welcome to larry king now what a great pleasure to have sir anthony hopkins as our special guest one of the greatest actors in cinematic history for nearly 50 years he has been delighting audiences around the world with iconic roles in such films as the remains of the day nixon amistad silence of the lambs the golden globe bafta and oscar winning actor his latest projects include the highly anticipated new h.b.o. original series westworld and the dresser costarring ian mckellen appearing may 30th on stars will talk about a lot of projects of you because you keep being busy you're 78 years old i'll be on the air 60 years next year find us what you've been doing in 50 years but if he is 50 years yeah can you remember. your 1st credited film role for the lion in winter no no i loved lion i went to you it peter o'toole son was the 1st all of that red

white and 0 i don't. have to wear name tags to remember who obviously you are not as honest person no no why did you become an actor beats working. had nothing else to do i wasn't very good at school and i won a scholarship 955 to an acting college and so the amazing would do something and get my revenge and all those people made fun of me you know like they're all dead did you like it right away yes well i thought if i can make it in this business it sure beats working has reopened but you say what's what it what's the kick of playing of the people. i think just the fun of it i don't know what it is i just love it's it's not i don't know i'm not a method actor don't go through big transformations i just love showing up especially in movie showing up with the crew and everyone having

a laugh. and in the theater there's the recipes from there wasn't that pain free experience there was a drug and unlike syrian mcmullen. i wasn't a good team player i was a bit of a bad ass and i would have rather so i wasn't you know i didn't fit into companies provide so one there scooted off and left. and came up early what people told me i'd sold out as well good i'm happy living on the beach in malibu so you had originally done the dresser as a screen as had you acted on stage not on stage no i saw the original stage production with freddie jones and tom courtney and then they made the film with albert finney and tom there was you know 30 years later i decided i'd like to do it and then say you're in your mckellen who had never worked before i've known him over the years but only an acquaintance across the room so we worked together and we had a great time we had lots of laughs why did they decide to do the dresser again so i

want to do. i asked the producer man i wold is a good idea it is yeah let's see if we can get it up and the author was very pleased to have me in and here mckellen and last year we made it 11 of the best times of my life 5 short weeks of really enjoying it i think because it helped me to flex my muscles again to feel that i have been sold out that i could be a classical actor and next year i'm going to do king lear in london or a. position of doing on film for the b.b.c. and that's what i want to do and because i know i'm going to be $78.00 and be $79.00 the end of the year and i think i'm going to keep going further retire i die succumb to type get it like you were going to go it die or or what death the actor in the dresser is playing king lear. and he's ian mckellen is your dress is the

dresser and there's of wonderful relationship. 2 old fools have been together for years becoming and quarrelling and shouting at each other i'm the monster actor who lives only in his own monomaniacal mind and they don't know any i don't know and the play actually finally leaves my disillusionment with my own life so i have a mental breakdown in the this one night in the piece during the air raids in britain there on tour this actually happened there's a man called donald wolf it who is the great bond stopping single minded actor who was a bit of a monster but a great actor but anyway and ian plays my dress and the can both can tag resoled mad together and in the end it's tragic because my parts called realizes that his life has been pretty wasted he's dedicated himself to acting and i wanted to do it because i didn't want that in my life my own life i didn't want to have that said to fuku and to go forth in my life to just acting acting acting out because i

can't take it seriously i want to do another life. because it's healthy so i paint and i write music and i view it as something yeah and i play the piano and i live in malibu and watch the whales go by i just like to have a full life but i still enjoy acting. this will be seen on stars television is now part of the normal number one actor's didn't do television or you didn't do it shocking to do television i loved it is it any different than making a film i think it's probably harder well in a way big what i just did westworld. and you don't get the scripts so i never knew what the story was about i never knew how to do. but it was fun to do well it's robots yes. it's my play the guy who invents all these people but it was. i was a movie with your brother and richard benjamin and i would try to i don't ask the

director nolan as what happened next i'm not going to tell you what my job was just to learn all the lines of the time i didn't know what i was talking about but you have to fool people so i'd say this is connected to that so i put on an intelligent look in my face oh yeah i did have a clue westworld that's a series were run for 10 episode 1st year and. i finished on thursday and it was it was fun to do but tough work to do but i had masses of i have masses of lines to learn they have masses you know it's like learning the encyclopedia brittanica but that's right i do i mean i love learning good yeah well i i drive myself and it's i mean that's my only obsession is to get right because i believe you know it keeps the brain working tell me about being a sure i said to you before sir hopkins and you said that's wrong. it's always the

1st name right yeah that's right. yes. well you know i never you i mean you know use it though no i mean i used it as a musician when i had a concert in birmingham so once and help is but in films you never use it you never put it as a title because it's tacky and you never do it i know it's one of those unwritten things how far back does it go or how long have they been serving people. hundreds of years but in the acting profession 1st one was henry irving he was the 1st night which brought respectability the acting profession because they were nothing but robison and vagabonds and so henry irving was knighted by queen victoria and when they made you they dub you yeah they put the sort of this order. arise around for the older i dubbed the you know i can't remember it 20 years ago but it's fun it

was great on on the queen yeah and she was very nice and buckingham palace and they had the. guards playing the band and they play or sound of music and all those things on them so very sane and she comes in with that and but it has to be a thrill you know what it was you up in great britain oh yeah yeah i don't know why the nights me because i'm such a bad ass about what keeps you working why do you keep you don't have to work do you man julie you know actually you know i just love it so i love being active i love getting out and doing things my wife sometimes what is above me because he's going to get getting too old for this no if but she also agrees me that if i stopped i would just i probably snuff it because i think it's important to keep working as long as you can just to keep going body and mind are you in good health yeah great health very great health and that's luck right or do you work at it do

you work at it. i work at it i haven't smoked a cigarette for many years don't drink but i i love i love all the bad foods love spicy food but i try to stay disciplined and you know i relapse every so often have a little bit of whatever peter them but i more or less keep on course and make sure i'm in good shape because you've only got one body and one life you raise money i write music. there are always done that since my my my marriage with stella always composed but i've never had anything paid for an orchestra so she said to me why didn't you write it and orchestrate it so i did i always did the whole piece with through a friend of mine and she said 200 rio the dutch conductor and i was in mexico city some years ago 56 years ago to publish in

a movie and the phone rang in my hotel room is andre rieu i see you is this a joke you know that your wife sent me the manuscript the score if you like me to hear our rehearsal for this morning see played a recording of the rehearsal so we went to holland. for the next couple of months and before 8000 people sat there in the marketplace of mass leaked and they paid my song the waltz goes on than i did for 9 pieces for the birmingham symphony symphonic pieces. so make you feel wonderful sitting there in new orleans you know sitting on the 1st day of rehearsal in the birmingham symphony michael siegel conducting i say ok everything ok. they whole orchestra starts about that that i write this is the same with art you know i paint and then we have shows with the show in vegas in a park here 2030 june in m.g.m.

and below 0 i'm not going to paintings and i go there and it's all been set up i look at them i think that i have to do these or is going to painting do you do i do lots of faces and you can look them up a mug i'm fine arts emmy are g.a.m. am fine arts and they're landscapes they're they're they're expressionist paintings i did a story by the boat a rule that has no rule that. when my wife said i wanted to start painting i said i can't she's what'll happen if that doesn't work the put you in jail is no so so i started painting and the friend of mine stan winston's you remember stan he's to work with spielberg. 'd brilliant artist. died sadly but anyway he came over to host we had a barbecue in my studio in the pool and he want to do the bass and he came and he said. my piece. who did these and i pulled the faces that i did he's

putting a face like this will any good he said wonderful i still have never had need training don't want to things just finished. because he was trained as not his but he couldn't do the free painting that i do so great story. is playing in the symphony and watching the paintings the same as watching the movies you get the same kind of feeling much i think the music is best i try not to watch my you don't know i love to look at them and then that's a thank you for coming up what has been surrounding these favored role to date a new show a clip of so ben kingsley talking about our guest from when he was here just a few weeks ago don't go away. for we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation

let it be an arms race in this on offense period dramatic development only. exist i don't see how that strategy will be successful ready to kill time to sit down and talk. back with saran that way tony will start with ian mckellen in the dresser it premieres may 30th on stars you'll be seeing him in a movie with ray liotta called black way and of course he's in the west world series so ben kingsley was he had not long ago you 2 recently did a film together what was it like working with him was terrific we only had one scene together wonderful wonderful actor let me show you and i asked him this watch what he said last time you were starstruck. tony hopkins. sitting opposite me at a table in a film about to come out called collide and i had my 1st scene with with terry

hopkins and slices in close to a volcano. which went to her lover in the eye do you most enjoyed working with to date my goodness. wow that's a tricky one. i think you know it in terms of sheer excitement and and the purity of his craft i think it has to be turned to help kids what do you make of that whoa thank you but one scene favorite i agree i will work with well that's a wonderful compliment volcano most pretty pretty what do you think it easy well i guess i've got some kind of forceful energy i mean i'm ben has as well because i saw him in sexy beast and i wrote him a fine letter he was incredible and i phoned him see should have had enough of those years ago to look good impersonate me evil incarnate yeah yeah well i was

going to as we play a little game of if you only knew what do you do favor roles to date remains of the day. nixon oh they've been several and some i would rather forget but you know you get a couple out of a dozen which may work and some don't but i think lecter was one of my favorite because it was so easy out an easy yeah that easy well it's a trick you know what you mean well the 1st 15 or 20 minutes is built up describing this monster you know and jodie foster and then she goes to the prison and the governor of the prison said she said what's he like always a monster so they go down so it's all built up this is monster in a cell in the cage somewhere i think is to the opposite play not a monster to space somebody who's good morning. in otley left behind you. clary ari. how did you find that voice that i didn't know. or something

people don't know about you. oh well i could say the mole is very insecurities we all are oh yeah i did people are surprised when they see me young x. they see your insecurities yeah you bet your your ass i am so how can you be in secure stable us being human being alive that henry fonda said i always feel nervous when i don't have a script yeah he was going to be in work. the leading lady almost enjoyed working with bipolar bob up a book oh god i can't remember who put it but. judy foster. if you were an actor what do you think you'd have done drunk myself to death probably. added up in the gutter you have a favorite curse word. something in mareeba gesture. what does something americans get wrong about the u.k.

i think they think we are very ever so. gentle and mild and moderate we know we have monsters the british empire was run on monstrous energy and great and they were tough what if you had a country they were very tough oh yeah what is the u.k. get wrong about america oh the the feeling that america's brash and it's noisy in this down there where it is all those things but that's what makes america what it is and i think we countries be nations but if america or britain we get it wrong about so many other nations and i said russia the bad you know it's we get it also rather people the people who actor or actress you'd like to work with that you haven't given work with did reroll. yeah i'd like to work with him any upcoming actor or actress that impresses you. oh. you know i don't i don't watch much from i'm sure now you don't have time i'm told you also don't have

actors as friends that's right why well. i says oh they're ok i love working with them but i'm a reckless i don't have any friends really all my friends are my wife's friends all the spanish women i get more from them than anything else i'm i'm not an unfriendly person i enjoy people but i am not a great mixer i love being on my own i love being a reckless that i'm not a reckless player i love being on my own you don't have great buddies you know never have don't go on fishing trips with me you know no. what's the best thing about living in l.a. the sunshine. i love to travel i love to drive around i love everything about it or don't show it i live everything was the most your most cherished memory. coming in 1903 so working on a film with goldie hawn and i was taken on the 1st sunday to the bel-air hotel i'd

never been there before i couldn't i thought it was about and i thought i've got to stay i could live here in this country in l.a. and those are my favorite memories and the seventy's the great things were a little more peaceful here then and everything about it everything it was like be it's like being in that and it's like being in a big. beach party we were in overnight hit you know took me years of silence of the lambs of the 1st time and really change things but then you know you got the oscar and all that but you wake up next morning is the same old fundamental stuff that you have toward visions of. no jonathan demme me. film agent and asked me if i would be interested in playing but i was in london at the time and i thought of the children's story the silence of the lambs so i said i'm asian i said me the script he said what you think i said i don't want to read all of it in is a deal he said not yet i snuck in the read anymore because i've read this part is

great the great part so he pulled me back he said it is a deal jonathan demme is flying into london more to see how we met and i said why did you cast me because i saw you in the elephant playing dr teeth ice but he was such a good man he said there's something in lecter that is good but basically matt i thought god before we get some questions from social media what is your how does your choice picking work what do you look for when you get a script. i always look to see if i'm on the last page. because i know it's a good part now i just look for the continent i don't really. you have to be the store no no what'll be nice to be no. it's just an instinct to have about it sometimes i'd say no ever regretted anything but we're kind of member lives now have a respect for my memory but i don't the one thing i tried to do what i do i think successfully is to not take myself. too seriously. because i like to

i just enjoy the process of being alive and that they actually pay me to do what i do and having fun with it i can't take it seriously i'm nervous on stage you know years ago before i finally left and sold out to hollywood i was on stage doing king lear and i remember going on sees that night and thinking what am i doing i'm 37 years of age i'm i pretend to be 80 years of age now i am almost the be an all out i thought this is ridiculous made up my mind then i'm going to start leaving this business because i can't do this it's i mean even to go on set and i was doing here . but i enjoy it and they pay me to do it so my thing is to not take it too seriously how do you enjoy working with brad pitt i used to throw a job like i love that yeah it was wonderful that neither of us were rough on it. i

know i don't know why but he was wonderful to work with what about ages and in hollywood you still see scripts yeah not many people over 75 do they get scripts i don't know but all i know is without becoming. you know humble pie but i do appreciate and i do i'm very grateful because i know what a tough business this is now i know a lot of young actors who are guys who would be actors trying to break into the business and i say they have almost a mile to whatever i can to help but it's a tough tough relentless business for me to beast around today is astonishing i look in the mirror the you still want you to get my agent as they still want to do so i think that's wonderful. because the spirit of gratitude i guess and yeah social media questions are on the larry king our blog i love europe to europe these and the wards goes on when you'll be putting on more well you'll be putting out more maybe next year maybe next year. lynn on facebook what was it like to work

with burgess meredith and richard attenborough in magic oh that was a long time with 30 years ago. 30 almost 40 years ago. a long long memory purchase was terrific to both of you no ressa blog i. say that's what i get a lot yeah and he would fight you know he was that he was punishes but he was he was wonderful and that morrow he was great great director to work with we became good friends he did i think we did 5 films together was a great sense of humor loved everyone yeah jan on the larry king our blog can you share your acting experience while doing mix and particularly when working with paul sorvino. chose a long time ago paul sorvino you play big kissinger yeah he's ok good i like oliver stone very much of

a stone. james woods and he walsh. i can remember the cast now you know a long time together throw away your accent though right you know i don't know how i did not remember james would sing after the 1st reading him playing an american president and jimmy would said at the end of the 1st meeting with broke for lunch the great german accent. is admission but all of his great work with men deep on facebook and to being in silence of the lambs is an interesting question do you think we all have an inner hannibal. ask a psychiatrist. be on the larry king now blog out of all the roles you've played as an actor which one was the most challenging and the one who most matched your personality when nixon was pretty challenging. all of us don't told me something interesting when he phoned me say i want you to play nixon they said you crazy. it's no he said i want you but why would you want me to play it he

said because he's i'd read pieces not because but you he said he said new nixon fit in because you're both paranoid and then secure i so you know i said i've read pieces about you in the papers continues i swear that's probably true. i don't think i'm paranoid but i was suddenly very insecure and i would remember taking on nixon despite all of us still not myself to kill my demons i thought i can either hang around in london to a respectable part of the b.b.c. or work work for this crazy director oliver stone and risk. falling my backside and i did it and i thought just go for it just be bold and all of us great to work as maybe i knew next an interview that you did but if you don't spend some time with them and you had a doubt thank you and he was paranoid yeah he was a strange man i wish i'd met him jackson or on twitter do you have any regrets.

no i don't have time to regret we move on because we're acceptable for what we are not who we think we should be. accepted to myself by what i am but not as i think i should be because that's a lie i'm a sinner i'm an old sinner and i've done some bad things have done some good things so you know you just to give yourself a move on in job like you play the man knowing he was going to die. do you think about death. oh all the time but i don't do well i was in a morbid way i. resigned no i'm accepting that i've preached names now that you know could be any time i hope i have many many years ago but i'm not scared of them not. this is all it to me it's a dream within the dream to go to the allen poe told to dream the new dream my favorite is they are not long the days of wine and roses out of a misty dream our path emerges for

a while and closes within the dream. pretty good. i just can't believe i'm not going to exist or we don't know to be too curious we are absorbed back into the elements i guess. what do you think that means i don't know i think there's a superior consciousness in all of us that we touch into sometimes i don't know if i believe in anything i mean i've dated but i believe whatever that thing is the be talk about centuries i think is just within us i mean things are very remarkable things happen in my life by by just wishing i asking for something for a bit of help and can and i don't believe i'm not a i'm an agnostic i guess that if anybody can help me i would have and there's something inside us that will respond i believe i really believe that we have to make our lives because life is tough i have to believe in the power of life as billy graham if he was afraid of dying and he said i just don't want to die badly i

don't want to die in a plane crash no. somebody else i just want to be with us in this interview they're going to question want to ask me which. yes saturday morning saturday morning i see that one saturday morning you better come i better tell. me you're the best thank you iii is the best the dresser costarring ian mckellen premier's may 30th on stars i guess it will be great and. black way will be in theaters june 10th but i guess this with anthony hopkins we'll see on another edition of larry king now. don't believe this.

mark them up on this one on one whom you know members have done well sometimes. i think. she was even. more. gentle. i mean. if

you. take. the. there we should countries that. europe. some people in the us are having to travel to neighboring states just to get in. they must. be increasing number of other countries also choose to use a serbian film director gave us his take on the fact.