Why Jodie Foster Never Talked to Anthony Hopkins While Filming Silence of the Lambs
Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn; Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall; Woody Allen and Diane Keaton… Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster? American cinema is full of excellent on-screen partnerships between men and women, and the latter is certainly one of them despite the fact that they have only appeared in one film together and the dynamic between their characters is a bit darker than most. Obviously, I’m talking about “The Silence of the Lambs” and the strange chemistry between young FBI intern Clarice Starling and incarcerated serial killer Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter. A combination of powerful acting and an unmistakable thrill of sexual tension that elevates the film, even if Foster claims she never actually spoke to her co-star during filming.
Appearing on “The Graham Norton Show” in 2016, the host asked the two-time Oscar winner about a rumor that she didn’t interact with Hopkins on set. She replied:
“No, I never talked to him. He was creepy! Because the scenes were so long, they were kind of locking him up at the beginning of the day, and we got to the end of the movie and we really had never had a conversation.”
Foster doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would be afraid of anyone, but perhaps his distrust of the revered Welsh actor influenced his performance in the film. When I first saw it, I remember sharing Starling’s concern as she went down to the basement of the mental hospital to interview the former psychiatrist in the hopes that he could help her catch Buffalo Bill, a new serial killer on the loose. We first see Lecter standing motionless in the middle of his cell, greeting Starling with a fixed and disturbing gaze. But it wasn’t just Hopkins’ terrifying performance that kept him and Foster from bonding.
Foster and Hopkins were rarely face to face in The Silence of the Lambs
Director Jonathan Demme made some interesting choices that meant Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins never had much of a chance to interact during the filming of “The Silence of the Lambs.” First, Dr. Lecter is imprisoned behind a wall of glass rather than bars. It’s a smart choice, because it feels like there’s nothing between him and Starling as he toys with her, creating a greater sense of threat. But it also meant that they never shared the same physical space.
Second, Demme’s choice of shot created additional distance between the actors. Throughout the film, Starling is the subject of the male gaze, from her boss Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) to Lecter himself. Demme emphasizes this point by frequently filming the actors speaking directly into the camera. Foster explained to Graham Norton that this technique meant they rarely performed together in the scene. She also admitted that she also avoided Hopkins backstage until the last day of filming: “He came up to me and I kind of got a tear in my eye, I was like, ‘I was really scared of you,’ and he was like, ‘I was scared of you!'”
Despite the unusual playing conditions, Foster and Hopkins created such a memorable and special buddy dynamic between Starling and Lecter that always brings me back for another viewing. The lack of interaction also didn’t stop them from playing career-defining roles that earned them both Academy Awards in the leading actor category as Demme’s film made history by becoming the first horror film to win Best Picture. Additionally, “The Silence of the Lambs” joined “It Happened One Night” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” as an incredibly rare winner of the “Big Five” Oscars: best picture, director, actor, actor and screenplay.
