I enjoyed Anthony Hopkins biography. Well written, insights, stories. What he doesn’t do is rip any famous people that he worked with. Except for one.

Hopkins was insecure about playing Richard Nixon in Oliver Stone’s Nixon. The cast did a reading and after it was over Paul Sorvino, who plays Henry Kissinger in the movie, took Hopkins aside.

Sorvino told him how wrong he was for the part, how wrong he was doing it, on and on.

After Hopkins escaped James Wood came up to him and asked how “Fatso” was going at him. When Hopkins repeated Sorvino’s tirade he said “Fuck him. He’s jealous. His big fat career never took off.”

Later when Hopkins still expressed concern Stone said “Has that fat slob been getting to you? Don’t take any notice, he’s a baby.”

Hopkins quickly moves on to talking about his next movie. That’s it.

My only sidebar to this anomaly is when I looked back at the story I wrote after attending the Nixon junket. At one point I use a Sorvino quote praise about how Hopkins got inside to the real Nixon. Sorvino died in 2022. (My favorite part of my story about Hopkins in the movie is when he comes over to my table for the interview and bends down in a perfect Nixon imitation, raise his victory fingers and says “I am not a crook.”

I have no feelings about Sorvino but I would suggest his daughter Mira skip these two pages of he Hopkins story.