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Sir Anthony Hopkins is getting candid about his journey to sobriety, and the mysterious voice in his head that led him to quit drinking. It’s a voice he believes was God.
The 87-year-old Oscar winner opened up about his faith in a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times. It comes ahead of his memoir’s scheduled release next month, titled “We Did OK, Kid.”
In the interview, Hopkins recalled driving intoxicated in California on December 29, 1975. He said he didn’t care whether he died. Hopkins described suddenly coming to his senses about potentially hurting another person and said he called his former agent to ask for help.
He described what happened next as an “epiphany.”
Anthony Hopkins attends the 94th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood and Highland on March 27, 2022 in Hollywood, California. (David Livingston/Getty Images)
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“Some deep, powerful thought or voice spoke to me from inside and said: ‘It’s all over. Now you can start living. And it has all been for a purpose, so don’t forget one moment of it,'” Hopkins told the Times.
The actor went on to win two Academy Awards and star in dozens more films. He said he’s remained sober for nearly five decades after that voice, which he stated came from “deep inside.”
“It was vocal, male, reasonable, like a radio voice. The craving to drink was taken from me, or left,” said Hopkins, best known for starring in films like “The Silence of the Lambs” and “The Elephant Man.”
American actress Kathy Bates stands with British actor Anthony Hopkins, who holds his Best Actor award, in the press room of the 64th Annual Academy Awards at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, on March 30, 1992. (Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images)
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He admitted it’s a phenomenon he believes is explained by faith.
“I don’t have any theories except divinity or that power that we all possess inside us that creates us from birth, life force, whatever it is. It’s a consciousness, I believe,” he said.
He recalled another defining moment in the late 1970s, when he was driving through Los Angeles and suddenly felt compelled to pull over at a Catholic church. He went into the church and told a young priest he’d found God.
Hopkins said both experiences convinced him that God is something deeply personal and real.
British actor Anthony Hopkins attends the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California, on March 27, 2022. (Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images)
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“What happened that morning — when that voice said: ‘It’s over. Now you can start living and it has all been for a purpose’ — I knew that was a power way beyond my understanding,” he said.
“Not up there in the clouds but in here. I chose to call it God. I didn’t know what else to call it. Short word, ‘God.’ Easy to spell.”
