Anthony Hopkins -- as good as Aspie!

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I agree on both your points! Why more don't Come Out Of The Closet is beyond me
Their is nothing to be ashamed about
I like being aspie

Anthony Hopkins is a great actor, in fact one of my favorite bad guys of all time (not quite as good a bad guy as Jack Nicholson though). But I'd be willing to bet he's not Aspergian. He may have some mental disorder though.

I used to do a lot of acting when young. Belonged to amateur dramatics group, did speech and drama at school...was always rather uncoordinated tho as regards movements and had trouble putting on emotion. But yes, acting has always interested me. Fact is, many aspies have to learn to act anyways, to fit into the NT world...and have issues expressing their own real emotions, so what better outlet than to play a role where they express emotion in a way that isn't so personal?

Yeah, I wonder if they think they might be stigmatized by "coming out"? I hope they wouldn't be, and I hope it becomes more comon.

A lot might not even know yet. I didn't know Asperger's existed until last year!

Well said,spot on.

Just read the article, nothing really jumps out at me other than;

I used to be an actor with AS. Now, I've quit. Don't know what I'm going to do with my life.

Yeah, i have relatives who are Welsh and used to live nearby Tony.
They tell me he is a frequent lurker here but is too shy to post.

Are you joking kosmonaut?

Yeah, hard to believe, but it would be awesome! He could always just post without telling people who he is (since even if he's not worried about the general public having a weird reaction to it, it might get annoying with people on here potentially treating him differently because he's a public figure.)

I'm an Aspie who has done theatre.

It's easier for me onstage because the people in the audience basically aren't there. Movements that actors make on stage or onscreen also tend to be Aspie like. People carry on conversations without eye contact and move symbolically a lot.

Also many Aspies spend years learning to mimic facial cues.

And it's even easier, I'd imagine, for a film actor to be an aspie perhaps.

I heard that on the set of "The Deer Hunter", Christopher Walken would demand that everyone crowd around the cameraman when he was acting but Robert deNiro would do the opposite and refuse to act if anyone was watching him except for the people who were absolutely needed like the director and the cameraman.

Some film actors are very shy or awkward and can't deal with large crowds. And the behaviors for acting are often learned behaviors, depending upon the style of acting.

Many dancers and singers are taught acting very mechanically as well. As in "raise your eyebrow here" or "shift your weight there to indicate surprise".

Saw a TV interview with Anthony Hopkis where he described his childhood and he said, "I felt like I was on the wrong planet."

What is it with some people on here who like to pigeon hole people, usually famous into being "aspies"

I do not get this phenomenon.

Yes he does appear to have some Autism spectrum characteristics and adaptive manifestations, could they be from some other cause certainly, but it have been my experience that when I pick up characteristics in people (which is quite frequent) if they are open enough to talk about openly and it in depth that in that vast majority of the time it truly appears to be from an innate neurovariotion, and often other characteristics which have been self adapted for become evident from the “extra effort” the individuals put forth to adapt.

Until the genetic grouping are mapped we will not now for sure, but I think a lot of people are gong to be surprised at how much of the population has a least some of the gene set. And at the rate that genetic mapping is going it may well be in the next 5 or 10 years.

I think this will end much of the “pigeon holing” perception and change the broader societal view to a matter of degrees instead of the yes/no situation that exists now.

bookwormde

...

Does it really matter? He's an amazing actor with a few quirks.
SHOCK!
HORROR!
AMAZEMENT!
Never before has there been a popular actor who excibits unusual behaviour!

When I recently saw the movie "The Edge" Hopkins appeared in (an adventure movie, not much mind-blowing dialogue), I found that the character he portrayed reminded me a little of someone who might have autism. He was apparently socially awkward, and had amassed huge amounts of trivia, mostly book knowledge.