In an exclusive interview in the latest CINESCAPE magazine, Anthony Hopkins expresses his thoughts on playing one of cinema's most infamous villains, Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, for the last time in October's RED DRAGON.
DRAGON is the third time Hopkins has fleshed out the not-so-good doctor, and it is a prequel film to SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
"I don't inhabit the characters I play otherwise you'd go nuts," Hopkins told us. "I'm just an actor. Just a jobbing actor, a journeyman actor. That's all I do."
He also talked about the process of coming to DRAGON, and how his take on Lecter differs from the two previous installments.
"I didn't want to repeat SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and I didn't want to repeat HANNIBAL," Hopkins said. "I said, 'This has to be a good script,' and [RED DRAGON] was a first-rate script by Ted Tally, who wrote the original SILENCE OF THE LAMBS [screenplay]... I met with Brett Ratner in New York and I said, 'Well, I just want to play him differently. I don't want to play him like we did in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.' This is a man who is so enraged about being locked away by the Ed Norton character if I could get out, I'd destroy him. I wanted to play him as a man who isn't to be messed about with. No charm, just lethal. Brett [and I] worked together and he helped me get there with that."
Finally, he confirmed there would be no more appearances in the future by his Lecter on screen.
"I've done it now," Hopkins said simply. "I enjoyed playing it, and the last one was a good experience, working with Brett Ratner and Ed Norton. And that's it. I won't do any more. Three is enough."
For the full interview, and our extensive RED DRAGON coverage, pick up a copy of the latest CINESCAPE magazine, now on newsstands.
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