Anthony Hopkins’s Final Destination

Do you know someone like Adam in your life who might have informed your performance?
Many years ago in New York I knew a guy, I can’t remember his name, but he and his family had this life, they were obviously rich. I don’t know where they got their money, I think it was inheritance, but the main protagonist had been in the war in North Africa. He had been driving ambulances with the American Army. One day at some dinner party he got very serious and said, “I saw so many things in the war. I just decided I was never going to be miserable again. I was going to live my life for fun and for pleasure, smoke and drink and have a wonderful time.”

That’s a wonderful philosophy.
He was witty and very funny, very cynical, and could make you laugh. I based the character on him. It was in the writing, but I used him as well. This man who would just sort of swan around the place and had so many friends. He was a very entertaining guy. He’s dead and gone now, but I thought of him. I like those sorts of roué, debonair characters.

As far as I can determine, Adam is the first gay character you’ve played on film. Were you ever approached to play a gay character before?
I can’t remember. Oh yes, years and years ago there was a BBC thing about Anthony Blunt, the spy who had his knighthood taken away, and Guy Burgess, who was the spy who went to Russia and lived there — a brilliant Cambridge man. That’s the only one.

I realize this is 20 years later, but do you recall your thoughts on the controversy that surrounded The Silence of the Lambs and the gay community?
I never heard of it. I never got involved. I just did the movies and moved on. I never read any of that junk.

More recently a musical-comedy version of The Silence of the Lambs was produced in London. I wonder if you’ve seen it and if you’re OK with spoofs of your work?
[Laughs] Sure, whatever turns people on. I don’t read back on all that stuff. I didn’t even know there was a Silence of the Lambs musical. How strange, but it sounds funny.