Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid and I believe that about everything.
We have to make our lives because life is tough, we have to believe in the power of life.
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Evan: He’s a Welsh actor on film, stage and television.
He’s considered to be one of the world’s greatest living actors and is most well known for his role as Hannibal Lecter in the Silence of the Lambs.
Every thing you need to find him is right there in those pages.
Since 2016 he’s starred in the critically acclaimed HBO series, Westworld.
He’s Anthony Hopkins and here’s my take on his top 10 rules to success.
Rule number one is my personal favorite and I’m super curious to figure out which one you guys like the best. Also as you’re watching the clips if you hear something that really resonates with you please it down in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired as well when you write something down it’s much more likely to stick with you too. Enjoy.
Rule #1: Move Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Do something new, you know you’ve got to, you can’t stay in your comfort zone, that’s what we all do. We get to a certain age and we all stay in our comfort zone in our recliners watching television, day in and day out, and when you get to a certain age, I’m going to be 70 at the end of the year, why sit around watching television for the rest of my life cause I’ve done it all, sitting on my laurel wreaths.
It’s not worth it, I mean life’s so short and such glorious images in the world, and such horror as well, that I want to see it all, so I’ve moved out of my comfort zone. It’s essential for me, otherwise I may as well die.
Do something new, you know you’ve got to, you can’t stay in your comfort zone, that’s what we all do.” – Anthony Hopkins
So I’ve done it, I’ve broken every rule in the book, and not out of malice or any telling anyone that I’ll show you, I did it to show myself. I’ve shown myself, I looked in the mirror and thought, I’ll show you one day and I’ve done something completely new, I wrote the music and feel limitless.
Rule #2: Visualize Success
Once I got started with two magicians and one ventriloquist helped me, once I got the knack of it, it became easier and then I enjoyed it. There were moments when I was learning the script and I thought well this isn’t going to work, I mean, how can I do it?
I used to write notes to myself, little letters to myself and put them on the desk saying, you know, “You can do anything, “with faith you can move mountains. “Trust and let go.” and all that sort of thing, you know and I just threw myself into it and when the negatives came to my mind I would, I would make positive sounds in my head, I’d say I can do it, you know.
I used to meditate and visualize myself doing it. I still visualize myself on like a kind of, trying to visual myself doing those sort of fanning cards and spinning them and gradually, it’s surprising the power of mind, what happens you know, your muscles begin to respond. It’s like anything really, if you’re playing the piano or driving the car, it comes through relaxation.
“I just threw myself into it and when the negatives came to my mind I would, I would make positive sounds in my head, I’d say I can do it” – Anthony Hopkins
Yes, whether you just get older and you live long enough you change, if you don’t you may as well die. You know, go or grow, you have to change and I’ve realized over the years that I’ve gone through many changes in my life. Many changes, because that’s the nature of life and if you don’t go with it you may as well die, really, you may as well be dead.
I know people who live in the past, they just live there all the time, talk about something that happens to them 30 years ago. They’re like zombies and I can’t hang out with those people, I know them but I can’t spend more than five minutes with them because I feel like suicide at the end of it because I feel so guilty about being happy when they’re so miserable.
Because life is in session, for many years I thought life was a big rehearsal for the big event and somebody in Los Angeles said, “Tony, this is the big event, life is in session.” You know we spend so much time thinking into rehearsal for the big event, the big, red carpet in the sky and there’s not.
Rule #4: Keep Doing It
All life is magical, it is magic you see because we’re the instruments and all the problems are technical, once you can go through those problems without avoiding them or backing off from them, because you know it’s like fear, you go through it, you go through the problem, confront it and go through it, then you have release.
Stanislavsky called it the plane of inspiration that takes off the runway, the runway is the technique, the runway is the getting on with it and the plane will take off. If on Tuesday night however it doesn’t quite take off, it doesn’t matter, you can’t stop the plane and say, “Well I’ll go back cause I don’t feel it tonight.”
You get on with it technically and then on Wednesday night, probably it’s going to take off again as long as you’re relaxed. But it really is, it’s kind of being on automatic pilot, and I think it comes after experience, I think it comes. And I think I feel in a happy state of mind now that I have 15 years or 20 years of experience behind me and I think it’s used well and there’s a lot of positive out of all the anguish and the pain and discomfort and there have been good times and there have been negative times.
But Olivier said once, when he was directing Colin Blakely in June and the Peacock and I was in June and the Peacock and he said, “You have to find the middle man.” And Blakely said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Find the middle man, “that ease of playing a character.” And Blakely said, “I only have until next week.” And he said, “You won’t do it next week, “it’ll take you the rest of your life.”
And it’s really relaxing and letting go. You know the booster that puts you into outer orbit, the aggression, the arrogance and the ambition and all that, that’s all very necessary, but there’s a time when one has to let go and I guess I’m in orbit and all I have to do is rest assured that it’s going to be okay and do what is required of me, you know.
Keep in practice, keep working, I’m going back to the theater, I want to go back to the theater. And I’m being kind to myself, that’s all I can say really, then the magic happens, Scofield is right, you get on with it, John Dexter told me in New York, he said, “Just get on with it, don’t analyze, do it.
Rule #5: Enjoy What You Do
Interviewer: What’s the most important quality that an actor, a great actor like you, should have? What’s the most important quality, apart from intelligence, I suppose, but?
“I always tell that to young actors I’m working with, Enjoy it, stop figuring it all out, just enjoy it” – Anthony Hopkins
Well, I’m going to be modest, I’m a working actor, I just go from job to job and I think there’s, I have a sense of discipline and commitment to it and all those American words, but, know what you’re doing and I have fun with it.
I always tell that to young actors I’m working with, I say, enjoy it, stop figuring it all out, just enjoy it. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work and if you do something bad it doesn’t matter and you do something which may be good, that’s good, but don’t worry about it it’s all part of life’s process.
Rule #6: Be Bold
Interviewer: Nixon must of been one of the most difficult roles you ever played?
Rose, that was a nightmare role to play, yes. I got a phone call in England many years ago and my agent said, “Oliver Stone wants to talk to you.” and I said, “Oliver Stone, what does he want me for?” He said, “For Nixon.” I said, “Nixon?” Well he said, “President Nixon.” I said, “What part?”
He said, “President Nixon.” I said “For President Nixon, are you crazy?” I said, “No, he must be mad.” And he phoned me up and he said, “Well, I hear you’re chicken, you don’t want to do it.” I said, “Well, I don’t want to do you a disservice.”
“I believe that be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid and I believe that about everything, you know, so I don’t do anything that’s conventional.” – Anthony Hopkins
