In so many of Anthony Hopkins’s greatest performances, he’s able to suggest captivating hidden depths to his characters. The spaces between what they know, what the audience knows and what those characters are willing to express are where the magic of his art lies. That holds true whether he’s playing a manipulative monster, as in his trio of Hannibal Lecter movies, or an emotionally timid butler, as in the heartbreaking “The Remains of the Day,” my favorite of his films. These men are thinking and feeling things that, for manifold reasons, they’re keeping to themselves.
The same can no longer be said for Hopkins. In his new memoir, “We Did OK, Kid,” which will be published on Nov. 4, the 87-year-old shares the details of his rough school days in Wales, his seemingly miraculous victory over his drinking problem, his painful estrangement from his only child and his slow and steady rise to Hollywood success.
The book also reveals a somewhat reticent and solitary man, but one who isn’t content to merely recount the events of his years, the what happened and when. He has given great thought to the big questions — the why of it all, and what it all means. And yet, even at this late stage, Hopkins remains beautifully mystified by the sheer luck and improbability of the dream he calls life.
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart
We all have turning points in our lives, but you have such a specific one — a moment that changed everything for you. Can you tell me about what happened on Dec. 29, 1975, at 11 o’clock? I’m always slightly reluctant to talk about it because I don’t want to sound preachy. But I was drunk and driving my car here in California in a blackout, no clue where I was going, when I realized that I could have killed somebody — or myself, which I didn’t care about — and I realized that I was an alcoholic. I came to my senses and said to an ex-agent of mine at this party in Beverly Hills, “I need help.” It was 11 o’clock precisely — I looked at my watch — and this is the spooky part: Some deep powerful thought or voice spoke to me from inside and said: “It’s all over. Now you can start living. And it has all been for a purpose, so don’t forget one moment of it.”
It was just a voice from the blue? From deep inside me. But it was vocal, male, reasonable, like a radio voice. The craving to drink was taken from me, or left. Now I don’t have any theories except divinity or that power that we all possess inside us that creates us from birth, life force, whatever it is. It’s a consciousness, I believe. That’s all I know. Shall I give you another epiphany?
The post Anthony Hopkins on Quitting Drinking and Finding God appeared first on New York Times.
