Anthony Hopkins is a titan of the acting world who scares and delights audiences in equal measure. Although he is best known for playing villains, he is actually a gentle musician and painter in real life. Furthermore, his career has spanned decades, earning him the highest honors in the industry. Consequently, his personal journey offers as many surprises as his movie roles. Explore these fascinating details about the man behind the mask.
Anthony Hopkins
He won an Oscar for only sixteen minutes of screen time. In the movie The Silence of the Lambs, he appears on camera for a very short portion of the film. Nevertheless, his terrifying performance was so impactful that he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Surprisingly, Anthony Hopkins composed a waltz that became a global hit. He wrote the piece of music called “And The Waltz Goes On” when he was a young man, but he was too shy to release it. Eventually, he sent it to the famous violinist André Rieu, who performed it for a massive audience in Vienna.
He famously improvised the creepy hissing noise in The Silence of the Lambs. During the scene where he mentions eating liver and fava beans, he spontaneously made the slurping sound to disturb his co-star, Jodie Foster. Instantly, the director loved the unscripted moment and decided to keep it in the final cut.
Passionately, he wrote a fan letter to the cast of Breaking Bad. After he watched the entire series in two weeks, he felt compelled to email Bryan Cranston. Specifically, he told the actor that his performance as Walter White was the best acting he had ever seen.
Unfortunately, he struggled in school due to undiagnosed dyslexia. As a child, he felt isolated because he could not keep up with his classmates academically. Therefore, he turned to painting and playing the piano as a way to express his emotions.
Deliberately, he chose not to blink his eyes while playing Hannibal Lecter. He wanted the character to look reptilian and absolutely focused on his prey. Consequently, this intense, unblinking stare became one of the most iconic traits of the villain.
Anthony Hopkins is the oldest person to ever win a Best Actor Oscar. Recently, he took home the trophy for his role in The Father at the age of 83. Thus, he broke the previous age record held by the late Christopher Plummer.
Officially, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for his services to the arts. He received the high honor at Buckingham Palace in 1993. Hence, you can formally address him as Sir Anthony Hopkins.
Obsessively, he reads his script aloud over 200 times before filming begins. He believes in over-preparing so that the lines become a natural reflex for him. As a result, he can recite complex dialogue effortlessly while performing difficult actions.
Originally, he wanted to be a concert pianist rather than an actor. Although he eventually chose drama school, he never lost his love for the piano. Frequently, he posts videos on social media where he plays beautiful classical music in his home.
Late in life, doctors diagnosed him with Asperger’s Syndrome. Interestingly, he views this condition as an advantage for his acting career. He claims it helps him deconstruct characters and analyze their behavior more deeply than other actors.
He has been sober for nearly fifty years. Previously, he battled a severe addiction to alcohol that threatened to ruin his life and career. However, he quit drinking in 1975 and often speaks openly about his recovery to inspire others.
Creatively, he is an accomplished painter with his own art studio. He describes his painting style as wild and free, using bright colors and chaotic strokes. Furthermore, his original artwork is quite valuable and hangs in galleries around the world.
Adorably, he often plays the piano for his cat, Niblo. The actor posts heartwarming clips of himself holding the cat while he plays gentle melodies. In fact, these videos have made him a viral sensation on TikTok and Instagram.
Finally, Anthony Hopkins played Odin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He enjoyed the role of the Norse god because it required very little acting effort. Playfully, he joked that he just had to put on the beard and the armor to look commanding.
Sean Connery defined the role of the suave secret agent for a global audience. He was the first actor to utter the famous line, "Bond, James Bond." Furthermore, he built a diverse career that went far beyond the spy genre. Consequently, he won an Academy Award and became a knight of the realm. Explore these fascinating details about the original 007.
Sean Connery
Before he became an actor, he worked as a coffin polisher in Edinburgh. Surprisingly, this was just one of many manual labor jobs he held to make ends meet.
He entered the Mr. Universe bodybuilding contest in 1953. Although he did not win the main title, he placed third in the tall men’s division.
Sean Connery actually wore a toupee in every single James Bond movie he filmed. He started losing his hair at the young age of 21.
Ian Fleming originally hated the casting of Connery as Bond. The author thought the Scottish actor looked like an overgrown stuntman rather than a refined gentleman.
He turned down the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Unfortunately, he admitted that he did not understand the script, costing him roughly $450 million (€425 million).
He served in the Royal Navy for three years before being discharged. Doctors released him from service because he suffered from severe stomach ulcers.
Remarkably, he received a speeding ticket from a police officer named Sergeant James Bond. This ironic incident occurred in London while he was filming the spy movies.
Manchester United offered him a contract to play professional football. However, he declined the offer because he realized a sports career would be too short.
He had two small tattoos on his arm from his time in the Navy. One simply said “Mum and Dad,” and the other read “Scotland Forever.”
Sean Connery stood at a height of 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 meters). Therefore, he physically dominated the screen in a way few other actors of his time could.
He donated his entire salary from the movie Diamonds Are Forever to charity. He used the money to establish a trust fund for Scottish education.
People voted him the “Sexiest Man Alive” at the age of 59. Consequently, he proved that his charisma and appeal only increased as he got older.
He worked as a milkman in Edinburgh as a teenager. He delivered milk to the local residents with the help of a horse-drawn cart.
During the filming of Never Say Never Again, Steven Seagal broke Connery’s wrist. The martial arts star was teaching the actor choreography and accidentally used too much force.
Finally, he almost never changed his accent for any role. Whether playing a Russian submarine captain or an Irish cop, he always kept his signature Scottish burr.
Margot Robbie conquered Hollywood with a mix of incredible talent and fearless risk-taking. You likely know her as the living doll Barbie or the chaotic Harley Quinn. However, she is also a heavy metal fan who plays ice hockey. She once worked at Subway and keeps a stuffed bunny in her bed. Furthermore, she produced some of the biggest movies of the decade. Let’s explore the life of the Aussie icon.
Margot Robbie
Margot Robbie secured her breakout role in The Wolf of Wall Street by slapping Leonardo DiCaprio in the face. During her audition, she improvised the assault instead of kissing him as the script demanded. The risky move stunned the director, Martin Scorsese, and immediately won her the part.
She attended circus school as a child and earned a certificate in trapeze skills at age eight. This early acrobatic training proved useful years later when she performed her own stunts as Harley Quinn. Consequently, she looked completely natural swinging from bars in Suicide Squad.
She worked as a “sandwich artist” at Subway before she found fame in Hollywood. She claims she makes the ultimate sandwich because she perfected the ratios of meat and cheese during her shifts. Even today, she rarely eats at Subway because she critiques the assembly process too harshly.
She drank three shots of high-quality tequila right before filming her first nude scene. She felt incredibly nervous about appearing naked in the doorway for The Wolf of Wall Street. The liquid courage helped her step onto the set with the confidence of her character, Naomi.
Jared Leto sent her a live rat as a twisted gift during the filming of Suicide Squad. While most people would scream, she kept the rodent and named it Rat Rat. She fed it organic berries and treated it like a beloved pet to show she wasn’t afraid of her co-star.
She learned to hold her breath for five full minutes for a scene in Suicide Squad. Although a stunt double could have filmed the underwater car crash, she insisted on doing it herself. She trained with a free diver to lower her heart rate and master her oxygen use.
Margot Robbie is a massive fan of heavy metal music and bands like Slipknot. She attended their concert and realized that metal fans recognized her from the soap opera Neighbours more than any other demographic. Thus, the Hollywood starlet fits right in the middle of a mosh pit.
Margot Robbie bought a tattoo gun on eBay and started inking her friends and co-stars. She famously gave “SKWAD” tattoos to the cast and crew of Suicide Squad in her trailer. However, she retired from tattooing after she accidentally botched a tattoo on a friend’s back during a bachelorette party.
She lied to her optometrist to get glasses just so she could look like Harry Potter. Although she had perfect vision, she wanted to resemble the boy wizard so badly that she faked bad eyesight. She walked around with unnecessary prescription lenses just to live out her fandom.
She refused to lose weight for her role as Jane in The Legend of Tarzan. The producers suggested she diet to look slim, but she argued that a woman living in the 19th-century jungle would not look like a gym rat. Instead, she convinced them to let her eat pub food throughout the production.
She plays right wing in an amateur ice hockey league in Los Angeles. Despite growing up in tropical Australia, she always wanted to play the winter sport famously featured in The Mighty Ducks. She eventually got to showcase her skating skills professionally in the movie I, Tonya.
She founded her own production company, LuckyChap Entertainment, to champion female stories. She produced massive hits like Barbie and Promising Young Woman herself. Therefore, she controls her own career path rather than waiting for directors to call her.
She performed the viral “arched foot” scene in the Barbie movie without any CGI. She held onto a bar above the camera to keep her balance while slipping out of her heels. It took eight takes to get the perfect shot of her feet maintaining the doll-like arch.
Margot Robbie called the casting office of the soap opera Neighbours every single day until they hired her. She believed she deserved a chance despite having no agent and no real experience. Her persistence paid off when they finally invited her for an audition just to stop the phone calls.
She sleeps with a ragged stuffed bunny she has owned since birth. She calls the toy “Bunny” and refuses to sleep without it when she travels for work. Her husband, Tom Ackerley, accepts that he must share the bed with the tattered childhood toy.
