With two Oscars to his name, giant Sir Anthony Hopkins firmly resides in Hollywood’s winners enclosure.
Now the acting great is saddling up for a very different challenge – playing a champion racehorse owner.
Silence of the Lambs star Sir Anthony, 87, is taking on the role in Guy Ritchie’s new film Wife & Dog alongside silver screen royalty Benedict Cumberbatch and Rosamund Pike.
The flick sees real-life trainer Jamie Snowden, whose clients include the King and Queen, train a string of racehorses for the character Sir Anthony plays. His accomplishments include two Cheltenham Festival victories out of more than 400 winners.
He said: “It is a bit of a bizarre scenario. I got a phone call out of the blue asking if I would be interested in this role in this new film Guy Ritchie is producing.
“I’ve not been told much about it, but Benedict Cumberbatch, Rosamund Pike and Sir Anthony are all in it.
“In the film Sir Anthony has a string of racehorses and I’ve been asked to become his trainer.
“I’m going to do a little bit of filming in the paddock after racing at Sandown. I’ve been told to be there to take a few shots for the film.”
Today the stars were the talk of the turf, braving the cold at Sandown park in Surrey as filming got underway.
Welsh-born Sir Anthony’s glittering 65-year career has spawned two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Laurence Olivier Award.
He won Best Actor Oscars for his role as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and an octogenarian with dementia in The Father (2020), becoming the oldest actor in history to do so.
Ritchie, who is behind the Netflix hit drama The Gentlemen’ has assembled an A-list cast.
Details of the plot have been kept under wraps but the IMDB website reported it will be set within the “colourful, back-stabbing world of British aristocracy”.