Former James Bond turned down Hannibal Lecter role as he called it “disgusting”

Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his harrowing performance as Hannibal Lecter in 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs. However, the award may have gone elsewhere had one former James Bond not rejected the part first.

Director of the film, Jonathan Demme, who sadly passed away yesterday, revealed last year how Hopkins was in fact his second choice and the actor he had originally hoped for was ex-007 Sean Connery:

“Everybody wanted to play that part, gosh, from Dustin Hoffman to Morgan Freeman. There was tremendous interest.

“Sean Connery was the only other person I thought could be amazing for this. Connery has that fierce intelligence and also that serious physicality. I love Tony Hopkins, but Sean Connery could be amazing.

“So to take the most commercial path, because Connery was flying very high at the time, we sent the script to Sean Connery first.” he told Deadline.

Connery as Bond in 1962’s Dr. No

However, Connery was not a fan of the role, as Demme recalled how he turned it down as he deemed it “disgusting”:

“Word came back shortly that he thought it was disgusting and wouldn’t dream of playing that part. So, great, now we can go to Tony Hopkins.”

It’s lucky he did because it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Hopkins playing the part so brilliantly. And The Elephant Man actor paid his tributes to Demme on Twitter yesterday:

RIP my friend. #JonathanDemme pic.twitter.com/LlRTDipEUm

— Anthony Hopkins (@AnthonyHopkins) April 27, 2017