Silence of the Lambs stars Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster stayed away from each other until fin...

&34;I was as scary as I could be,&34; Hopkins said of Foster's first impression of him. Silence of the Lambs stars Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster stayed away from each other until final day of filming &34;I was as scary as I could be,&34; Hopkins said of Foster's first impression of him. By Shania Russell :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/ShaniaRussellauthorphoto5934b684845d480caa4485648c39ef2b.jpg) Shania Russell Shania Russell is a news writer at , with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine. EW's editorial guidelines November 2, 2025 4:54 p.

"I was as scary as I could be," Hopkins said of Foster's first impression of him.

Silence of the Lambs stars Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster stayed away from each other until final day of filming

"I was as scary as I could be," Hopkins said of Foster's first impression of him.

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

EW's editorial guidelines

November 2, 2025 4:54 p.m. ET

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Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster in 'The Silence of the Lambs' (1991). Credit:

Ken Regan/Orion/Kobal/Shutterstock

Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster accidentally went a little method while filming *The Silence of the Lambs*.

Don't worry, the duo didn't get up to anything too nefarious on the set of the iconic 1991 thriller, but much like their characters Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling, the actors had some trepidation about the person on the other side of the glass. Hopkins recounted his unusual relationship with costar Jodie Foster — and his immediate connection to Hannibal Lecter — in his new book,* We Did OK, Kid: A Memoir*, shared an excerpt by* The Sunday Times*.

"I knew the character instantly. I instinctively sensed how to play Hannibal," Hopkins wrote of the iconic villain. "I have the devil in me. We all have the devil in us. I know what scares people."

When the time came for the first table read, Hopkins leaned into those devilish instincts. Unfortunately, he "didn't get a chance" to chat with Foster beforehand, so her very first impression of him was in character, embracing the personality of the fictional serial killer.

Anthony Hopkins in 'The Silence of the Lambs'.

"We just flew right into it," Hopkins recalled. "I wanted to show what I could do, so I was as scary as I could be. You could have heard a pin drop in the room. A couple of seconds after I started to speak as Lecter, I saw Jodie grow tense."

The thriller, based on Thomas Harris's 1988 bestseller, sees Hopkins play brilliant psychiatrist and psychotic cannibal Hannibal Lecter, who has been locked up in an institution for the criminally insane. That's where FBI trainee Clarice comes in, visiting the institution to interview Lecter in the hopes of gaining insight into another serial killer known as Buffalo Bill.

"[Foster and I] mostly kept away from each other," Hopkins wrote. "Then, on our last day of shooting, we had lunch. It was freezing cold in Pittsburgh. Jodie put down her sandwich and said she had to confess something: she'd been scared of me."

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Hopkins replied that he was scared of her, too, and the duo laughed it off.

"We had a big hug, and we both admitted to feeling a strange sense of distance during the shoot, due no doubt to the power of that script, which had us playing a cat-and-mouse game," he recalled. "Since then, we've always greeted each other with great warmth."

All of that terrifying energy paid off in the end. *The Silence of the Lambs *was a sleeper hit, grossing more than $270 million worldwide and winning big at the Academy Awards. It remains the only horror film to have won Best Picture, and also snagged Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor for Hopkins, and Best Actress for Foster.

Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster pose with their Oscars at the 64th annual Academy Awards in 1992 in Los Angeles. John Barr/Liaison/Getty

As for Foster's side of the story, she previously discussed being afraid of Hopkins during a 2019 Masterclass at SXSW, explaining that many of the techniques used by director Jonathan Demme enhanced the fear that they felt of one another.

"The movie didn't scare me, but Anthony Hopkins scared me," Foster shared. "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."

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She continued, "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."

Foster also pointed out that they were kept physically apart by the set design, explaining that it took 20 minutes to get Hopkins in and out of the complicated bars-and-glass setup protecting Clarice from Hannibal. Fans of the movie know that those bars could hold Hannibal back for only so long, as well.**

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Source: "EW Movies"

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Source: Movies

Published: November 03, 2025 at 06:00AM on Source: VOXI MAG

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