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Sir Anthony Hopkins 'mistaken for homeless man' while making King Lear for BBC

Sir Anthony Hopkins (Credit: PA)
Sir Anthony Hopkins (Credit: PA)

Sir Anthony Hopkins was mistaken for a homeless man while filming the new adaptation of King Lear for the BBC.

Director Richard Eyre is behind the modern production of Shakespeare’s text, which filmed partly on location in Stevenage, and found Hopkins as Lear having lost his mind and pushing around his belongings in a trolley.

Eyre said at a screening of the film (via Digital Spy): “When we were filming there, a woman in a mobility scooter rode up to Tony, and said, ‘You know, there’s a hostel up the road… so you might want to take your shopping trolley down there’.”

Props to the wardrobe department, then.

This version of Lear, which filmed last October, is set in a dystopian modern day version of Britain, under a totalitarian military dictatorship.

The production boasts an all-star cast, with Emma Thompson playing Lear’s eldest daughter Goneril, Emily Watson as Regan, and Florence Pugh as Cordelia.

There are also roles for Jim Broadbent, Andrew Scott, Jim Carter, Christopher Eccleston and Tobias Menzies.

Spectre star Scott said of working with Hopkins: “What I found so extraordinary about him was how ferocious he is about being an actor. He’d come in every day and you’d say, ‘How did you sleep?’ and he’d say, ‘F**k sleep, I didn’t sleep!’”

He added: “People sometimes think, ‘Shakespeare’s not really for me, because I don’t understand that particular word’, and that doesn’t matter in any way.

“I had the privilege of working on this, but there’s still certain parts where I don’t fully understand the words but I understand the feeling… and by the end of it you have a sense.

“I hate the idea that this kind of drama is only for a select few… that’s not the way it should be.”

It will be broadcast later this spring.

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