Was there a lot of work involved in nailing down Hannibal Lecters very specific way of speaking?
GASPARD: Yeah. I’m French, so for me, it was very difficult to get those subtle ways of speaking. For the audition, I have to admit that I watched Silence of the Lambs and I observed Anthony Hopkins the day before. When I prepared the role, I didn’t want to try to copy or imitate Anthony Hopkins, so I tried to work on my own with some readings and other films. And obviously, I knew that the audience would look for some similarities with Anthony Hopkins, so one part of the preparation was to observe Anthony Hopkins. But the idea was more to just pick a few details in his performance and then add it to my own character. What were some of those details you were able to pick out? Well, it’s very subtle. There are a few things that you can clearly see in Silence of the Lambs–for example, all the eye movement and the blinking, and also his stillness can be very scary sometimes. If you watch precisely every scene, the character is always in a very relaxed position, very comfortable. So it’s
