Anthony Hopkins Opens up About His Toughest Role Saying Why the Hell Did They Cast Me

British actors have a long and storied tradition of crossing the Atlantic to step into the shoes of iconic American figures. Christian Bale gave us the definitive performance of warmonger and Vice President Dick Cheney, while Naomi Ackie demonstrated her formidable talents playing Whitney Houston.

Even comic book adaptations have been swept by the trend, with international stars routinely claiming the mantle of American superheroes. Anthony Hopkins came of age before this phenomenon properly kicked off, but he’s had a staggeringly lengthy career and has therefore played more than his fair share of Yankee roles.

His portrayal of the serial killer Hannibal Lecter is undoubtedly his most famous American turn, winning him an Oscar and terrorizing generations of moviegoers. However, a glance down his extensive filmography reveals that many of his most significant credits involved some sort of Americanization.

Given how often he and others of his nation have had to perform this vocal and cultural gymnastics, you’d think that pretending to be an American would be relatively painless on a technical level.

But according to Sir Hopkins, that is not always the case. In fact, he considers the hardest job he’s ever tackled to be his portrayal of a controversial United States President. In a 2013 interview with Backstage, the two-time Oscar winner admitted that playing the titular lead in Oliver Stone’s Nixon nearly did him in.

I’m not American, he stated plainly, questioning, Why the hell would they cast me in it? He noted that he gave the performance his best shot, but ultimately found it to be the most difficult role of his career to successfully execute.

Although the performance earned him his third Academy Award nomination, Hopkins appeared to view the project as a foolish venture that he entered without much enthusiasm.

Whether he truly captured the essence of Richard Nixon is still debated by critics, with some viewing it as peak 1990s biopic showboating and others seeing it as campy theatrics. Regardless of the reception, Hopkins found the three hours of screen time and the sheer volume of dialogue to be a monumental challenge.

The fact that he considered this his toughest role remains surprising to many fans of his work. Hopkins is certainly no stranger to diverse acting challenges, having played everything from a tanned Zorro to a convincing approximation of Alfred Hitchcock. Nixon, in theory, should have been a much easier task for a veteran of his caliber.

However, playing a president is notoriously difficult due to how widely recognized their voice and appearance are to the general public. Successfully transforming a famous actor into a famous politician usually requires either an extraordinary amount of prosthetic makeup or a performance so mesmerizing that the audience forgets the actor entirely.

In Nixon, Hopkins managed to navigate these hurdles well enough to secure an Oscar nod, which surely counts for something in the grand scheme of his legacy. Entering the year, Sir Anthony Hopkins remains remarkably prolific at the age of 88, recently making headlines for celebrating a historic 50 years of sobriety.

Professionally, he is keeping pace with much younger co-stars, currently preparing for the release of Guy Ritchie’s satirical comedy Wife & Dog, which is scheduled to hit theaters on October 23. This star-studded project will see him acting alongside Benedict Cumberbatch, Rosamund Pike, and James Norton.

Additionally, Hopkins is set to star in Maserati: The Brothers, a biopic directed by Bobby Moresco, where he will play the Italian businessman who financed the legendary automotive siblings.

He also recently starred in the high-concept thriller Locked and continues to develop his portrayal of composer George Frideric Handel in the upcoming film The King of Covent Garden. Despite his long journey through Hollywood and beyond, the actor continues to prove that his retirement is nowhere in sight as he moves through the year with multiple major releases on the horizon.

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