Anthony Hopkins, one of modern cinema's greatest actors, studied under one of the greatest actors of a previous era: After leaving the Royal Academy in 1963, Hopkins joined the National Theatre, where the legendary Laurence Olivier was the artistic director.
In The New Yorker, Hopkins described himself as "an arrogant and brash young man," who wanted to skip over playing small roles as an extra and jump right into playing meatier parts. The casting director was apparently impressed by the aspiring actor's hunger, and passed his name on to Olivier, who immediately gave him roles in two plays he directed, "Juno and the Paycock," and "Three Sisters," before ultimately bringing Hopkins on as an understudy.
This would soon prove to be a huge break for Hopkins. As Olivier's understudy, he was tasked with learning his part for an upcoming play. "And then one day the stage manager, Diana Boddington, said, 'Sir Laurence is in the hospital. You're going on tonight,'" he told the New Yorker. "I said, 'You're kidding me.' I knew somehow how to do it. I was a good mimic, I guess. They gave me a standing ovation. Four nights we did that, and I thought, How did that happen?" While it wasn't long before Hopkins left the British theatre scene, his time there showed the world that he was more than capable of handling his own among the giants of the dramatic arts.
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