In
1995, Hopkins earned mixed acclaim and an Oscar nomination
for his impressionistic take (done without elaborate makeup) on President
Richard M. Nixon in Oliver Stone's Nixon. After his performance as Pablo
Picasso in James Ivory's Surviving Picasso (1996), Hopkins garnered
another Oscar nomination -- this time for Best Supporting Actor -- the
following year for his work in Steven Spielberg's slavery epic Amistad.
So impressed was Spielberg that he couldn't bring himself to call Hopkins
Tony, referring to him throughout as Sir Anthony - Hopkins having been
knighted in 1993, after receiving the CBE in 1987. Another Oscar nomination
came his way for the movie. Following this honour, Hopkins chose roles
that cast him as a father figure, first in the ploddingly long Meet
Joe Black and then in the have-mask-will-travel swashbuckler Mask of
Zorro with Antonio Banderas and fellow countrywoman Catherine Zeta-Jones.
In
his next film, 1999's Instinct, Hopkins again played a father, albeit
one of a decidedly different stripe. As anthropologist Ethan Powell,
Hopkins takes his field work with gorillas a little too seriously, reverting
back to his animal instincts, killing a couple of people, and alienating
his daughter (Maura Tierney) in the process.
Hopkins
kept a low profile in 2000, providing narration for Ron Howard's live-action
adaptation of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas and voicing
the commands overheard by Tom Cruise's special agent in John Woo's Mission:
Impossible 2. In 2001, Hopkins returned to the screen to reprise his
role as the effete, erudite, eponymous cannibal in Ridley Scott's Hannibal,
the long-anticipated sequel to Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs
(1991). The 160-million-dollar blockbuster did much for Hopkins' bank
account but little for his standing with the critics, who by and large
found Hannibal to be a stylish, gory exercise. Worse yet, some wags
suggested that the actor would have been better off had he followed
his Silence co-star Jodie Foster's lead and opted out of the sequel
altogether. I have to say that I certainly do not agree. Ridley Scott
did it his way and the film had all the hallmarks of one of his productions.
Gary Oldmans performance is excellent and Moores is sensitive. Who can
forget Hopkins response to Moores comment...
‘Do
this right and we’ll live through this’
To
which Hopkins retorts (and I laugh as I write this)
‘Spoken
like a true Protestant’
Later
that year, the moody, cloying Stephen King adaptation Hearts in Atlantis
did little to repair his reputation with critics or audiences, who avoided
the film like the plague. But
the next installment in the cash-cow Hannibal Lecter franchise restored
lustre to the thespian's Hollywood career. Red Dragon, the second filmed
version of Thomas Harris' first novel in the Lecter series, revisited
the same territory previously adapted by director Michael Mann in 1986's
Manhunter, with mixed but generally positive results. Surrounding Hopkins
with a game cast, including Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel
and Emily Watson, the Brett Ratner film garnered some favourable comparisons
to Demme's 1991 award-winner, as well as some decent, if not Hannibal-calibre,
returns at the box office.
Hopkins
would face his biggest chameleon job since Nixon with 2003's highly
anticipated adaptation of Philip Roth's Clinton-era tragedy The Human
Stain, a prestige Miramax project directed by Robert Benton and co-starring
Nicole Kidman, fresh off her Oscar win for The Hours. Unfortunately,
most critics couldn't get past the hurtle of accepting the Anglo-Saxon
paragon Hopkins as Stain's flawed protagonist Coleman Silk, an aging,
defamed African-American academic who has been "passing" as
white for most of his adult life. The film died a quick death at the
box office and went unrecognized in year-end awards.
Hopkins
has also become famous for his accents - although this is possibly by
accident. His ability to wander seamlessly through Welsh, English, Irish
and American has now become a feature of many of his films - listen
carefully and you'll hear em' all!