Anthony Hopkins, 81, Reveals He’s a ‘Workaholic’: I’ll Work ‘Until I Drop’

He may be up there in age, but that doesn’t mean that Anthony Hopkins will stop working anytime soon — especially since he enjoys it so much.

“I’m a workaholic. I act; I paint; I play music; I read a lot. It keeps the brain active,” the 81-year-old explained to AARP the Magazine for their December/January issue. “I’ll go on working until I drop.” However, he does find himself taking a break here and there, and that’s all thanks to his longtime wife, Stella.

“Stella is good at keeping me in a harness. I spend hours in the studio painting, and she’ll come in and say, ‘Enough.’ I don’t have much common sense,” the actor told the outlet. The pair tied the knot in 2003. They do not share any kids, but they are of course quite close. In fact, Stella is even working on a documentary on her loving husband.

“One of my teachers told her I was a mystery [when I was young],” Anthony said. “I didn’t speak to other kids; I didn’t play sports; I didn’t even go to the school plays. But I was tired of being called stupid, and I thought, ‘One day I’ll show you all.’ And I became this other person. My career took off.” So good!

The A-lister is best known for his incredible performance as Hannibal Lecter in the classic 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs, a job that won him an Oscar for Best Actor. “I have an instinct for those kinds of people. They’re narcissists,” Anthony said of the role. “I don’t know if that’s in me — I just understand them. And I’ll never escape from that guy. When I started reading ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ script, I told my agent, ‘This is the part of a lifetime.’ It changed everything for me.”

Anthony starred alongside Jodie Foster in the thriller — the actress, 57, even once said she was quite terrified of her costar doing filming. “The movie didn’t scare me, but Anthony Hopkins scared me,” Jodie revealed during her MasterClass at the 2019 SXSW Festival. “You’ll notice, if you look at the movie again, instead of the person looking at the person off screen, that the actors are actually looking down the lens. And that means I am there, but way behind the camera and I’m just a voice; he can’t see me. And the same is true on my side. So when I’m doing scenes with Dr. Lecter, I just hear this disembodied, scary voice, but I don’t actually see his face. I have to look into the camera and pretend that he’s in the camera.” Yikes!

Well we certainly can’t wait to see what else Anthony has up his sleeve!