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It stands as the greatest introduction in cinematic history – yet the actor stays completely still.

A young FBI agent, new to the job, navigates a row of prison cells finally encountering Dr. Lecter's reinforced glass enclosure. The man is present, his face resembling an animated death's head radiating satanic malice, unnervingly still in his form-fitting blue inmate uniform. He remains motionless before suddenly he throws himself toward the window, emitting that extraordinary hissing-slavering sound. Numerous documentaries on serial killers have since demonstrated that genuine criminals are usually uninteresting, lacking anything like Hopkins' captivating film persona.

He was not a newcomer upon receiving his Academy Award-winning part in the 1991 thriller back in 1989: he was already established, but rather a megastar was cemented. The character of Hannibal was based, Hopkins notes with amusement in this new autobiography, on the classic Dracula, on the Soviet leader according to his daughter's memories, and also from his icily exacting drama teacher his instructor Fettes. Additionally, there existed a parent-child dynamic to these scenes; a painful subject for the actor, who recounts how his portrayal of Lear was unknowingly shaped by deep-seated remorse about Abigail, his distant daughter from his initial marriage in 1966 with Petronella Barker, who resented his time away and his drinking habits.

The title originates from an historical picture of Hopkins as a toddler playing on the sand with his father – the boy who perhaps believed he would never do OK. He felt confused, lonely, vulnerable little boy from Port Talbot, his father was Richard Arthur Hopkins, the standout secondary character in this story: a bread-maker and a traditional male, a direct communicator who detested the religious hypocrites at the church and avoided displaying emotion, yet possessed a touch of dreamy, sentimental tenderness. Richard Hopkins who was angered by the way they had to go begging to affluent family members such as Aunt Patty, whose spouse was acquainted with the famous Bevan and could get Anthony as a boy into a prestigious academy: “Due to their immense riches!” he exclaims during the car ride. “Everyone is looking for scraps! Bloody rubbish, that's what it is!”

The grovelling paid off, for a while. Hopkins was a hopeless student at the prestigious school. But one day during an English class he had to recite the poem by Masefield titled The West Wind – without seeing it first – and that voice came to life; he amazed the instructor and his classmates. He convincingly states that poetry, on its own, propelled him forward. Combined with participating in the YMCA drama club. Notably, he graduated a no-hoper, pursued acting, and amazingly to his parents, was performing alongside Laurence Olivier at the renowned Old Vic in under a decade. He largely achieved it alone, although in those days there were grants to go to Rada – a path to success for working-class actors. Richard Hopkins was continually impressed by his son's international fame: upon requesting his son to deliver the Yorick lines from the play Hamlet, Richard listened carefully and then left the room and began crying.

As for the hot-tempered, strong-willed son, he departed the theatrical troupe in a fit of pique – to Olivier's profound dismay and displeasure – but stumbled upon an excellent television part as a potential war criminal in the series QB VII, which led indirectly to parts like that in the film The Elephant Man and a luminous film journey in cinema, which he liked more over theater. And he quit booze back in 1975 once a notorious drinker, and managed to live into his later years to achieve remarkable acting, like Hannibal Lecter, the servant Stevens in the movie with Emma Thompson with Emma Thompson and the senior with memory loss in the movie The Father – his second Oscar.

During the second part of the book he appears more reserved, more studied. A few tales aren't entirely successful. He remembers having lunch with his fellow actor in Stone's Nixon, the much-respected actor Paul Sorvino, who intended to inform him his portrayal of Nixon was falling short. Was this the moment for Anthony to gain insight advice from the renowned performer from Goodfellas? Not exactly. Anthony appears to agree with Stone's dismissal of Sorvino as being motivated out of envy. Truly?

He consistently acts as the tough, down-to-earth professional actor who maintains you must to be on time, know all the crew's names and get on with it. Indeed. However, he also describes confronting an obnoxious director who caused a young extra to weep: “Say sorry to her! And acquire some decency. Should you ever act that way near me, I'll alter your appearance!” Hopkins sounds like someone who gave up drink but maybe not the belligerence that accompanied it. A Shakespearean like him is aware of Cornwall's speech regarding Kent from the play Lear: “He does not know how to flatter! An honest mind and plain – he always tells the truth!”

He finishes his autobiography with a detailed supplement composed simply