Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins were even “really afraid” of each other on the set of the cult film…
Jodie Foster really respected the “silence” of The Silence of the Lambs… by not speaking to Anthony Hopkins at all during filming!
In 2016, when she was one of the guests on The Graham Norton Show to promote her film Money Monster (2016), the actress explained why she never spoke to her co-star on the set of the 1991 cult film won no less than 5 Oscars. The Silence of the Lambs was, in fact, the big winner at the ceremony the following year, taking home the awards for Best Picture, Best Director for Jonathan Demme, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Female and Male Leads for the two posters in question .
And ultimately, perhaps it was this silence between Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins – and their shared fear of each other – that made their relationship work so well on screen.
No, I never spoke to him. He was scary! On the first day we did a reading [de tout le scénario] […] and in the end I never wanted to speak to him again. I was petrified.
She explained that for almost the entire filming they were separated by the film's famous glass partitions and the cell in which Hannibal Lecter spent most of his time, and that much of their dialogue was also delivered on camera. So when his acting partner filmed his scenes in front of the camera, the actress was far away from him “where he couldn't see her” – all factors that limited their interactions. “We got to the end of the movie and never really had a conversation,” she concludes.
And when asked if they never met by chance backstage, Jodie Foster replies: “No, I avoided it. As much as possible. I really avoided it!”
But it turns out that feeling of fear was mutual, as she discovered while eating a tuna fish sandwich on the final day of filming, clarifying, “He came up to me and, I don't know, I kind of had a tear in my eye.” , and I said, 'I was really scared of you.' And he said, 'I was scared of you!'”
Check out Jodie Foster's hilarious explanation in the video below: