Anthony Hopkins' first brush with Shakespeare

Born and raised in Port Talbot—a small Welsh steelworks town—amid war and depression, Sir Anthony Hopkins grew up around men who were tough and eschewed all forms of emotional vulnerability in favor of alcoholism and brutality. A struggling student in school, he was deemed by his peers, his parents, and other adults as a failure with no future ahead of him. But on a fateful Saturday night, the disregarded Welsh boy watched Olivier’s 1948 adaptation of Hamlet. It would spark a passion for acting that would lead him on a path that no one could have predicted.

In the excerpt below—from Chapter 1 of Sir Anthony’s long-awaited memoir, We Did OK, Kid—we go back in time to the school’s assembly room with him at age 11.

It was a Saturday night. We, the boys and teachers, had been herded together in the school’s assembly hall, not to sing the school song—thank God—but to watch a film, a real film with sound. The school had hired a film projector and a projector operator, Mr. Gordon Phillips. This was something new and exciting.

We sat there on our wooden seats and waited. Finally, Mr. Harrison the headmaster, swept into the hall, gown billowing out to indicate the significance of this momentous event. He was joined by his big, booming, battleship wife, Old Ma Harrison. Our teachers followed. Max Horton, Lob Garnett, and others. Mr. Harrison warned us to be quiet—no talking, no fidgeting, no laughing. Any boy breaking these rules would be removed—and then, so we imagined, swiftly executed in the gymnasium.

“Now, Hamlet is a very important film,” announced Mr. Harrison. “Mr. Laurence Olivier, the world’s greatest Shakespearean actor, has directed this film, and, furthermore, he is passionately committed to broadcasting the powerful words and wisdom of the Bard of Warwickshire, Mr. William Shakespeare.”

Mr. Harrison rambled on for another five minutes about Shakespeare and Mr. Olivier. Finally, he paid tribute to our projectionist, Mr. Gordon Phillips from Griffithstown.

What a depressing hour this is going to be! I thought. We all turned to acknowledge Mr. Phillips from Griffithstown. Mr. Harrison told us to say: “Thank you, Mr. Phillips from Griffithstown.” I felt I was in hell.

Oh, God help us all! Not Shakespeare. Please spare us this tedious triviality. 

Mr. Phillips from Griffithstown, standing between two film projectors, poised, ready for action, was a rotund, shiny-faced young man. His hair had been plastered down with Brylcreem, and he was wearing a blue bowtie for the event. This really was hell.

On the stage, a large cinema screen had been set up.

The lights in the hall were dimmed. On the screen was the familiar trademark introduction of the J. Arthur Rank Organization: The giant gong struck, the words A J. Arthur Rank Enterprise, the dark screen. And then, suddenly, the massive opening chords of William Walton’s music.

Sir Anthony Hopkins | “To be or not to be” speech from Hamlet

It was… stunning. The battlements scene. The ghost of Hamlet’s father. Inside the castle of Elsinore. Olivier. His opening soliloquy began:

O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!

I was transfixed to the very last line of the soliloquy.

But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.

I had never experienced an impact like that. It was explosive. I could not yet understand the structure of Hamlet and its nuance—its archaic words, new and unfamiliar language, the rhythm and phrasing.

But I felt that Olivier as Hamlet was speaking to me, referring to some long-vanished, ancient part of myself. It was an unearthly experience. The grief of Hamlet over his father’s death and his mother’s betrayal of her dead husband. I cried, overpowered by the epic depiction of damaged fathers and mothers and of how we’re all haunted by the ghosts of memory. I was too young to grasp a modern sense of the words. But a force had broken into the center of whatever I was.

Listen to Chapter 1 of We Did OK, Kid by Anthony Hopkins
read by Kenneth Branagh

Copyright © 2025 by Anthony Hopkins. Audio excerpt courtesy of Simon & Schuster Audio read by Kenneth Branagh from the audiobook We Did OK, Kid by Anthony Hopkins to be published by Simon & Schuster Audio, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Used with permission from Simon & Schuster, Inc.

About the author

Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins CBE is one of Britain’s most recognizable and prolific actors. He began his career on stage, working under Laurence Olivier, before moving on to star in various critically acclaimed films. Throughout his six-decade long career, Sir Anthony is known for acclaimed appearances in notable films such as The Silence of the Lambs, The Remains of the Day, Marvel’s Thor, The Father, and many more. He most recently starred in Wife & Dog by award-winning director, Guy Ritchie. Sir Anthony has received numerous accolades for his outstanding performances, including two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Laurence Olivier Award. He currently resides with Stella, his wife, in Los Angeles, California.