Did Anthony Hopkins just pull a Joaquin Phoenix? The legendary actor and four-time Oscar nominee (who won Best Actor for "Silence Of The Lambs") is out on the stump for "Hitchcock," but he's making it plainly clear he's not a fan of having to charm all the various critics groups and voters as part of the awards season rush.
"You know, kissing the backside of the authorities that can make or break it; I can't stand all that. I find it nauseating to watch and I think it's disgusting to behold," Hopkins candidly told Huffington Post. "People groveling around and kissing the backsides of famous producers and all that. It makes me want to throw up, it really does. It's sick-making. I've seen it so many times. I saw it fairly recently, last year. Some great producer-mogul and everyone kisses this guy's backside. I think, 'What are they doing? Don't they have any self respect?' I wanted to say, 'Fuck off.' "
And we kind of see his point. Note, this is not Hopkins saying he hates awards, but rather the sort of insincere pandering and schmoozing that goes along with it, and we can understand how that woul be tough to endure and witness. But any kind of dissenting awards season word tends to raise eyebrows, so we'll see how he handles that line of questioning from here on out, but frankly, Hopkins is at the stage of his career where he doesn't really have to apologize to anybody.
More amusing, Hopkins also doesn't go for that whole staying-in-character-even-off-camera, Method acting stuff either. "Well, you can do it if you want, but I don't go along with being called 'Mr. Hitchcock.' I think that's a lot of crap. I just don't understand that. If actors want to do that, fine. If they want to be miserable, that's up to them. I'm not interested. It's a job. I do the job. I'm certainly not going to make my life miserable just to be a character," he explained.
"It's a pain in the ass. Who the hell wants to be with some miserable grump because he wants to get his performance right, so you have to call him this or call him that? It's so boring," he continued. "I've been with actors like that and they're a pain in the ass, they really are. They're unpleasant to work with and I don't think they're always that good either."
Fun fact: Anthony Hopkins and Daniel Day-Lewis both starred in 1984's "The Bounty." Take that for what it's worth. "Hitchcock" opens in limited release this weekend.
