Anthony Hopkins -- as good as Aspie!

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I have just finished watching the Ellen show, with Anthony Hopkins on as a guest.

He starts out doing various animal sounds much like the little girl that has Aspergers that I know from church does. He does a great job of kind of throwing his voice WHILE doing these animal sounds, and enjoys throwing off the crew of his movies by doing this, sending them all around the set looking for dogs, cats, creaking doors, etc. that aren't really there but just coming from his mouth.

THEN, he begins to describe this hyper-ability to manipulate numbers that he had as a very young child. He also talks about how he always could throw out all sorts of useless information on command. I had kind of been thinking that he was kind of an unusual man, in that uniqueness that I find appealingly Aspie, and this really clinched it for me. Now I'm going to be doing all sorts of research on Anthony Hopkins and Aspergers.

I find this particularly fascinating because my 10 year old is becoming very interesting in acting. He always has shown an interest, and I've kind of been avoiding this because I don't like seeing myself in the "stage mother" persona, but he's been showing the interest consistently enough that we are looking into summer camps, therapeutic acting classes, etc. After doing much research, I'm now finding out that acting is a terrific interest for kids with Aspergers -- that it's very helpful with social skills.

Does anyone else out there know anything about Anthony Hopkins and his aspie tendencies?

Kris

I don't know about Anthony Hopkins. But don't worry about being the "stage mother" I'm sure he is not expecting you to do that.

rather bizarrely i just got my copy of the 'issue - and he is on the front cover, I'll read some of it later, maybe scan it in for you.

Maybe 8 years ago Melvyn Bragg on his SouthBank show did a great interview with Hopkins. He talks about his lonely, friendless childhood in Wales and how how coped. I don't know if Bragg's shows are available on video. Worth a web search.

It would not surprise me at all... I always had an interest in Hopkins myself. Very good actor and an interesting man...used to have major drink problems.

Oh no, not another one. I'm really getting tired of this.

Agreed, no diagnosing, no speculating! =)

Even if he was lonely in childhood, doesn't mean he was AS. Do we know why he was lonely? Maybe he lived in an out-of-the-way place in Wales. Not everyone fits in everywhere.

Exactly!

He could have been more intelligent than many of the people there, or more ambitious. Wanting to be an actor or being creative would make him different than his peers, but not Aspie. The way we talk in here you'd think only Aspies ever did anything different or creative or were intelligent or thought outside the box or whatever. I'm not saying that there aren't a higher percentage of Aspies who are different, but still, it's not only Aspies. I know next to nothing about Hopkins except movies I've seen him in; he could be really AS or HFA for all I know but I'm just saying, being different and not fitting in in a small village in Wales in the 1940's or whenever he grew up doesn't make him an Aspie.

Aspies think all other people are Aspies as well, it's annoying.

Too bad he didn't do his Hannibal Lector.

He's a great actor but I don't think he has Asperger's syndrome; he's reclusive, a loner, intelligent. But how an aspie would cope with the demands of acting mixing with so many people. I suspect he has finely tuned intuition to be such an incredible actor, to interpret scripts to make connections with other actors.
Tony Attwood has stated several times that he has treated actors with AS, I'd like to know who they are because I would think it would be a difficult occupation for an Aspie!

I've read that supposedly acting can work well for Aspies, and I know of one who acts in high school stuff.

I wish more Aspies would "come out of the closet"!

Fixed!

If there are any sucessful (or not) actors with AS on this forum please make yourself known to enlighten us. You never know Tony Hopkins might be a WP member!