Some performances are life-altering for actors and viewers alike. The right role may bring fame, awards, and cultural iconography to a performer; audiences often imprint said role onto an actor and forever view them through that lens. In that regard,villains generate especially charged reactions. Logically, viewers know that a human being and a fictional character don’t equate. Many actors who specialize in evil roles could win an award for the world’s nicest person as easily as they might an Oscar. Nevertheless, something about villains short-circuits our brain cells. A performer known for an especially memorable villain appears, and we’re instinctively freaked out. Common sense? Out the window.
Well, surprise! We humble fans aren’t the only ones guilty of that knee-jerk reaction. One suspense film, in particular, boasts a performance bone-chilling enough that the actor’s direct co-star avoided him at all costs. And that movie happens to be one of the 20th century’s most seminal features as well as one of the few horror films recognized by the Oscars:The Silence of the Lambs, starring industry veteransJodie FosterandAnthony Hopkins.
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Making ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ Was Risky
Based on the bestselling and award-winning crime-thriller novel byThomas Harris,The Silence of the Lambsisthe second adaptation of a novelfrom the four-book Hannibal Lecter series but the first to star Anthony Hopkins in the role. Hopkins later reprised “Hannibal the Cannibal” twice onscreen, but not before none other than Logan Roy himself,Brian Cox, originated the psychiatristturned serial killer in 1986’sManhunter.Manhunter, in turn, was based on Harris’s novelRed Dragonand served as inspiration for much of showrunnerBryan Fuller’sHannibalseries starring everyone’s favoritefranchise kingMads Mikkelsen.
Despite the novel’s success, Hollywood brass deemed it a tricky if not impossible proposition to transferThe Silence of the Lambs' nightmare-inducing content to movie theaters. It didn’t help matters thatManhunterwasn’t a financial win.LambsscreenwriterTed TallytoldThe New York Timesin 1991, “A prominent producer [said] this book could never make a movie and that I shouldn’t even try.” Nevertheless, producer and rights holderDino De Laurentiislet Orion Pictures proceed with a film anchored by directorJonathan Demme. Jodie Foster, fresh off her first Academy Award win for her tour-de-force turn inThe Accused, lobbied for the lead role of Clarice Starling: a reserved, intuitive, and steadfast FBI agent-in-training who thrives as an investigator without sacrificing her indefatigable compassion.
Anthony Hopkins, playing the cultured, terrifyingly intelligent, manipulative for kicks, and sometimes tender Dr. Lecter,declared Tally’s screenplay"the best script I’ve ever read" after only ten pages. Already an experienced stage and screen actor, Hopkins"knew exactly" how to approach the character. “He knows how to scare people,” he informedGQ Magazinein 2021. “One rule of naturalists when they’re confronting the great gorillas is don’t look at them. Because that’s a threat. So when Lecter doesn’t take his eyes off you, that’s frightening.”
Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter Terrified Jodie Foster on Set
Anthony Hopkins' on-point instincts resulted in a staggeringly immaculate performance that terrified his leading lady full-stop. Duringan interview onThe Graham Norton Show, Jodie Foster shares amusing details about her on-set experiences with Hopkins. The English actor never did anything untoward or unusual (well, besides stare at her in-character a little too creepily), but following the script’s initial table read, she was so frightened of him that she avoided him entirely. Wearing a half-grin, she admits she never initiated a conversation. “He was scary!” she exclaims in explanation. “I was petrified.”
In a delightful twist of fate,the intimidation effect was mutual. Foster recalls how Hopkins approached her while she was munching “a tuna fish sandwich” on the film’s last shoot day. “I sort of had a tear in my eye,” she said. She admitted her terror to Hopkins' face — to which her co-star replied, “I was scared of you!” For Hopkins, his shyness boiled down to feeling honored to work alongside Foster. He elaborated in aVariety"Actors on Actors" retrospective for the film’s 30th anniversary that “I couldn’t believe my luck, and I was scared to speak to you. I thought, she just won an Oscar.” Aside from being a preciously adorable fact, let that be a lesson to anyone who doubts the validity of a powerful woman’s screen presence!
One can hardly blame Foster for her reaction. Remember how logic doesn’t always factor in when an actor’sjust that good? After three decades, Anthony Hopkins' disquieting potency as Hannibal Lecterhasn’t aged poorly or diluted with timein any respect. That role immortalized the actor, and his character, within the media landscape. There was no shortage of pop culture references mimicking Hopkins' delivery and the larger film itself in the years followingThe Silence of the Lambs' 1991 debut. Best of all, despite having minimal total screen time, Hopkins would win the Academy Award for Best Actor — his first of two golden statues, just like Foster.
As if Hopkins' own expertise wasn’t enough, director Jonathan Demme and cinematographerTak Fujimotoamplified the atmospheric unease to nearly unbearable levels by having Hopkins perform directly into the camera. This unusual placement, one Foster described as “a sort of [Alfred] Hitchcockian technique” in herGraham Nortoninterview, forced the audience to share Lecter’s line of sight and maintain direct eye contact until editorCraig McKaymercifully cut to a different shot. Having all of Lecter’s avid, predatory intent focused on the camera enhanced TheSilence of the Lambs' existing tension to skin-crawling, actively distressing palpability. Even though the set design kept Foster and Hopkins separated behind “glass partitions,” Lecter’s gaze felt personal, capable of piercing through the screen and devouring one whole. “Most of the time when he’s delivering his lines he’s not looking at me,” Foster continued, “he’s looking directly at the camera. And I’m somewhere behind there where he can’t see me.”
‘The Silence of the Lambs’ Was a Critical and Commercial Success
The Silence of the Lambsachieved phenomenal financial success for the era,clocking in at $272M worldwide. It remainsone of the few films to sweep the five “biggest” Oscar categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay (although the sweep can be either Screenplay category).Lambsalso holds a prestigious honor among horror aficionados for being the rare genre effort to earn Oscar approval. Although 1973’sThe Exorcistwas nominated for 10 Oscars, a breakthrough recognition for the genre, and won Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound, the Academy has along-standing, unfortunate tendency to snub horrordespite remarkable performances, writing, and technical achievements.
Thankfully,The Silence of the Lambsis a rare exception. It’s this writer’s favorite movie and an experience that opened my mind to the endless wonders filmmaking could accomplish.Lambs' continued effectiveness is a testament to all parties involved, including and especially the techniques maximizing the lasting aura already induced by Hopkins' performance. He truly did things on-screen no one had done before, placing a new face upon our worst nightmares and setting the standard of villainy for ages to come.
