“It’s a film, there’s no reason to treat someone like that”. Anthony Hopkins has worked for decades with some of Hollywood’s most important directors, but says there was always something he refused to tolerate: someone using their position to mistreat actors.
In an interview with The New York Times, he recalled a shoot in which he saw a director yelling at a young actress in front of the entire crew. Hopkins immediately intervened and confronted him: “You raise your voice at this lady one more decibel and I’m out!”.
Afterward, the actress approached him to thank him, and Hopkins asked her how long she had been receiving that treatment. Her answer surprised him: it had been happening throughout the entire shoot.
For the actor, no project justified such behavior. “Don’t raise your voice. It’s a film. It’s a stupid film. That’s all it is. It’s not important”, he explained when recalling why he never had a problem standing up to directors he considered abusive.
Hopkins did not reveal who the actress or director were, although various names have been speculated about online. What he did want to make clear was something much simpler: no film is so important that one should forget the respect a person deserves.
