By Jenny Halper in New York City

Ask Anthony Hopkins about the prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Award and he says: “I’m up there thinking, ‘have they got the right person?’” Mention a New Zealand drama school opened in his honor, and Hopkins grins: “They said, ‘we’re naming it after you. How do you spell it?’ A-N-T…”

The surprisingly modest actor (and painter, and composer) has a room-rousing laugh and warm handshake you wouldn’t expect from the world’s most famous fava bean eater (he’s also starred as Nixon, Uncle Vanya, and Hitler). A better personality match might be Burt Munro, the real-life record breaker Hopkins plays in Roger Donaldson’s “World’s Fastest Indian,” which hits theaters this Friday.

Though Donaldson (“Thirteen Days,” “Cocktail,”) and his recurring star admit to frequent head-butting on the set of their previous collaboration, “The Bounty,” both hoped to work together again. “Papa,” an Earnest Hemingway biopic, was inexplicably shelved, so Donaldson moved on to the re-telling of Munro’s inspirational attempt to break the World Speed Record at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats. Armed with stubborn free spirits and a hand-built “Indian” bike, Munro traveled from his native New Zealand to Utah, and left technologically advanced cycles gaping in the dust.

Q: Burt has such a wide-eyed view of the world- is that something you identify with?

ANTHONY: Yeah, it’s a bit like me when I came to America. I’m pretty wide-eyed. I’m always taken by surprise by things. And that’s how I’ve treated my whole life actually—always being in a straight of surprise. I moseyed onto this train called show business many years ago, and I’m still going. So it’s been a pleasant journey.

Q: I read that when you worked with Roger on “The Bounty” you didn’t exactly get along…

ANTHONY: Yeah, well…we met about 3-4 years ago at a party and we’ve both mellowed out a bit. I think as you get older, you get a bit more sensible, get a better perspective of things. I figured out some years ago that the director is in charge of the movie. I remember the first day we were filming, when the wheel comes off the trailer Roger said, “can we do another take?” and I said “yeah, you sure?” So we did about 15 takes. He’s a perfectionist and he wants to get it right.

Q: When you look back at your younger self, do you say ‘what a hothead I was!’ or ‘why was I that way?’

ANTHONY: I don’t regret it. When you’re younger you have a lot of ideas and you’re probably more insecure. I work with young actors now and I see their insecurities. I don’t make fun of them but I make them laugh, because I know what they’re going through. When you get older you think “it’s only a movie after all, it’s not brain surgery.”

Q: You once said that you had no brains and that’s why you became an actor.

ANTHONY: No, I didn’t say that. I just probably couldn’t figure out anything when I was in school and so I became an actor because I didn’t know what else to do. Academically I wasn’t good. I was just slow or different. I remember kids in school who could understand math, and we had one guy in school who was a genius, and I don’t know what happened to him. He ended up driving some truck, and he was brilliant in school, good student. David Davis his name was—amazing, and I hated him (laughs). He never did any homework and he just got it all the time. I didn’t have that kind of mind structure and I think we’re all different. Some people are musicians, some people are actors, some are accountants, agents, newspaper guys, drivers, etc.

Q: How has your approach to roles changed?

ANTHONY: I’ve always taken the same method, which is to learn the lines literally. I learn the text, I read the script maybe twice, and I go over my text of the lines. I get a rhythm in my head and then I can hear rhythms which click. With certain rhythms of speech I think, ‘this is interesting’ and I let them take me into a new area. I begin to feel like someone else—I’m not schizophrenic or anything—but just to use another rhythm of my own self.

Q: You also compose music – is rhythm one of the major ways through which you enter your roles?

ANTHONY: I suppose so. I don’t necessarily analyze it but I started off when I was a little kid playing a piano and I wanted to be a musician. I say that in retrospect, I don’t know how much I wanted to be. I just wanted to be famous because I wanted to escape from what I felt was my limitation in life because I wasn’t a good student. And I wanted to write music, and I didn’t know what I was doing and I never had the technique or understanding of it. Academically, I don’t grasp things at all well. But I’ve always played the piano and I can improvise on the piano, but the problem is that I can’t write down what I compose. I can read music but I can’t write numbers; I don’t have knowledge. My wife said, “that’s beautiful, why don’t you get some help?” so I phoned up somebody she knew, who’s a composer and musician in his own right, and I went to his studio and he gave me the freedom of his studio where I could synthesize a keyboard. I know my way around instruments so we became good friends, and he’s got no ego at all. He helped me with all the electronic stuff on the computer because I don’t understand that but I’m learning. And I’m learning orchestration. I built the first big piece I have called “Margam”, which is where I was born. It sounds pretty good, and it’s being performed in San Antonio in May by the symphony orchestra down there. Music has always been with me but my wife sort of turned the key in me and said I am a musician. And with paintings, she got me to do some paintings for this gallery in San Antonio again. So we’ll be combining an art exhibition—it sounds like a real ego trip, but she said she wants me to do 100 paintings for this little gallery. So I did these little pen drawings, with felt pen and brushes. So I paint these landscapes and I change colors, and she got me to do acrylics. I’ve done 25 acrylics for the library and I’m going down to San Antonio on Thursday to see the orchestra. I figure the thing is not to analyze it, and people say “oh you’ve got no technique” and I said to hell with it, people seem to like it and they want to buy it (laughs). I think it’s all a happy design. I’m not saying I’m Picasso, but I do enjoy the freedom of free expression without knowing anything about it.

Q: Do you feel that you’ve had your Bonneville moment? Or are you still waiting?

ANTHONY: I feel like when I first came to New York, 30 odd years ago. I remember I was taking the Algonquin and I had been living in England for years and wanted to come to America. I remember getting up in the morning at the Algonquin in September in 1974, and I went on 5th avenue to get a newspaper and I thought, ‘I’m Home’. I had that feeling about it, and that scene where Burt arrives at Bonneville, I’d learned that speech and not that it’s a huge moment being in Bonneville because I’m not interested in world speed records. But I remember doing that scene, it was a cold morning and Roger said “action!” and I got quite emotional about it, because it was similar to my own life in a way.

Q: Did you try to learn anything about the mechanics of motorbikes or making pistons in the movie?

ANTHONY: Yeah, I had an engineer, a mechanic, and he showed me what to do—pouring the metal into the mold. It’s easy.

Q: When you’re playing a real person like Nixon or Burt, is it hard to walk the line between mimicry and making a role your own?

ANTHONY: I can never be accurate. I don’t look anything like Nixon or the real Burt Munro. Nixon’s face has got a long nose. We tried to make a nose and all that and I said ‘this isn’t working’ and they did the hair. But if I was Rich Little or these great mimics, they’re brilliant. Actually Rich Little came to the set of Nixon one day and I resisted doing Rich Little, because if you do that, you become a mimic. And with an accent like this guy—a New Zealand accent—if you strive to get it absolutely accurate then it’s not a performance; it’s a mask. You may as well make a Nixon funny head or a Burt Munro mask, because that’s not what acting is about. That’s my opinion. So you just airbrush it in, a couple of pen strokes here and there. The New Zealand accent was easier for me because Burt sounds a little bit Cornish or Irish, so it was easier than North Islanders, which are a much more pinched sound.

Q: Which role did you find the most difficult?

ANTHONY: I think Nixon. To play an American President, that’s a bit of a stretch of imagination (laughs). Oliver Stone is an amazing director and he put the pressure on. I didn’t want to do it, and I remember he came to England to meet me and I’d already turned it down. He said, “chicken, huh?” (Laughs). I remember going to meet him on that morning at the Hyde Park Hotel, and I had a moment of clarity—I can stay here in Britain and play nice, boring safe parts in BBC, or I can work with this crazy director in America and maybe fall on my backside or make a success of it. I just thought well, I’ll just take the risk. And I went to the hotel and Oliver said “Chicken, huh?” and I said, “No, I’m going to do it.” And I remember learning the script and thinking, ‘what have I done? I’ve taken on this nightmare.’ Then I went to California and started rehearsing and realized I was in the hands of a great director. He puts a lot of pressure on you, and you get to a point where you either crack or you get it. He was relentless until I got the feeling of the part.

Q: There was a poll done by the Old Vic Theater and you came off as the number one British actor of all time against Laurence Olivier, Alec Guinness, Michael Caine…and Judi Dench was your counterpart.

ANTHONY: It’s a source of puzzlement for me, and I’m very pleased if they call me that. I thought a lot lately about it, and I honestly don’t know. I blush a bit, because I worked with Olivier and he’s a great actor. And I’ve seen guys like Alec Guinness. It’s great to be told that, but I remember thinking I’ve gotten a few enemies in England now. Maybe I have an attitude, and I don’t know what’s happened to me over the last few years, except that some things opened up in me and…I don’t take it seriously. But I do my job, and I do what I’m paid to do and I’m always prepared. I prepare by learning the text so well that when I show up, I’m relaxed and the performance sort of happens. Now whether that’s good or bad, I don’t know, and I’ve been in some films that were bad and given some bad performances as well. But maybe people respond in a way—whatever I say is going to sound very egocentric and self centered anyway so I’d better shut up.

Q: It says in the notes that you’re a happy man, and because of that you don’t really want to play villains or psychotic people anymore.

ANTHONY: Oh, yeah. But actually my next movie is with Ryan Gosling and I play a man that kills his own wife—she’s having an affair—but it’s not Hannibal Lecter. This man is a little strange but he’s on the surface very normal, very quiet, and he kills his wife because she’s having an affair. It’s a revenge thing but he sets up a test. This guy is involved with those Ruth Goldberg machines and he designs the perfect murder but he leaves one flaw.

Q: You’ve obviously gotten to the point where you can make one movie a year and just relax, but you keep on working. Why is that?

ANTHONY: I haven’t actually made that many movies, it’s just looks like that because this one I made well over a year ago, so that’s taken 15 months. “All the King’s Men” isn’t coming out until December, so that will be two years now. “Proof” had a long time coming out. This year I’ve done about three, I think.

Q: You’ve worked with a whole lot of marvelous directors. Was there anything that was particularly distinctive about working with Roger?

ANTHONY: He’s like Burt—he’s very passionate for motorbikes, cars, and speed. He’s got a lot of physical courage—he’s been up Everest, he’s been on the Horn. He’s an adventurer and his work is like that.

Q: Is it true you’re coming to do narration for the next Hannibal film?

ANTHONY: No, that’s a dumb rumor.

Q: So you’re all done with Hannibal?

ANTHONY: Oh, yeah.

Q: At the Golden Globes they said Hannibal is the #1 villain of all time. Will that role follow you around forever?

ANTHONY: No, but people want me to do the Fava Bean speech all the time.

Q: Which character that you played most inspired you?

ANTHONY: I don’t know, really. Nixon I think, because I knew more about him than anyone. I watched every speech he made and all the documentaries on him. So I got to know a lot about Nixon, and I had to do a lot of research on him to find out what made him tick.

Q: What character do you think is most like you?

ANTHONY: I think Burt Munro.

“The World’s Fastest Indian” opens on February 3rd.