by Anthony Frajman
Anthony Hopkins has always gravitated towards portraying outsiders.
Take his role as Hannibal Lecter, which launched him to superstardom. Or his part as a repressed butler in James Ivory’s The Remains of the Day.
Even in his 2021 film, The Father, for which he won his second Oscar, Hopkins played an ailing man with dementia facing a world that he no longer understands.
So, it might not come as a surprise that the legendary actor was immediately attracted to his latest film, James Gray’s semi-biographical family drama, Armageddon Time, in which he plays a Ukrainian refugee who mentors his grandson, in early 1980s New York.
“It was very easy for me to play,” Hopkins says.
In the film, the actor stars as Aaron Rabinowitz, who guides his 11-year-old grandson Paul Graff (Banks Repeta), as he navigates adolescence and ambitions to be an artist, while dealing with his strict parents (played by Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong). As Paul befriends a Black classmate, Johnny (Jaylin Webb) and is exposed to racism and bullying, his grandfather provides advice and guidance.
Hopkins says he related to the film because it mirrored his own difficult upbringing, growing up in Port Talbot, Wales. Like his on-screen grandson, Hopkins had strict parents and an artistic bent. Growing up, he shared a close bond with his grandfather, a steelworker.
“My grandfather and I were very close as a kid. He always told me not to take life too seriously. Don’t ever run away. Just keep going. And always have a laugh,” Hopkins says.
As a child, Hopkins, a self-described “outsider”, struggled with his studies. His grandfather’s support was instrumental in steering him through his adolescence.
“Where my own father would be worried about me. My grandfather said, ‘Don’t let it bother you, just get on with your life and you’ll do okay, just live. Both my father and my grandfather, they were good. And they both helped in their own way,” Hopkins says.
The actor says he “very much” felt his own grandfather in his performance, and that making the film transported him back to those early days. In one of Hopkins’ particularly standout scenes, the actor gives his grandson a stern pep-talk in the park. Hopkins says that when they were filming this scene, he felt as if it was a moment straight out of his childhood.
“There’s a scene in the park at the end, where I’m having a heart-to-heart with my grandson, and I poke him in the ribs and say, ‘You think that’s funny when someone makes a joke about the kids in school? It’s not funny. When are you gonna wake up?’ That happened in my life,” he says.
Hopkins says making Armageddon Time, and working together with American director James Gray reminded him of the experience of working with the late filmmaker Jonathan Demme on The Silence of the Lambs.
“(Gray) was such a free spirit and so was Jon. Working with Jonathan was a ball, we had fun the whole time. He was one of the best, and so is James,” Hopkins says.
The 4-time BAFTA winner has no interest in slowing down. He already has another major film in the can, One Life, alongside Helena Bonham-Pryce and Jonathan Pryce, in which he plays real life British WW2 hero Sir Nicholas Winton. Another is planned, Freud’s Last Session, and another feature with Gray in the offing.
Looking back on his journey from Wales to Hollywood, Hopkins says he still has to pinch himself.
“All these years later, I’m still here and still working. They still give me jobs, keeps me outta trouble,” Hopkins says with a laugh.
Armageddon Time is out now on home entertainment.
