What destined this young boy from Wales to become the incarnation of absolute evil when he took on the role of cinema’s most notorious serial killer? How do you get from the bricks of Port Talbot, a deprived industrial town, to the palm trees of Hollywood, California? This is what we will try to understand in this documentary telling the lesser-known story of a well-known actor: Anthony Hopkins, after a career spanning over 60 years and his involvement in more than 300 movies.

If his performance as Hannibal Lecter changed his life, it is his extraordinary life that would make him the most ‘British’ actor in Hollywood.

That is the man we will follow through the stories of everyone that has known him well and worked with him, from Jodie Foster to Oliver Stone and Brad Pitt, in order to get a clearer understanding of this Welshman who went on to have such a prestigious transatlantic career. This ambivalent man of dual nature whose dark side seems to have shaped him, for ever.

All the film extracts featured will aim at getting a better understanding of Hopkins. Nixon, Hannibal Lecter, the butler from The Remains of the Day, Hitchcock… all the roles played by Hopkins reflect a facet of his personality.

Hopkins’ career has spanned several decades, which is why we will also use many interviews that he gave throughout his life, allowing us to put him back into the context of each period and will be helpful in understanding his role in the history of cinema, because he was far from following the trends. He never belonged to any film movement; he is a chameleon that has always preferred natural acting, ‘non-acting’ when method acting was the fashion. 

Clara Kuperberg, Julia Kuperberg