Anthony Hopkins Slams Hollywood Icon as “Most Difficult” Co-Star Ever!

Spotted in 1965 by the quintessential Shakespearean actor, the great Laurence Olivier, who took him under his wing, Anthony Hopkins would enter the Royal National Theatre thanks to him. In his memoirs, Confessions of an Actor, Laurence Olivier even wrote: “a new young actor who joined the company destined for a bright future by the name of Anthony Hopkins studied under my command, and walked away with the role of Edward [NDR: Edward III, from the play of the same name by Shakespeare] like a cat with a mouse in its teeth.”

“I was very difficult to live with”

Ambitious and rebellious, also struggling with a lack of self-confidence which he drowned in alcohol for a long time, Anthony Hopkins felt too confined in England and aspired to pursue a career in Hollywood.

“I don’t know what my role in this world is. I came to Hollywood to act in movies. To be an actor. I was a bad boy. I couldn’t stand the English theater. I didn’t belong there. It was nobody’s fault. It just wasn’t in my nature to be part of that group. I reinvented my life, came here years ago, and here is the result. I am combative, rebellious. And happy!” Hopkins once shared.

In a 2018 Instagram post (reported by the BBC), Hopkins wrote: “[…] That’s what you do in theater, you drink. But I was also very difficult to live with because I was constantly hungover”. When he drank, he was “disgusted, broken, and untrustworthy” – until he finally sought help and quit drinking altogether.

“I didn’t like her either”

From there, filming experiences in the early 80s were troubled, such as on David Lynch’s Elephant Man, where he maintained terrible relations on set. Or in the largely forgotten film A Change of Seasons, released in February 1981, directed by Richard Lang, where he had the worst relations with his on-screen partner, Shirley Maclaine.

This story of two married couples attempting to rekindle their relationship by each starting an affair was a commercial flop and was panned by critics. Hopkins was even “honored” with a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actor.

Hopkins later described MacLaine as “the most unbearable actress” he had ever worked with. When asked in 2014 by the New York Post about the possibility of working with him again, the Oscar-winning actress replied: “I didn’t like him either, but he had just stopped drinking and it was hard for him.”