Sir Anthony Hopkins has worked with some of cinema’s greatest filmmakers, but the Oscar-winning actor once singled out one director as the worst he’d ever collaborated with – comparing his behaviour on set to Adolf Hitler.
The Welsh actor, known for his legendary performances in The Silence of the Lambs, The Elephant Man and The Two Popes, has spent more than five decades in the film industry, earning acclaim for his nuanced and often chilling portrayals.
But in a brutally honest reflection on his career, Hopkins opened up about one experience that left a lasting mark – working with Otto Preminger, the Austrian-American director behind classics such as Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and Laura (1944).
Preminger was one of Hollywood’s most recognisable directors of the mid-20th century, carving out a reputation for tackling taboo subjects and pushing boundaries in films like The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) and Advise & Consent (1962).
But behind his pioneering work, he was equally known for his authoritarian approach on set, with actors and crew often describing him as intimidating, abrasive, and controlling – a reputation Hopkins now confirms in his own scathing recollections.
Speaking candidly in an interview with Joseph Egan, Hopkins did not hold back when describing the filmmaker’s behaviour. “Preminger was a bully,” he said. “It was Olivier who finally went to him and said, ‘If you don’t stop this, this instant, Noel Coward and I are walking straight off the film. You are a maniac!’”
Hopkins also recalled the devastating impact Preminger had on one of his co-stars during the filming of Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965).
“Preminger is a fake,” he said. “He actually killed an actress who was an alcoholic. She was in Bunny Lake is Missing with Laurence Olivier. It was Martita Hunt.”
“She played the old woman living in the attic. She was an alcoholic, and three months after that film was completed, she died of alcoholic poisoning because she had nothing else to do but drink herself to death. He called her an old bag and an old whore, and a has-been. It simply destroyed her.”
Despite Preminger’s reputation for producing acclaimed films, Hopkins said his conduct towards actors was unforgivable. “He’s a delightful man to talk to socially,” Hopkins added.
“But you get him on the set, and he becomes Adolf Hitler. They’re monsters, they’re ogres. I don’t like maligning people, but I’m naming these people in order to protect other actors from them.”