Sir Anthony Hopkins stars as Vespasian in the series Those About to Die, debuting on Prime Video Friday July 19.
Sir Anthony Hopkins stars as Vespasian in the series Those About to Die, debuting on Prime Video Friday July 19.
The acting legend chats to Karl Puschmann about his new Roman epic Those About to Die, a new series to take on the sword-and-sandals genre.
I’ve barely said, ‘Kia ora,” to Sir Anthony Hopkins before he flips interview protocol and asks me a question.
“Are you in New Zealand?” he asks, then, a punt; “Auckland?”
He nods contemplatively at my answers, yes and no, and then asks, “What day is it there?” before another educated guess: “Is it Saturday there?”
He’s correct, but before I can answer, he says, “I’ve worked in New Zealand twice,” before musing, “It’s so strange when you jump through the time. I love New Zealand. It’s a beautiful place. I did The World’s Fastest Indian there. I did The Bounty there.”
Then he chuckles softly and says, “That was 40 years ago.”
Connecting both of these films and Hopkins even further to Aotearoa is that both movies were directed by New Zealander Roger Donaldson. They also both hugely impacted Hopkins.
He poured everything into 1984′s nautical historical epic The Bounty and was left massively disappointed by the finished film. He vowed never to invest himself so heavily into a role again. Meanwhile, 2005′s The World’s Fastest Indian, about legendary Invercargill motorbike racer Burt Munro, saw us adopt Hopkins as one of our own thanks to his outstanding performance as Munro and mastery of our notoriously challenging accent.
“Ah… Burt Munro,” he smiles, before slipping back into our accent to ask, “Did it sound okay to you?”.
As you’ve probably guessed, Hopkins is a delightful fellow to chat with. He’s engaged and interested and not above a joke at his lofty reputation. We’re talking this morning about his terrific new series Those About to Die, a 10-part, sword-and-sandal action-epic set in ancient Rome.
The show mixes fact with fiction and blends literal cut-throat gladiatorial action and high-speed chariot racing with Game of Thrones-style political intrigue.
Overseeing it all is Hopkins’ character Vespasian, the true-life Roman emperor whose rule of the Empire lasted a decade. The show also stars Iwan Rheon, most famous as GoT’s sadistic villain Ramsay Bolton, and was directed by Roland Emmerich, the chap behind action-blockbusters like Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow and White House Down.
These are all very memorable facts about the show. But it initially didn’t make much of an impression on Hopkins.
“I don’t have a big reaction to these things,” he grins. “My agent phoned me and said, I’m sending you a script called Those About to Die. I said, ‘Oh, good. It’s obviously, something about the Roman Empire’. He said, ‘Read it’. And I said, ‘What part?’. He said, ‘Vespasian’. I said, ‘Oh, okay. So, I went through it - I didn’t read all ten episodes - but you know, my answers are very simple and direct. I phoned him up and said, ‘I’ll do this. How much are they going to pay me?”
Vespasian's macro view of the Empire influences his every move. Photo / Amazon MGM Studios
He laughs loudly at the punchline, a wide smile crossing his face as he relaxes and leans back in his chair.
“I thought this is a simple part to play. I showed up in Italy and the only acting required from me was to be strong and dictatorial. That’s basically all I had to do. On a film, it’s the craftspeople, the designers, the people who do all the stuff to put my stupid face up on the screen, that’s what makes me, me. I don’t do anything. I just show up, have a cup of coffee, and they say, ‘Action’.”
Then, with a wicked grin, he says, “It doesn’t take a genius to do that.”
Those About to Die mostly follows Rheon’s character Tenax, the shady owner of a gambling den where punters gamble on deathly gladiatorial fights and dangerous chariot races. Tenax dreams of joining the Roman elite with his own chariot racing faction, a move not at all welcomed by the other politically influential faction owners.
Iwan Rheon stars in the series Those About to Die about Ancient Rome. Photo / Amazon MGM Studios
But this low-level, political squabbling is beneath Vespasian, whose macro view of the Empire influences his every move.
“Vespasian was set to reorganise the Empire because it was falling apart and going down into the swamp,” Hopkins says. “He wanted to consolidate the Empire and bring stability. He built great arenas and massive building projects. He gave employment to craftsmen and entertainment for the people, to distract them from their horrors.”
Through Hopkins’ deservedly acclaimed career, he’s played many different characters, from the best of humanity to the absolute worst. As an actor, he completely inhabits his character and disappears from view. So I wonder what he’s learnt about people from portraying all these different facets of humanity.
Without pause, he leans forward and states, “That we are all corruptible!”, which, I’ll admit, is not the warm, fuzzy, feel-good answer I was expecting.
Sir Anthony Hopkins has played many different characters, from the best of humanity to the absolute worst. Photo / Amazon MGM Studios
“I remember I was playing Hitler in a film called The Bunker many years ago in Paris of all places, and an American producer came up to me and said, ‘Tony, can I say something? You’re making Hitler kind of a nice guy.’.
“I said, ‘A nice guy?’ and he said, ‘Well, you’re making him human’. I said, ‘Well, he was human. He wasn’t anything else.’.
“You see, we all have that in us. You can point the finger, but inside us, we all have that potential. Look what happens. Put someone into power in Washington… or New Zealand… or Berlin… A little bit of power, a little bit of corruption and before you know it, you’ve got a lunatic! The beginning of madness.”
From there he talks about the holocaust, the Auschwhitz concentration camps, how economics reduces people to numbers, the teachings of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and the combined great knowledge of man, and how, for the most part, those learnings are ignored.
“Power corrupts. It really does.”
Then, with a tone so ominous it’d give Hannibal Lecter the willies, he says, “That is the deadly part about us.”
Then, he leans back in his chair and the darkness lifts.
“You know, I ain’t no saint,” he concludes, smiling, “but I try to be kind.”
