tavis: good evening from los angeles. tonight, a conversation with oscar winner anthony hopkins. this is the 20th anniversary of his most famous film, "the silence of the lambs." starting this weekend, you can catch his latest film, "the ruite." >> all i know is his name is james, and he needs extra help with his reading. >> i am james. >> yes. >> to everyone making a difference -- >> thank you. >> you help us all live better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to

economic empowerment, one conversation at a time. >> nationwide is on your side >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- tavis: please welcome anthony hopkins back to this program. this weekend, his latest movie opens around the country. here are scenes from "the rite." >> the interesting thing about atheists is they are always looking for certainty. the question is, what on earth

could we do if we found it? total loss of faith. there are months when i do not know whether i believe in god or the double. yet it is something that keeps digging and scraping away inside of me. it seems like gods fingernail -- god's fingernail. i finally can take no more of the pain and i get shoved up from darkness and into the light. tavis: i can guarantee it gets scary year as the picture starts to develop. there is a powerful line in their that i would like to get your take on. that is whether or not you believe certainty is the enemy. >> i believe that. i have been reading a fascinating book by an american philosopher about eight -- i am

not sure his nationality. it is called "in praise of doubt." if you have certainty, you have the inquisition and not cease. one of calvin's friends broke away from calvin after his predestination philosophy because he thought it would lead to terni. he said that doubt is the greatest part of the human condition, because it leaves us open. kant and blaise pascal said that it is a wager. if you have it, nobody can prove you are wrong. [laughter] but i do not know. does anyone know anything? no human being has an answer. everything is a mystery, according to einstein and darwin and a whole bunch of physicists,

scientists, atheists. no one knows. if an atheist argues with me, i say it is your opinion. i live in doubt all the time. i think that is a very healthy way. tavis: are you comfortable in this space called doubt that you in?e an >> i know less and less as time goes on. tavis: that makes you smart. >> we know nothing. i feel at peace with it. i am in this business, the movie business. i am having a great life. i am still called up to do a job here and there. i have to take it with a pinch of salt. i work with young actors. i was working with a terrific young actor in this movie.

he is full of intensity. he is a 30 year-old. i just said to enjoy yourself. enjoy life. tavis: since we are talking of uncertainty and doubt, have certain do you have to be? is it better if you are in doubt about the roles that you choose? i cannot imagine you want to much doubt about the roles you choose to play. you want to be certain of something about the character and what you think you can do with it. >> you get a roll and think "this is going to be a winner." i cannot remember who was, but there was somebody in the 30's who was given a script, under contract with the studios. there was quite a famous star. the studio sent him a contract.

he decided to walk through the film. he told his fellow actress, "i am just when to walk through this." he got nominated for an oscar. you never know. tavis: that is how this town works. >> hope uncertainty are the enemies of peace. keep low expectations and left its very good. -- life is very good. tavis: i am going to come back to "the rite" in a second. when you did the silence of the lambs, you think our -- did you think that was going to be a hit? you won the academy award for it. did you think it was going to be? >> i have a hunch about that. i read it in the dressing room of a theater in london in 1989.

my agent did not want me to play this character. i read it and thought it was a sure winner. it was a small part, but i had no idea it was quick to be that involved. i thought it was such a well constructed script. i had an instinct that would be a box office hit. you never know. it just so happened it was. it was all instinct. it was great to work with jonathan m. -- jonathan demme and jodie foster. i went to the oscars that night. all of my expectations -- i did not even want to show up. i was hoping that traffic would be so bad coming down sunset that i could go to a restaurant and have dinner and not show up and just watch. when i went in and kathy bates called my name, i thought it was

going to go to robin williams or warned 80. -- or warren beaty. i did not have a speech. i said "thank you very much," and that was it. it was fun. tavis: what happened, when you think of the uncertainty. navigate your way forward when you think about the project and it does not work out? you think it is going to be well received and it is not? >> i do not think that far. the chance could be 50/50, or not at all. but i do my best. in one of the film is, i go on the road and to the talks like i

am now. tavis: which we appreciate, by the way. what kind of doubts did you have, if any, or just unease about comparisons that might be made between "the silence of the lambs" and "the rite," where you are performing exorcisms. did you think about comparisons? >> the first time i got the script, i did not bother to read it. i did not want to do it. my agent said to think about it. i met the director. we did it. all i can say is that personally i enjoyed every moment of the day. i will look back and that time with great nostalgia. it was only last summer. i did not track whether it was quick to be a big hit or not. i hope it is going to do well.

but the movie business has changed so much now. i am not cynical about it. but you can get a big movie release and see it in every multiplex. but it is gone the next week. that is the american way. nothing lasts. in a way, there is a comfort in that. you cannot take yourself too seriously. i was in memphis for my birthday. tavis: your birthday is new year's eve. >> yes. [laughter] my 41st birthday. it was in memphis, so we went to elvises place -- elvis's place. a friend of mine has a cinema chain in memphis. we visited one morning to the cinema chain. there are 15 movie theaters in

this big block. there were big films. they were all up there. i said to my wife -- is daytime, about 12:00. there were people going in with the popcorn and the lights were still on. i thought, "that is the big movie business." it is the glamour of hollywood. it is a box, and people are sitting there. nobody cares. i am being cynical, but it is true. it has become a conveyor belt. personally, at this grand age, i find that comforting. you cannot dig down into the seriousness of success. i have had a good time with it. i can be cynical, i guess. tavis: 1 like to look at it -- one way to look at it is that

you have gotten comfortable with it. you could be bitter about that, given how seriously you take your craft. you take your craft seriously, but the rest of the business is a conveyor belt. you could be angry about that. >> i am not. i work hard, but i do not take it seriously. i learned my lines. am i being honest? i think i am. i work hard it. i tried the best i can to give 130% if possible. but it is all -- it is absurdity. we are talking about the philosophy of life. life is a mystery. what am i doing? that keeps me wry and ironic. with young actors, everything is important. but things have changed so much

now. i am not a computer savvy guy. with downloading and how the movie industry has changed, i cannot get invested into the skin of something like that. tavis: you mentioned this young actor, colin of donohue -- o'donnahughe. i did a little research because of was curious what your first feature was. this guy gets to hang out with anthony hopkins, academy award winner. you were hanging out with peter o'toole and katharine hepburn, a lion in winter. what do you recall about that auspicious start? >> peter tool was almost unconscious. [laughter] most of it was a coma. peter liked to drink.

katherine hay to drinkers -- hated drinkers. but she was a very good sport and o'toole was a genius. i was 29 years of age. i remember that. it was a long time ago. young -- i do not waste time being nervous. i was, working with her and a tool. i had seen of tool at the royal theater -- the royal vic in bristol, "look back in anger." he was such a great actor. i think he was a truly genius actor. to work with him was -- we had wild moments. but he was great. every day he was on set, he was professional. we did not become close friends.

tavis: i'm going to come back to this movie, "the rite," and that particular set. this thing is scary, yet there are funny moments. it is arresting in a funny way when you are performing an exorcism and answer your cellphone. [laughter] >> that happens, apparently. we have a father barry thomas in texas. is this for real? sometimes, he switches the cellphone off. he said, "it is ordinary." you say the per se over them in latin, and sprinkle with holy water. i said, "is that for real?" he says yes. what he says is the reality is that the devil is an

anthropomorphic creature. i don't know. i have my doubts. i would not argue with him. he was a very nice guy. colin went to see an exorcism in rome. he said that was quite interesting. these gentle italian men start shouting and cursing and screaming. as he says to me in the film, "is that a psychiatric disorder or a profession?" the priest a play is a man in doubt. i do not know whether i am living with god or to go -- or tinkerbell. somebody in faith is always haunted by doubt. somebody in doubt is always trouble by faith. it is a paradox. tavis: this movie is in part

about this tension between faith and science. i raise that to ask whether on this picture or any other you find yourself rustling -- wrestling with your own beliefs about this subject. you are playing a character, but do you find yourself examining your own assumptions based on a character you play? >> yes. i was an agnostic for many years. an agnostic is full of doubt. i love to read any way. i have been reading anything i can, not intensely. but i love to read "origin of the species," by darwin, and i tried to double my way through einstein. the good bon mot for -- dietrich

support for his church and was executed by the nazis. these great men must apply -- must know something more than i do. my life is a mystery to me. i started in school as a little boy and did not know who and what they're talking about in school. i played sports. i could not learn. i was the bottom of the class. my junior year, i found a way to acting. it beats working for a living. so that is what i do. but i still feel like a bit of a stranger to resolve. i have never really belong anywhere. tavis: everyone of us is a story. each of us is on a journey. i am always curious about actors

who will say, seriously are joking, that if there were not acting they did not know what they would do. i hear that sentiment expressed by you. you start your life and do not fit in anywhere. you are bottom of the class and cannot play sports. what the make of the fact that you and up finding your vocation in life and it suits you so beautifully, and you're so gifted at it. >> is a mystery. i was born in the same town as richard burton, the actor. i saw him. he and his wife used to drive their car into my father's shop. i would come up and as for his autograph and think i wanted to be like that. i wanted to get out of the environment i was in. a few years later, it all began to fall into place. it was a strange, mysterious

thing. i believe in synchronous city. i ended up here. i visualized a lot of it. i did not understand anything about school, so i visualize myself doing it. i wanted to be a musician, but i did not have an instrument. i decided i wanted to be famous, so i became an actor. it took a long time. my life has been very easy, compared to some. richard burton was never close to his father. he came from a very large family. he said he arrived at his sister's house and said, "where's dad?" he was never close to his father. he arrived in dublin and his father was there. he said, "hello," as though i'd just been fun -- just been

around the corner. my father looked at me and said "you have that money -- what for?" i have been asking the question myself. tavis: that is a great story. >> that is my life as well. i don't know what i am doing here. you can flash a photograph of where you are born and your country. i am obsessed with passports. i looked at my grandfather's house, or my house were a was born. how did i get from there to here? how did that happen? it was nothing to do with me. it was not my business. it is none of my business. i woke up, and i am suddenly

living out here. what on earth is this about? i was brought up on warner brothers movies. i sat in a dark cinema, a postwar cinema. many years later, 30 years later, i am in a dressing room in new york, doing acting. i am working with richard burton's ex-wife. what on earth is this all about? tavis: how does the painting you do so well fit into all of this that you cannot explain? >> i have no education, no academic background. i write music and compose music. i sell paintings. they can arrest me. [laughter] if my wife says do not paint, she is the boss. if she says go and paint, she

does the business side of it. i like music and i have a concert in birmingham. tavis: and you are conducting. >> i did conduct in new york. tavis: you and shaquille o'neal. >> he said you do this, and then you do this to stop. they played a piece called "schizoid salsa." it was very fast. [laughter] i got a standing ovation. [laughter] do you remember ben johnson? he was an old cowboy acting -- copper -- old cowboy actor. he did a bunch with john ford. he was in "the last picture show" with jeff bridges. i met him at a party.

he was sitting on the floor, eating. i said, "can i talk to you in a sitting? i thought you were great in the last picture show." he said, "i did not remember it. i got a script from the young director. they had me smoking a cigarette and i had to tell them about an old girlfriend. i could never learn lines. i am a horse wrangler. so the rocket on a board across from me. -- so they wrote it on a board across from me." so there you are. tavis: for a guy who has not figured out yet who he is or why he is here, he is doing all right. he is sir anthony hopkins, an academy award winner and nominee. his new project is called "the rite."

give my best to your wife. the camera cannot pick this up, but there's a wonderful pattern in the suit you are wearing. you said your wife picked that out and got you to lose weight. you look amazing. your wife is hooking you up. i love it. that is our show for tonight. until next time, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org winning film maker on "the king's speech." >> all i know is his name is james, and he needs extra help with his reading. >> i am james. >> yes. >> to everyone making a difference -- >> thank you. >> you help us all live better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working

to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment, one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. >> be more.

which is very close to lancaster. and it's part of the morecambe and lancaster history. you've got the evidence to prove it 'cause you've brought along a couple of photographs. this one-- now, this clock tower is still there on the front? it's still situated on morecambe promenade. there we see not just one, but we've got a pair of these pots, haven't we? to be frank with you, it probably needed a visa to get here... - right. - ...because this has come from over the border, as we say in this part of the world. this has come from yorkshire, i think. i can't help but think this started off life at the leeds fireclay company sometime in the sort of 1880s, 1890s.

so i reckon this weighs probably around about 500lbs or thereabouts. and i would reckon a pound for a pound. so if you wanted to go out and buy another one of these today, if you could find one, you'd probably have to pay somewhere in the region of £500. - do you fancy the idea of owning a pair? - definitely. once you've got a pair, you've got to get that clock tower between the two. i'm sure morecambe's got one to spare somewhere. - i'm sure it has. - you never know. this is what we've arrived at. this is a renaissance revival bonbon dish. it's english, dating about 1865, silver-plated with a frosted glass insert. they're not really the height of fashion, these. - but you paid 15 quid for it? - yeah. well, i reckon we've added at least two quid to the value by cleaning it. that's lovely. so there we go. a little bit of spit and polish, and i think, you know, you can see the difference. - yeah. - great.

and why aren't you wearing this wonderful paisley shawl? well, because it nearly wasn't a paisley shawl. it was nearly a beatles jacket. - no. - i was madly keen on the beatles. and i think it was the "sgt. pepper" album. and i was going to cut it up and make a jacket like the beatles wore. - so it's a lucky survivor... - it is. 'cause it really is in fabulous condition. look at those colors. i mean, that is really '60s flower power. - it certainly is. - but, of course, it's a lot older than that. it's the last quarter of the nineteenth century. and something as crisp and beautifully colored as this is worth at least £500 to 800. so thank goodness you didn't turn it into a beatles jacket - 'cause it would be worth very little. - it certainly wouldn't.