By Alicia Powell
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oscar-winning British actor Anthony Hopkins steps into the role of psychologist Sigmund Freud in a new film that features a fictional debate with author C.S. Lewis.
“Freud’s Last Session,” now playing in theaters, shows the pair discussing hefty topics such as the existence of God and the future of mankind just as World War II is about to begin. Actor Matthew Goode plays Lewis.
Hopkins said that when he read through the script, he looked for places where his character could move around to keep viewers interested.
“If you are going to have a debate on God … you can’t sit around. People just fall asleep. So, you have to keep it moving,” he said in an interview with Reuters.
The 86-year-old actor said he did not do extensive research to play the founder of psychoanalysis, as he would when he was a younger actor.
“Once you start filling your head with unnecessary information, biographical information, of somebody like Freud, then you get tangled up … and it’s distracting,” he said.
“You learn from the text” of the script, Hopkins added. “What I do is I take the text, the lines and the words, and dig under them a little, like digging up pebbles in the street.”
(Reporting by Alicia Powell; Writing by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Sonali Paul)
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