: Well, you've...
HOPKINS: But to be on a cheerful note, I'm a very lucky guy.
SIMON: Anthony Hopkins - his new memoir, "We Did OK, Kid."
HOPKINS: We did, indeed.
SIMON: You sure did. Thanks so much for being with us.
HOPKINS: Thank you, Scott. Thank you very much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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