Hopkins, Anthony (The Wolfman)
Steve Barton
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In a continuation of our coverage of The Wolfman (see our interview with star Benicio Del Toro here), Dread Central sat down with co-star Anthony Hopkins this past Saturday in Beverly Hills, CA, for the film’s press junket and chatted with him regarding his role in the flick (which opens this Friday, February 12th, via Universal Pictures/Relativity Media).
Direct, witty, and precise, the prolific British actor chatted about his The Wolfman character of Sir John Talbot and his on-screen relationship with his estranged son, the tortured Lawrence Talbot (portrayed in the remake by Del Toro).
“Sir John is eccentric and ice cold,” said the 72-year-old Hopkins, whose sureness of character seemed to trip up a few journalists in attendance. “There’s a harsh, brutal business of being a father and a son. Most men know about that – the pain of that. The ‘wound’ they call it.”
“In this case, my own father was a tough man,” Hopkins expounded of what helped him inform his role. “He was a pretty red hot guy, but he was also cold. I learned from that, and I liked that coldness because it was harsh, and he taught me to be tough. So I know how to be tough. I know how to be strong. I know how to be ruthless. It is part of my nature. I wouldn’t be an actor if I wasn’t. You have to be certain of what you want. So I use all of that as an actor.”
As for additional back-story that Hopkins created in fleshing out Sir John, the actor – who interestingly professed his love for Charles Barton’s 1948 Universal monster-mash Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein – stated, “He’s been all over the world. He’s like the Walter Huston character in [the 1948 John Huston film] Treasure of the Sierra Madre. He’s been everywhere: Australia, New Zealand, he’s fought in the waterfronts of Boston and San Francisco as a pugilist. He’s a man scarred by that. He’s a killer. He’s a tough man. Like the great pioneers that settled the West. I wanted to build a raucous, vicious man who has survived by sheer will and muscle. My grandfather was like that – a muscle of a man, so I based some of the character on my grandfather as well.”
Stay tuned to Dread Central in the coming days for conversations with The Wolfman director Joe Johnston and FX man Rick Baker as well as coverage from tonight’s red carpet premiere of The Wolfman in Hollywood, CA.
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Categorized:Interviews
