Anthony Hopkins, 88, announces career change after legendary acting career
Anthony Hopkins is pivoting to a career in music after a 65-year-stint as one of Hollywood’s most esteemed actors.
The “Silence of the Lambs” star, 88, has signed a contract with record label Decca Classics and will launch his career as a classical music composer with an album release.
“Music was my first desire, my first wish,” the two-time Oscar winner said in a statement, per the record label’s website.
“I’ve been composing music all my life,” he added. “Some of these pieces have lived with me for decades, and I still find myself returning to them.”
“Life is a Dream” — an album containing decades-worth of Hopkins’ compositions — is set for release Aug. 21.
The actor’s original works — which, according to Decca, were “inspired by Hopkins’ family, Wales and a lifetime of experience” — were performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.
The album’s first single, “Bracken Road,” from the longtime actor’s “1947: Suite for Solo Piano and Orchestra,” dropped Friday.
The label called “Life is a Dream” the “Thor” actor’s “most personal musical project to date,” and added that it “features works written across different periods of Hopkins’ life, revealing a composer whose music shares the same emotional depth and storytelling that define his screen career.”
Decca continued, calling the album an “intimate musical memoir shaped by loved-ones, imagination, and heritage” and noting that “several pieces draw directly on his Welsh upbringing and the landscapes of his boyhood, while others reflect important people and experiences that have accompanied him over the years.”
Despite having a spectacularly successful career — including two Academy Awards, four BAFTAs, a pair of Primetime Emmys and a Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globes — the “Legends of the Fall” star once slammed the entertainment industry’s highest honor.
“You know, I’ve been around — I’ve got the Oscar myself for ‘Silence of the Lambs’ — and having to be nice to people and to be charming and flirting with them…oh, come on!” he told the Huffington Post back in 2012 before he won his second Oscar for “The Father.”
“People go out of their way to flatter the nominating body, and I think it’s kind of disgusting,” the Welsh actor added. “That’s always been against my nature.”
Hopkins is the latest celebrity to announce a surprising change after a longstanding career.
Earlier this month, Dolly Parton, 80, announced that she’s off to Broadway for her production, “Dolly: A True Original Musical.”
“This really is a dream come true,” she said in a recent Instagram video. “I can’t wait to share it with all of you.”
In April, Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, 59, revealed plans to become a death doula following the death of her mother, Janelle Ann Kidman, in September 2024.
Meanwhile, after years in hiding, “Sex and the City” alum Jason Lewis, 54, divulged in May that he’d relocated to Costa Rica and penned a nine-book “epic fantasy” series following 20 years as an actor.
