Interviews:


Interview with actors from "Hannibal":

Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Morre, Ray Liotta & Gary Oldman

(February 4, 2001, Regency Hotel, New York)

T: How is Dr Lecter's character different in this film?

ANTHONY:
Well, he's changed. Ten years have gone by, as I have. Okey dokey was a phrase that I put in on the spur of the moment. I know the audience likes that kind of childlike talk because it makes it more scary. It's when you say to a child 'goodie, goodie' or 'Okey dokey..' I know the audience has done enough preparation beforehand in their mind to know that he is going to do something really terrifying now, the more friendly he is.

T: Did you miss him while you were away?

ANTHONY:
No, I didn't really have any idea we were going to do a sequel until last year or so. I said 'well, you have to ask Tom Harris about that...' I thought about Hannibal for a while, sometimes but not much. I lived my life, got on with what I had to do and then when it all came to fruition about two years ago I thought 'well, it will be quite interesting to go back to him....' But it was quite easy, no sweat, no big deal, it's kind of easy, good director, great co-star, pretty easy stuff to do.

T: Do you have as much fun playing him as it looks on screen?

ANTHONY:
Oh yeah, like I say 'goodie, goodie..' and when I serve up the meal I say 'that's to die for ...' and 'ta, ta...' It's comical because he is a strange character, he's a very funny man and he's also terrifying. Somebody said to me 'he's a deliverer of justice...' Well, I don't know if that's true, he only kills the bad guys. It's like Dirty Harry with Clint Eastwood when he says 'make my day...' We all go to the movies to see those characters and I don't think there is anything particularly disturbing about it. They are entertaining, they give us a fright. I mean Shakespearean tragedies and plays that were done in Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth century were pretty grisly, ghastly affairs and the Jacobean tragedies like Tis A Pity She's A Whore and Duchess of Malfi are pretty gruesome because that's what life was like and strangely enough they are all set in Italy as well which is a peculiar juxtaposition of the beauty of the Renaissance which was built out of barbarism and horrible cruelty. And we as a modern audience sit and watch these things happen in the cinema.

T: What scares you in real life? And in the past Hitchcock used to do movies that were very disturbing but somewhat less graphic but effective. Do you think it's better to show horror or to suggest it?

ANTHONY:
I don't know, ask the director and the producers they made the movie.

T: What scares you in real life? ANTHONY: Mediocrity.

T: When you were shooting the last scene with Ray Liotta did you ever think that it was going too far?

ANTHONY:
Yeah, I didn't know what to make of it. I asked Ridley Scott what he was going to do and he said 'well, we are going to film it and in the editing we may cut away from it..' I didn't know what they would do. I was surprised. It's there and it's pretty harrowing. I haven't seen it with an audience so I don't know what the audience reaction is. I saw it with three people the other day but I've never seen it with an audience, which I will do tomorrow night. I'm told they seem to enjoy the movie, some get put off by it though.

T: Two years ago you declared you were giving up acting for good and said it was a stupid way to earn a living. Why did you say that at the time and what changed your mind to come back?

ANTHONY:
I didn't actually say I was going to give it up. I was on the set of Titus and I did believe at that point that it was a stupid way to go on and make a living, I think I was lying face down in the mud at the time being trodden on by somebody and I thought 'this is not a good way to make a living...' I was tired and I said to someone, I think it was Alan Cumming, 'I want a long rest after this...' and maybe somebody heard me because the next day, on a Saturday afternoon, I got a phone call from one of your countrymen, a journalist, British, who said (does a comical English voice) 'we understand you are retiring Sir Anthony?' I said 'well, you are the arbiters of truth over there, obviously you must know the truth, I don't, I'm just a dumb actor...' I said if really want to know what I really said I was just going to take a rest and he said 'well, we hear you are retiring...' I said 'well, if that's what you want to say, go ahead and say it...' I couldn't be bothered to argue or get into a conversation with him, whoever he was. So it hit the tabloids and that was it. But I did plan to take a year off, actually I took nine months off. I planned to take a year and then got a call from my agent's who said 'would you like to do about four days work in a film with Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible 2?' And my agent's wife happened to be producing it and I said 'yeah...' He said 'OK., you'll go down to Australia for about five days and work on that...' and I said 'yeah..' It was good to be working with Tom Cruise. I didn't know what it was about because I only had a few pages of the script, not the whole script, so I learned these lines and I didn't know what I was talking about but I went and did it and they paid me and I came back...

T: What did you do in the nine months off?

ANTHONY:
I took care of my body. I changed my diet you know, you are on a film and you are working too much and you are working too late and you eat junk and all that. I decided to get into shape, I climbed the mountains, went running and walked on the beach in California and drove in my car, read and played on my piano and all the rest of it. And just lay back for a long time and then I came back to Hannibal which was my first movie since Mission Impossible and we started it and it was fun and I felt the value of the rest I'd had and I'm looking forward to taking another rest..

T: What is your technique for making Hannibal so scary?

ANTHONY:
I don't have to do anything, I let the audience do it. I don't have to do much, the script is scary, like Silence of the Lambs, it's packed with images of fear and terror and horror and all that so I don't have to do anything at all much, just be still and quiet and let the audience scare themselves.

T: Which scenes do you think are the most gruesome in the movie?

ANTHONY:
I think they are pretty tough. I don't know, I don't have any opinions I'm too tired to even think about it.

T: What did you read first, a script or the book?

ANTHONY:
I read the book first then the script.

T: What did you think about changing the ending?

ANTHONY:
I thought it was fine, I didn't mind the end of the book but I thought the ending of the script was good and I trusted Ridley Scott as the director to make the best of it and that was as much input as I make. I'm not a writer and I let Steve Zallian, who is a talented, gifted and experienced writer, solve the problem. I didn't have any problem with the end of it but I could understand why they didn't want to put the end of the book into the film.

T: What is your personal view on cannibalism?

ANTHONY:
I don't have any opinions on it. I just did the film, it's a work of fiction.

T: Would you be prepared to do another sequel?

ANTHONY:
By the time Tom Harris gets to write another big book I'll be too old to do it. Dino De Laurentiis is thinking of doing a remake of the first movie, Red Dragon or Manhunter as it was called, which Michael Mann directed, with another Hannibal Lecter, Brian Cox. I don't know whether that is going to happen, we'll wait and see. I can't really think beyond this afternoon, I don't make plans, I can't even think beyond that. I've worked a lot lately and I'm just happy that this film has been made and it seems to be catching people's attention and beyond that I can't think. I don't know if it's going to be made, I have no powers of prediction.

T: What does the word sophistication mean for you?

ANTHONY:
Sophistication? Well, I certainly haven't got it. I don't know. I'm not a wine connoisseur, I'm very suspicious of sophisticated people and I'm certainly not one. I've met with some sophisticated people in my profession and they are bores. Intellectual giants - boring. I'm not interested in them.

T: Who was your muse for the piano piece you play to Clarice?

ANTHONY:
That was Bach.

T: Is Hannibal more 'civilised' in this movie?

ANTHONY:
I don't know, I just showed up and did it. I can't answer that. I'm just an actor, I just did the script as it was done and I don't have any personal opinions about it, I can't even boil an egg, I'm a terrible cook. I just followed the directions of the camera and the script. -

T: How did you feel working with Julianne Moore, was it different than when Jodie Foster was playing Clarice?

ANTHONY:
Well, she's different from Jodie, she is a different personality so it must be different but she was equally as good and as powerful and equally as concentrated and focused and all the rest of it and very strong. I'd worked with her before, in a film called Picasso or something, and she was very good in that. I was asked by Ridley Scott what I thought of her and I said 'well, she will deliver...' And she certainly was good on the film I did with her before so I was delighted that she was chosen out of a pretty formidable group of actors. I was pleased, for her and for myself.

T: What makes a project irresistible for you as an actor?

ANTHONY:
Oh, I don't know, just a feel. If you read a script I can within a few pages, literally within maybe five pages, whether I'm going to like it or not. My agent helps me there, he will read a script and either recommend I read it or not. And sometimes we'll disagree, very mildly. He'll send something over and say 'what do you think of this?' And I'll say 'yeah, I don't think it's for me..' It's just a hunch or an intuition which is generally right and I'll say no. But I'll trust his judgement most of the time or his feelings most of the time. But I don't do things in order to make career moves. I've had a long interesting, successful career so I've got nothing to prove. I'm not interested in planning anything, I'm not interested at all in fact. I'm going to make a movie with Chris Rock in March back here, it's an interesting movie, it's an action movie and it will be a change and a lot of fun. I treat it all as a game, it's a gamble. It's like playing the roulette wheel and I don't get carried away by the so called importance of it all, it's a game and it's an industry. It's a big industry, the movie industry and it's been very good to me and I go along with it. If they want me fine, if they don't fine. I'll go on working until they stop offering me work I guess. But I've got no ambitions to do anything, I've got no parts I want to play, I don't want to direct, I don't want to write. I'm quite happy being where I am.

T: When you played Picasso, you said you had to find a trick, the way he walked, when you played Nixon it was the way he held his head. Is there a little trick you use to find Hannibal Lecter?

ANTHONY:
It's a walk from pelvis. It's something I learned years ago. I know it's got nothing to do with cats, but I love cats and I love watching them. The big cats of Africa and India or domestic cats, I think they are fascinating animals, the way they glide. And they are loners. I love watching those documentary films and I went to Africa and watched some big lionesses hunting and it's spectacular what they do, the way these animals move, the efficiency and sheer machinery of their bodies. And I thought with Lecter that's what I wanted, when he prowls around at night, when he is walking the streets nobody goes near him because they sense that there is something about him and in the scene where I'm being stalked by the pick pocket. And there's one moment where there's a man in the market place and Ridley Scott stays on the man's face. He was a Nigerian and there's one shot where this man picks up the scent, that there is something strange about Lecter. I wanted him to do it through the movement, through the walk, the glide of the walk.

T: Which script gave you the best lines?

ANTHONY:
I think Hannibal but I had more of them. I was only in Silence of the Lambs for about 21 minutes I think. But they were pretty good lines, they were terrific and I enjoyed those. But these were and there were more of them and I added my own, I added 'goodie, goodie' 'Okey, dokey..' but I had some good lines.

T: You stayed out the debate about why Jonathan Demme and Jodie Foster didn't do the film. Are you indifferent to who is going to play opposite you?

ANTHONY:
No. My personality is not constructed to control things. I can't be bothered to control things. I have no destiny in trying to figure out who is going to play a role. I find whenever I put my ten cents into saying I want this person or that person it always goes wrong. Because I really am just an actor and that's what I do best. And I gamble on the fact that I'm an actor, I don't get involved in any of the political stuff of why people don't do things. I don't want control at all. And I've got older I've got more detached from it and I don't take any of it too seriously. I do the job I'm paid to do, I give it my best shot and I work very hard at learning the text and understanding and becoming the person I'm playing and that's the best I can do and that's all I owe the film company and the audience. Beyond that I don't get immersed in the other stuff, it's none of my business what people do. In fact, my life doesn't seem to be much of my business. It doesn't concern me no more than it concerns me what you write down in your notebook about me, it's none of my business, that's your business. And it gives me a sense of detachment and powerlessness which is very good really because it gives me a sense of complete detachment and I can get on with my life without worrying about what you think or say of me. And it's the same with acting. If they like what I do fine, if they don't tough. It's just finally a job, it just happens to be a bit more public, what I do, but it's a job, it's a way of making a living and I enjoy it. I'm not cynical about it but I am detached from it.

T: Why do you think people like to see monsters like Hannibal on the screen?

ANTHONY:
I don't know, but one of the most interesting parts in Shakespeare is Iago, the way he just takes everyone apart in three hours on stage because he's the devil. And we admire him in a secret, perverse way because perhaps we would like to be as certain and as daredevil as that. Or Richard III, Laurence Olivier's performance as Richard III where you are rooting for him all the way but he is the devil incarnate. It's like watching Hitchcock's Psycho or Jaws or going on a rollercoaster or watching Evil Kinevil jumping over the Grand Canyon on a motorbike. What do we want? We want to see him fall. We want to see Houdini not get out of the box. But that doesn't mean that we are deeply disturbed sick people it means we are human. Lawrence Olivier once said about an actor, a friend of mine who had a bad review, and he said to me 'always remember one thing, when you get a bad review, you make a lot of other actors very happy...' And that's the truth. I think Gore Vidal said it, you always want to see your friends suffer a little more, you don't only want your own success you want to see other people fail. Now that's a pretty selfish thing but we are human beings. Can we sit and pontificate in our self righteousness about what we think about violence and all of that. One character said to me 'well, don't you think you have a responsibility?' I mean we are all flawed, deeply damaged, imperfect human beings and we can sit here squeezing each other's knees, pretending we are purists and that we are free and innocent. Bullshit. None of us are free of that. We are corruptible, shabby, grubby, great, magnificent and all the rest of it. We are a mixture. That's why we go and see these films, that's why we like to be entertained. We like to see the bad guy get his deserts, we like to see Dirty Harry say 'make my day...' …

And JULIANNE MOORE on "HANNIBAL":

T. What was it like working with director Ridley Scott? JULIANNE: Ridley is interesting, because when you look at his films you realise he always identifies with someone who's an outsider, whether men or women.

T. The most provoking scenes was when you shoot the mother with her the baby. How did you feel doing that?

JULIANNE:
Well, it was pretty upsetting. I think it's there to show what kind of obstacles Clarice is up against and what kind of situations she's been putting in. She was responsible for this entire operation when she called off the raid. When people from the DC police didn't listen to her, she ended up taking the fall for it. I think the FBI people that work in these positions are really tough. They're taught to shoot to kill, never to aim. It's a completely untenable situation. So, it was pretty upsetting.

T. There is a certain bond between Lecter and Clarice. Can you describe it?

JULIANNE:
I think, that as extreme as they are, they're very similar. They're both exceptionally solitary people. But he's someone completely self-governed and kind of wild, she is strictly about morality and right and wrong. But they are able to recognise each other. She knows exactly who he is, precisely from studying him and watching him. She knows exactly what he is and who he is. And in turn, he can see her. It's rare that people can actually, truly see one another. That's the nature of their bond.

T. Do you think Clarice goes after him to save him or to save her career?

JULIANNE:
I think it's a combination of things, you know. I also don't think that Clarice works for the FBI because she's punching a time clock. I think she believes that it's her duty to do these things. She goes on till the job is finished and because of the right and wrong thing, she feels is not right for this man to be eaten by pigs. It's OK if she put him back in jail but she doesn't want him to die that way.

T. How did you get cast for the role?

JULIANNE:
It was a very exciting. It happens so quickly that I didn't have a whole lot of time to think about it. It was one of those things. I kind of heard they were interested in me. You know, you hear that kind of > stuff and sometimes it doesn't mean anything. I got a phone call to meet Ridley in LA. I went in one day, came back, and the same evening, I got the call with the offer. It was very fast.

T. How did you get along with Mr. Scott?

JULIANNE:
I thought that Ridley and I were really able to talk to each other. And maybe that's because he has red hair too.

T. In what way do you see Clarice growing?

JULIANNE:
I don't know, it's always so hard to say. At the end of the movie, I feel like she's been through a lot. As hard as she's tried, she hasn't been able to obtain her goals. It's hard to say what's going to happen but she certainly will be in big, big trouble with the FBI.

T. You had your child on the set with you. I' m wondering how that worked? And what he thought of those incredible hulks?

JULIANNE:
The pigs? He loved the pigs. Kids love pigs. He's been on the set since he was tiny. And he thinks I work in a trailer because there's always a trailer. So we come in, we have lunch come, he hangs around and he plays in the afternoon. It was very easy because it was a very child-friendly set. Ridley likes children and likes to have them around. He was actually quite nice. That's the one good thing about being an actor. I'm very fortunate, not many mothers can bring their kids to work.

T. Now, that you're a mother, do think twice before taking a role?

JULIANNE:
You know everything that happens in your life changes you, as a person. And motherhood is no exception. It changes you profoundly. So, obviously yes, I think a lot about everything.

T. Did you have any funny experiences making this film?

JULIANNE:
Every day was funny. It sounds crazy. My gun jammed, I felt like a jerk. The pigs were funny because when you watch 20 pigs run after one grape, that's funny. Believe it or not, it was a very light-hearted film and very enjoyable. And people really had a good time.

T. You're very down-to-earth and not like usual movie stars. What would you tribute that to?

JULIANNE:
I'm pretty old, I've been around a while. I've done work on soap operas and television shows. I've worked on plays and kind of worked all over the place. It's all just work and it's important to enjoy it and not take it too seriously.

T. You've said that you're nervous when you start a movie. How nervous where you starting this one?

JULIANNE:
I'm always nervous when I start a movie. If I do movies back to back then it's not so hard. It's always hardest when I haven't worked in about a year. As it was this time. The last film I did was "End of the Affair", and then took a year off. When I went back to work, I said "Holy cow it's been a long time". That's why I was so glad that Ridley let me sit down in the first scene.

T. Do have a special techniques to overcome your nervousness?

JULIANNE:
Sitting down. If I can get them to let me sit down in my first scene I'm a lot better.

And what does GARY OLDMAN, RAY LIOTTA, GIANCARLO GIANNINI say:

T.: How did you feel when you were offered the role?

RAY LIOTTA:
Because of the opportunity to work with all these guys, they are all people I've always wanted to work with. This was about the fact that it is a sequel but that had nothing to with it [me wanting to be in the film], but the opportunity to work with Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore and all the guys was the thing for me.

Mr Oldman, can you tell us what kind of hell you went through every day in Make-up?

GARY OLDMAN:
It took five hours to put on, and an hour and a half to take off. The worst bit was at the end of the day when you just wanted to get out of there, but you surrender to the process. And when you play a guy who's got no skin you pretty much know what you're in for. And I've had makeup experience before, you know; I worked on Dracula. The makeup on this was surprisingly comfortable, but I would have done anything for Ridley [Scott]. It didn't matter what I had to go through, I always wanted to work with him, so I was prepared to go through with it.

What about the speaking, was that hard?

GARY:
it wasn't like I had to overcome restrictions. Because I wasn't seeing very well, and that's how the character is I could use all that...

Mr Oldman, was it difficult accepting a role without a face, and when you first put the makeup on how did you feel?

GARY:
I took the role before I'd read the script or before I'd read the book. But I knew about the book, and I knew about the character of the skin-less. but like I said; Ridley was the big hook here, that's why I wanted to do it. I had ac couple of months of preparation time were I had to come in for fittings, so I knew what it was all going to look like.

Mr Oldman, your performance is un-credited, and you were striving for a certain amount of anonymity with this film, why have you decided to 'come out' and speak to the press?

GARY:
I read somewhere that I wanted billing about Tony [Hopkins]. (Laughs) Because I'm the man of many faces - you know, I've played Lee Harvey Oswald, Sid Vicious, Beethoven and this is the man with no face. So we just wanted to have a big of fun with the anonymity thing. There are a lot of people out there who don't know how I am, I'm not in their homes every week, I'm not on TV, so we just thought: 'no face, no name'.

Is it medically possible for a person to be still alive even when half their brain is hanging out?

RAY:
I don't know, I didn't research... there are certain procedures with the brain that when they are correcting something they have to remove part of the brain. When we did this I didn't know how it worked, how drugged up I was supposed to be, so I just figured just to have fun with it. It's so bizarre to be talking to Hannibal Lecter. From what I've heard and seen of documentaries there are times when the patient has to be awake during brain surgery.

The violence is some of the most sickening we've seen in movies in recent times. Have you ever asked yourselves the question; why does the world need to see this?

GARY:
I think it's important that political correctitied that there has to be artistic free expression, and this is no more violent than any Greek play you could read. So MGM have taken a policy that they will not advertise this movie to a readership of people who have a readership over 40. It is Hannibal, he is a cannibal, and he eats people. You know what you are going to see when you see this film, if you don't want to see it I suggest they watch another movie. RAY: On the poster you see a weird looking guy with red eyes. I don't think we can surprise anybody with what it is, I mean, it's operatic, it's Shakespearean.

Mr Giannini, can you talk about the importance of Italy in this film and what your character brings to the story?

GIANCARLO GIANNINI:
Florence brings a moment of colour in to the film which would otherwise have not been there. And the film takes place in the centre of world culture and for a clash of intellect, a pathological intellect of someone who comes from an ancient Florentine family who gets in to this game, to play the game until the bitter end, thinking that he can out-smart Hannibal.

How was it watching the movie for the first time?

GARY:
It was really fun. I just cracked up, I saw the movie with Anthony Hopkins and the end scene we improvised a lot and after a take we'd look at each other and crack up. It was so bizarre. When we saw the film and the brain scene had finished we looked at each other and said 'Oh my God, this is out there'.

Mr Liotta. Your character is a real sexist pig. What are your feelings towards women personally?

RAY:
(Laughs) I love my mother, I love my wife, I love you all (laughs). It's a game and that was what I was playing. I've done a lot of movie where I've had to force women to kiss me, but I don't personalise with any of the parts I play. In fact the further away from me a character is, the easier it is to play.

Mr Oldman, did your homework include watching films like "The Elephant Man"?

GARY:
Well, I had dinner with David Lynch (laughs). No, I didn't do any research. I read the script, and it was good, so that was enough for me I didn't have to go outside that framework. It's like they say in the theatre: 'if it isn't on the page, it isn't on the stage'.

Were you allowed to improvise a lot and add to your characters?

GIANCARLO GIANNINI:
I didn't have any problems that I can think of. It was important that we didn't jack it up too much, we had to remember that we were

Mr Oldman, why do you often play such complex and dysfunctional characters?

and how do you get them out of your system so they don't effect you?

GARY:
I'm at the mercy of... People think that you [an actor] get offered everything. There are scripts that come in that I may turn down. But I'm at the mercy of the industry and to what comes across my desk. So before I made "The Contender" I was out of work for two years. That's the way it is, so when things come in - when this film turned up, like I said I wanted to do it. I have to pay the mortgage. I've got children and all those things. So the films kind of pick me, rather than me saying 'now I want to do this movie'. There are roles that you chase, but you don't always get them.

Mr Oldman, in the book your character has a very weird relationship with his sister, and also with a fish. Why isn't the character of your sister in the movie?

GARY:
I don't know, but the book was something like 800 pages long, so it was all like having an elephant in a telephone booth. You've got to make the film work and put it in to 110 pages. What I'm told is that Ridley approached Thomas Harris [the author of the book] and said 'look, what can you loose from the book?', and it turned out that the sister was it. But I'll tell you; if the sister had been in the book, I would have wanted to play her (laughs).

Mr Liotta and Mr Oldman, you both play a lot of bad guys, do you love that or have you tried to get parts as good guys?

RAY:
I've played a lot of good guys, but nobody seems to remember them. Bad guys stand out, you remember them. Think about Robert DeNiro or any of these guys, it's the bad guys they've played that you tend to remember. But you can't manipulate your career, I take what I'm given a lot of the time, when I've tried to manipulate my career it's back-fired. GARY: I've played some good guys as well, but no one remembers them either. You do a movie like "Airforce One" and it's seen by everyone,

Have you ever been up for the same parts as 'the bad guy'?

RAY:
No, not as far as we know.

What's it like working with Anthony?

GARY:
He's naughty. He loves a joke, he is a great impersonator. He kept me really amused with his impersonating people. He can joke and fool around and he has this ability of suddenly focus and pull it in and that was in the scenes I had with him. He has a good sense of humour, Tony. RAY: I've worked with some of the greats, Robert Duval, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, and I feel like I'm still a student. So to watch them work and they all have a certain ease, they do it with such a certainty. But they screw up also, and I take some comfort in that - not in the fact that they are screwing up, but rather in the way that they are just like me, human beings doing a job, and it's nice to work alongside actors like this, and watching the going through the same process that I do.

Thanks to Universal Pictures.

Trauma Magazine, 2001


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