Fracture
Anthony Hopkins knows everybody is going to compare Fracture to Hannibal Lecter. He plays another intelligent killer with likeable attributes so that audiences may even want to see him get away with the crime. Hopkins doesn't usually repeat himself though, so there was something more to Fracture.
Anthony Hopkins on Fracture
"It's not a question of just playing killers," said Sir Anthony. "I've played lots of other roles. People say, 'Why did you do this part?' And I usually say 'Money' or something like that. But this film I liked because the script was so good. It was different but as good I think as Silence of the Lambs and it's all to do with structure I think. And I'm a fan of this sort of movie like Sleepers or Primal Fear, Presumed Innocent, Jagged Edge. Those things that keep you entertained, they're thrillers and that's what I liked about it."
Actually, his impressions were even more basic. "I can usually tell, this sounds weird, but the script, especially if it's been recommended and I read it and I look at it, even the way it's been set out. Even the kind of lineup of the dialogue and if there's not too much description, you know. If it's just minimal description or stage directions, film direction, I have a hunch that it's going to be good. Then I read this and I thought it was the best script I'd had since Silence of the Lambs. It's a very clean structure. It's very clear, concise, economic in it's delivery and that's why it appealed to me."
Screenwriters take note. If you just format the pages correctly, you'll land Anthony Hopkins. "When you feel good with the dialogue, and it's got moments when you think in your solar plexus 'This is really good,' that's what I felt about this. And it just happens to be that he's a killer. It's got nothing to do with anything else. It's just it came my way. Maybe they thought I'd be good at it because I played Hannibal Lecter but I don't know."
Fracture's Ted Crawford isn't a psychiatrist or a cannibal, among many other differences, so Hopkins keeps these comparisons in perspective. "It's so funny how the formula is though that in Lector's case, his opponent is a young woman who's very smart, which challenges Lector's intimate need. And with Crawford, it's a different personality. When we were filming it, it did cross my mind a few times, I thought, 'This is a really juicy part.' And I said to Greg one day, we're doing the scene, Billy Burke comes in, the cop, after I say 'I shot my wife in the head' and I saw it on the playback monitor. It was lit a certain way and I said, 'It's a bit close to Silence of the Lambs.' And he said, 'Yeah, maybe it is. We ought to adjust the lighting a bit.' He said, 'Do you mind?' I said, 'It's okay, whatever.' Because I don't want to go back to the old, I mean , I've done Lecter three times now. But it was fun. People compare it, but that's good. It's all right. It's a good flick, both. If they compare it, that's okay."
Fracture opens to theatres on April 20th.
For the trailer, poster, stills and more movie info, go to the Fracture
Movie Page.
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