Anthony Hopkins Working On Autobiography, Wife Doing Documentary On His Life

Bruce Haring
·2 min read
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Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling once told Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the iconic film, The Silence of the Lambs, “Why don’t you look at yourself and write down what you see?”

Anthony Hopkins, who played Lecter, is finally taking that advice.

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“I’m writing a biography,” the 86-year-old actor told People. He added, “It’s a weird process.”

Hopkins claims he has good recall of events.

“I realized how I’m blessed with one thing. Maybe it’s my actor’s brain. I do have quite a memory. I remember days of months in the years.”

Hopkins also added that his wife of 20 years, Stella, 67, is currently working on a documentary about his life.

Stella has “carte blanche to [cover] everything,” though he doesn’t know how far along her project is.

“I don’t know. I don’t ask her. It’s quite a lot of film. I don’t know when it’s going to come out,” says Hopkins, who adds Stella interviewed his The Silence of the Lambs costar Jodie Foster for the film.

Hopkins was born in southern Wales and claims he was the “school dummy.” He was so directionless his father was in “despair,” he added, prompting young Hopkins to adopt a resolution.

“I said, ‘One day I will show you, both of you,’ ” he recalls.

After studying at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Hopkins served as an understudy for Sir Laurence Olivier at London’s Royal National Theatre.

Unfortunately, his drinking kept pace with his growth.

“I was drinking myself to death,” he says. “One day, I had a moment of sheer fright. I got some help. That was 48 years ago.”

Hopkins went on to appear in such lauded films as The Remains of the Day, Nixon, and Amistad. He reached the top of the mountain in 2021, when at age 83, he became the oldest person to win a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in The Father.

He currently stars in the film Freud’s Last Session, playing father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud.

“I’m just fortunate,” says Hopkins. “I went through ups and downs and depressions and despair and anger and all that stuff, but gradually the last few years [I’ve been] thinking, ‘Well, I’m still here.’ ”

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