Movie News

Hopkins: "Hannibal saved my life"

Thu 31 May 1:20 PM

Sir Anthony Hopkins says his most famous film role, as Hannibal Lector, saved him from a terrible fate.

The Oscar-winning actor will offend thespians the world over by claims that if it hadn't been for his role in 1991 thriller The Silence Of The Lambs he would have been 'trapped in theatres acting out Shakespeare for the rest of his life'.

Speaking to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Hopkins credited the film and its director Jonathan Demme with "saving my life".

He added that consequent roles wouldn't have been big enough to cement a career in Hollywood, saying: "none was successful enough to rescue me from the theatre. I was trapped.

"You see, I'm a philistine at heart. The idea of spending the rest of my life on the boards doing Shakespeare was enough to make me cut my throat."