Hannibal (film) - Development - Casting - Anthony Hopkins As Hannibal Lecter

Anthony Hopkins As Hannibal Lecter

Hopkins was generally expected to reprise his Academy Award-winning role. Hopkins did say in June 1999 that he would only be interested if the script was "really good". Hopkins says on the making-of feature on DVD that he couldn’t make up his mind to commit. "I was kind of surprised by this book, Hannibal. I thought it was really overreaching and so bizarre. So I couldn’t make up my mind about it all. Some of it I found intriguing, some I was a little doubtful about." When the producers confirmed that they were going to film Harris' novel, Hopkins told them yes, but added: "It needs some condensing." The Hollywood Reporter would confirm that Hopkins had agreed to reprise his role in late December 1999, saying he had approved the latest draft of the script by Steven Zaillian. Hopkins said he had no difficulty moving back into "Lecter's mind". "I just learned the lines and showed up and walked around as Hannibal Lecter. I thought, 'Do I repeat that same performance, or do I vary it?' Ten years had passed so I changed a bit." In the book, Lecter uses bandages to disguise himself as a plastic surgery patient. This was left out of the film because Scott and Hopkins agreed to leave the face alone. Hopkins explains why: "It's as if he's making a statement – 'catch me if you can'. With his big hat, he's so obvious that nobody thinks he's Hannibal Lecter. I've always thought he's a very elegant man, a Renaissance man." In the film, Lecter is first seen in Florence "as the classical Lecter, lecturing and being smooth", according to Hopkins. When the film moves to the US, Hopkins changed his appearance by building up muscle and cropping his hair short "to make him like a mercenary, that he would be so fit and so strong that he could just snap somebody in two if they got... in his way".