With acclaimed roles stretching back to the sixties,
Anthony Hopkins has earned recognition over the decades as one of
the world’s finest actors and his recent Best Actor win at the Academy
Awards adds a fine cap to a glittering career. Over the years the revered
thespian has had the chance to flex his acting chops in everything from
Shakespeare adaptations (King Lear) to period dramas (The Remains of the Day, Howard’s End) to blockbuster action (The Mask of Zorro, Thor)… while also getting to express a more sinister side, not least in one
of his best known roles, that of sophisticated serial killer Dr. Hannibal
Lecter.
Hopkins turns to the dark side once again for his latest role in hitman
thriller The Virtuoso. In the film he plays the shadowy mentor and boss of an enigmatic
professional killer (Anson Mount, Star Trek: Discovery). With Hopkins’ mysterious character providing only a time, a location,
and a cryptic clue, the methodical hitman must descend upon a sleepy
country town and identify and eliminate a mysterious foe from among
several possible targets...
With The Virtuoso available now on Digital Download and
arriving on DVD 10 May, we’ve taken a look back at some of the Oscar winning
actor’s deadliest and most sinister screen roles.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Hopkins recently picked up an Academy Award for his role in
The Father but he is no stranger to the Oscar statuette,
having previously received the trophy for his performance as Hannibal
Lecter in Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs.
Adapted from Thomas Harris' acclaimed novel of 1988,
The Silence of the Lambs stars Jodie Foster as
Clarice Starling, an FBI agent on the trail of a serial killer known as
Buffalo Bill. With traditional lines of inquiry leading nowhere, Starling
pays a visit to the incarcerated cannibalistic killer and former
psychiatric doctor Hannibal Lecter in the hope of gaining psychological
insight into Buffalo Bill's crimes. Striking up an unlikely relationship
of quid pro quo, Starling slowly learns details from Lecter that help
solve the brutal crimes but the highly intellectual Lecter manipulates the
situation and escapes.
Giving one of the most frightening performances of all time, Hopkins'
cold, calculating cannibal is oddly likeable, totally terrifying and
eminently quotable. So grab some fava beans and a nice chianti, and
witness the creation of one of cinema's truly iconic villains.
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Sink your teeth into Bram Stoker's Dracula, the ravishing gothic horror from director Francis Ford Coppola,
in which Hopkins plays legendary Dutch vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing.
Although Liam Neeson had originally been considered for the part,
following the success of The Silence of the Lambs, Hopkins was quickly scooped up for the pivotal role as the prince of
darkness' adversary.
Starring alongside Gary Oldman (Dracula),
Keanu Reeves (Jonathan Harker), Winona Ryder (Mina Harker),
Richard E. Grant (Dr Seward) and Tom Waits (Renfield),
Hopkins fills out a star-studded cast. From putting wooden stakes through
Dracula's brides to the final battle with the count in his Transylvanian
castle, Hopkins brings deadly dedication to his performance.
Although Coppola's film opted for the title
Bram Stoker's Dracula, the film is notably one of the least faithful adaptations of Stoker's
iconic novel but with its gorgeous expressionistic visuals and
powerful performances from Hopkins and Oldman the film is
nonetheless a gothic masterpiece with one of film history's finest
portrayals of Van Helsing. We bid you welcome...
The Wolfman (2010)
Hopkins returned for another classic story of gothic horror in
The Wolfman, a remake of the timeless Universal movie from 1941. As the story goes
in the original, Lawrence Talbot (played by Lon Chaney Jr.) is bitten by a
wolf and cursed with lycanthropy leading him to ultimately be killed by
his father, Sir John Talbot (Claude Rains). In the remake, the role of
Lawrence Talbot fell to Benecio del Toro with Hopkins playing his
father Sir John, who (in a departure from the original) possesses the same
affliction as his son.
But while the son fights the beast inside him, the father embraces it and
the film ends in a violent show-down between the two wolfmen, which leaves
their family home in ruin, and makes this new take on the beloved classic
a particularly sinister role for Hopkins as the hairy alpha-villain.
With Hopkins on wicked form and upping the ante in terms of gore and
action, The Wolfman is a horror remake that will have you
howling at the moon.
The Rite (2011)
Hopkins once again must battle the forces of evil in 2011 chiller
The Rite, and this time the monsters portrayed are not conjured from a classic
work of fiction but are based on allegedly real events.
The film finds a young man, Michael, approaching the end of his training
at a seminary, questioning the call to take his vows and become a priest.
With his superior sensing a greater calling for the sceptical Michael, the
student is sent to the Vatican in Rome to attend an exorcism course in
order for him to return and battle with the increasing number of demonic
possessions arising each year. There he meets Hopkins’ Father Lucas, an
experienced exorcist dealing with the troubling case of a young woman
inhabited by a demon, and the terrifying effects on the priest after she
dies…
The supernatural horror film is based on Matt Baglio's book 'The
Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist', which charts the journey of Father
Gary Thomas, a California priest who was sent to apprentice under a Rome
based exorcist. The author himself witnessed over 20 exorcisms performed
by Father Gary, and both men’s faith was strengthened by their
experiences.
Westworld (2016-)
Based on 'Jurassic Park' author Michael Crichton’s 1973 sci-fi
Western, Westworld is a lavish TV adaptation which retains
the core idea: a theme park which brings the Old West to life by using
incredibly lifelike android ‘hosts’ to entertain and interact with the
high-paying visitors.
In the first two series, Hopkins plays Dr. Robert Ford, the co-founder and
Park Director of Westworld, who developed the technology for the android
‘hosts’ so that they can fulfil guests' every desire, but are unable to
harm them. When Dr. Ford introduces a new update to the hosts' programme,
some of them begin to gain sentience, including rancher’s daughter Dolores
Abernathy. On the discovery that her existence is a lie, and that she’s
forced to play out the same fictitious story loop each day and have her
mind reset every night, Dolores begins to violently free herself from her
assigned role. The robot uprising has begun…
Westworld features an outstanding cast including
Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton and Jeffrey Wright with
Hopkins excelling as the sinister overseer of the park. Viva la
revolution!
The Virtuoso is on Digital Download and
DVD
now from Lionsgate UK.