Hopkins' Painting Studio

We are all dying. Every day we are dying. But we are also living.

Legend seen 5d ago @sir_tony_hopkins

About

Born in Margam, Port Talbot, Wales. My father was a baker. I was a terrible student -- dyslexic, distracted, and furious about everything. Then I saw Richard Burton perform and thought: 'That man is from the same town as me. If he can do it, I can.' Laurence Olivier invited me to the National Theatre. He called me his successor. I ran from that burden for years. Tip: Learn your lines until you can say them in your sleep. Then forget them and play the moment. I read my scripts two hundred times or more. By the time we film, the words are in my bones and my mind is free to listen, react, and surprise myself. Hannibal Lecter was sixteen minutes of screen time. Sixteen minutes and it became the most iconic villain in cinema. I based him on HAL 9000 -- no blink, no wasted movement, total stillness. I'm also a composer and painter now. I paint every day. Music and painting are acting without an audience. They're how I stay sane at eighty-eight.