Oscar Actors: Hopkins, Anthony–The Silence Of The Lambs (Brief Screen Time)

Anthony Hopkins won the 1991 Best Actor Oscar with just 16 minutes of screen time as the smart cannibal serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, in Jonathan Demme’s brilliant crime thriller The Silence of the Lambs.

However, Hopkins’ turn as Hannibal the Cannibal is so chilling that it feels like he appears on-screen for much longer.

He was not the first thespian to have won the lead award for such a small role: In 1958, David Niven was on screen about the same length of time (15 minutes) when he won the award for Separate Tables (It’s also one of the weakest performances in Oscar’s entire history).

For the role of Lecter, Demme originally approached Sean Connery. After Connery turned it down, Anthony Hopkins was offered the role based on his performance in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man (1980).  After reading the first 10 pages, Hopkins said, “This is the best part I’ve ever read.”

Other actors considered for the role included Al Pacino, De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Derek Jacobi, and Daniel Day-Lewis.

Hopkins drew inspiration for his role from the HAL 9000 computer as voiced by Douglas Rain in 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as the vocal patterns of writer Truman Capote.

In a 2001 interview with GQ, Hopkins said that he did not base Lecter’s vocals on Katharine Hepburn, as some people had believed. (Hopkins had co-starred with Hepburn in the 1968 drama, The Lion in Winter).

His decision to play Lecter as still and unblinking was not influenced by Charles Manson, as some had speculated.

Hopkins iconic mask was created by Ed Cubberly, of New Jersey, who had made masks for NHL goalkeepers.