Anthony Hopkins

I think he expected Chadwick Boseman to win, too. I mean, we all did, didn’t we? Clearly the Academy did; they rearranged the whole of the night for it, didn’t they? Everyone knows that you leave Best Picture for last, because it’s the climax of the night. It’s the moment of great excitement. Everyone is waiting and watching. And on April 25, 2021, they knew what we wanted to see was the posthumous win for Chadwick Boseman, gone from us too soon and clearly not able to win for future great performances. This was his one and only nomination. And then Sir Anthony Hopkins, who had refused to trek out to London for the closest remote location to him and therefore didn’t even give his own speech, won his second Oscar.

Oh, I still haven’t seen either movie—I’ve mentioned having kids, right—and I can’t tell you how much or how little either man deserved it. I actually haven’t seen any of the nominees from the category that year. Still, I have seen three of his other nominated performances, including his other win. I’ve seen about two dozen of his performances all told, including some fairly obscure ones. I still feel qualified to talk about him in general, even with the holes in my familiarity. I’ve even seen five of his movies in the theatre, and I’m quite sure none of you will guess which five.

The range the man has, though. I’ve seen him play Hannibal Lecter and Odin, of course. But also Nixon and John Adams and C. S. Lewis and my beloved John Quincy Adams and my distant relative John Harvey Kellogg. I’ve seen him play Richard the Lionheart, William Bligh, and Sir Alfred Hitchcock. Hrothgar. Dr. Van Helsing. And while I grant you he was a weird choice for Don Alejandro, he wasn’t bad in the role, at least.

Jodie Foster never spoke to him on the set of Silence of the Lambs, because she was terrified of him. Also because he’s got one of the shortest performances ever to win a lead acting Oscar. She didn’t spend a ton of time acting opposite him, because about half his screen time was around other actors anyway. But even if they’d shared every scene, it’s hard to imagine how you’d warm up to the guy in the glass cage. Especially given how astounding the performance is. You didn’t realize how little time he spends in the movie until someone told you, did he?

I’ve loved him since I was in high school. He’s one of the great Welsh actors. He’s also a composer, and he’s done some directing. His mimicry is so exceptional that Joan Plowright, Laurence Baron Olivier’s widow, recommended him to supply her husband’s lines during the restoration of Spartacus. He intimidated Steven Spielberg so much that Spielberg couldn’t call him Tony, just Sir Anthony. His memory is impressive even by acting standards. Other actors praise him as their inspirations, and great directors praise him as well. They don’t get much better.