With another spooky season come and gone, there’s now been a whole new generation of people who have discovered The Silence of the Lambs for the first time. For more than 30 years, Jonathan Demme’s adaptation of the Thomas Harris novel has remained a favorite thanks to its incredible filmmaking and powerful performances by Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster.In his new memoir We Did OK, Kid, excerpted in the Times, Hopkins recalls his first encounter with Hannibal Lecter and The Silence of the Lambs—an encounter he couldn’t get through without stopping to take a breather. His London agent sent him a script for “kind of a film script” with a part called “Lecter.” Hopkins remember that “within a half an hour, the script arrived. I made a cup of tea and sat down to read. I stopped at page 15. I called the agency [and told them] ‘I don’t want to read any more.'”cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});That confession might provide some comfort for newcomers to The Silence of the Lambs, many of whom also had a hard time getting through the story of a psychologically manipulative cannibal. But Hopkins’ response is unique to him. When the agent asked, ‘What’s the problem,” Hopkins answered, “It’s the best part I’ve ever read. I don’t want to read any more in case there is no real offer.”Hopkins’s cautious approach might sound absurd to modern readers. For many, Anthony Hopkins is Hannibal Lecter, a legacy that remains even after Mads Mikkelsen‘s fantastic turn in the television series Hannibal. After all, he won a Best Actor Oscar for the part, a rare example of the Academy recognizing horror. Hopkins is known today as one of the best working actors, the perfect person to play such a powerful figure.But that wasn’t common knowledge before The Silence of the Lambs arrived in 1990. The novel released to acclaim in 1988, winning the Bram Stoker and Anthony Awards for Best New Novel, and Lecter had previously appeared on screen in Michael Mann’s Manhunter, played as a surly captive by Brian Cox. But Lecter certainly wasn’t the horror icon he is today.Even more unlikely is Hopkins getting the part. While the Welsh actor had notable film turns in The Lion in Winter, Magic, and The Elephant Man, he certainly wasn’t the household name he is today. In fact, Hopkins was better known as a stage and television actor, having won a British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his work in the 1972 BBC production of War and Peace and two Primetime Emmy nominations for TV movies.So when Hopkins began reading the story of young FBI recruit Clarice Starling (Foster), who engages with Lecter to find serial killer Jame Gumb (Ted Levine), he knew he had something rare, and his nervousness was earned.Fortunately, there was a real offer and Hopkins got the part, a part he would reprise (for better or worse) in Hannibal and Red Dragon. And because he got the part, people today continue to stop watching The Silence of the Lambs, driven away by the fear that he creates in them.We Did OK, Kid is now on available.The post Anthony Hopkins Remembers Why He Stopped Reading The Silence of the Lambs Script appeared first on Den of Geek.