Hollywood legend Sir Anthony Hopkins ‘wanted to appear in iconic comedy film franchise but never got the chance’
SILENCE of the Lambs star Sir Anthony Hopkins wanted to get his teeth into a Carry On film, it was revealed yesterday.
The classically-trained actor, who won an Oscar for his role as cannibal Hannibal Lecter, spilled the beans to a co-star.
Patricia Franklin — in five of the cheeky comedies including Carry On Camping and Carry On Girls — was speaking about how people used to look down on the bawdy flicks.
She said: “At a family thing, someone might say, ‘Patricia is in a Carry On’ and a lot of people would say ‘Oh, I’m not interested in Carry Ons’.
“But then others were absolutely mad about it.
“I was in a play at the National with Anthony Hopkins and he said he loved the Carry Ons and had always wanted to be in one.”
That 1985 play was Pravda — for which Sir Anthony earned a Laurence Olivier Award.
The Carry On franchise saw 31 films starring the likes of Barbara Windsor, Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims and Jim Dale.
They ran from 1958 to 1978, with Carry on Columbus released in 1992.
Despite their popularity, Patricia said there was a lot of “snobbery” about their low-brow puns.
But she told The Guardian’s G2 supplement that Sir Anthony, now 86, said he wished he had the chance to appear.
Patricia went on to appear with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in their “Cornetto Trilogy” of comedies — Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End.