by Juliette Morgan
The veteran actor Sir Anthony Hopkins, born in Wales in 1937, has thrilled a world-wide audience for over 50 years with his distinct style of acting that he has perfected as an art, gifting something special to each and every Anthony Hopkins movie. No Anthony Hopkins biography would be entire without mentioning his terrifically dedicated acting methods.
The well-versed actor Anthony Hopkins admits that script studying is his main strength in acting expertise, (despite being dyslexic). He reviews each script precisely 250 times. The illustrious actor believes 250 to be the magic number and once said "I save the acting for when the director says, Action". This is the method regularly employed by the classically RADA trained actor in all Anthony Hopkins movies, resolutely having the opinion that rehearsals are not completely necessary and much to the extra annoyance of directors, he isn't content to do retakes!
The legendary Sir Laurence Olivier acted as Hopkins' mentor, his acting career having commenced on the stage at the prestigious National Theatre which Olivier had asked Anthony Hopkins to join. There was much touring around the country and often Hopkins would find himself scratching around for work. At that time he began to take comfort in alcohol, an addiction to which he was to battle against for many years. Hopkins had always been a loner and the more well-known he became, the more he shunned the glare of publicity. After the stage, Anthony Hopkins movies were first TV films and dramas. Following the TV epic "War and Peace", in which he plays Pierre, Anthony Hopkins had become at this time well-known in the UK and his movie career began to take off in the States.
Anthony Hopkins the renowned actor immensely embraces roles where he can study a character well, enjoying the challenge he successfully rises to so often, as he did in "The Bunker" 1981, where he plays Adolph Hitler, during his demise and very last days before he was beaten. Hopkins' award-winning performance was so convincing, mostly in the final scenes of Hitler's ranting frenzy and madness - an initial affirmation in Hopkins' career of his aptitude to play the part of madmen and monsters skillfully.
However, it was not until 1991 when Anthony Hopkins finally won his Oscar for best actor, for his depiction of the ultimate cannibalistic monster Hannibal Lecter in "The Silence of The Lambs", the movie that sealed Anthony Hopkins' international fame and was the medium for a run of unforgettable Anthony Hopkins movies.
Hopkins played President Richard Nixon in the movie "Nixon" 1995, initially exasperated by director Oliver Stone's proposal of himself, a British actor playing an American President. Nonetheless, Hopkins gradually came round to embarking upon the character, while he knew it was taking a risk at this time when he was at the summit of his acting career, following his Oscar-winning performance in 1991. Anthony Hopkins spent over 50 hours looking at video footage of the, by then late, President in preparation for the movie "Nixon", perfecting his mannerisms and accent, embodying the soul of the man, as opposed to purely his physical appearance.
An Oscar nomination was forthcoming for Hopkins powerful performance in the lead, and along with with the spectacular photography and music score, the movie is a really enjoyable drama from beginning to end, being one of the all-time popular Anthony Hopkins movies.
Other Anthony Hopkins movies concerning the eminent actor's exceptional skill at character study include "Surviving Picasso" 1996, where Hopkins portrays the artist Pablo Picasso, playing out the monster in the over sexed, self-centred, controlling artist, and character study comes into play again - this time he even looks like Picasso, so the accomplishment is even more believable.
Several books of Anthony Hopkins biography have been written, one of the best being "A Three Act Life" by Michael Feeney Callan, detailing the actor's fascinating life from 1937 to present day.
About the Author:
Juliette Morgan writes for Anthony Hopkins Movies where you can read more of Sir Anthony Hopkins biography see photos, interview clips and get biography books.
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