Anthony Hopkins' role as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS has more than earned its place in history as one of the all-time great horror performances. Anthony Hopkins' screen-time in the film amounted to a mere sixteen minutes, but his presence cast a terrifying shadow over the entire proceedings. Hopkins would go on to reprise the role in 2001's HANNIBAL for Ridley Scott and 2002's RED DRAGON for Brett Ratner, but, according to recent chat with The Wrap, that's something he regrets.
I did it once, made the mistake of doing it twice — three times. ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ is okay. It was a good film.
The outlet then asked whether he would be interested in playing Hannibal Lecter once again and the actor unsurprisingly responded with "no, I don’t want to do that. Done with that." While I don't consider HANNIBAL or RED DRAGON to come close to the greatness of Hopkins' first appearance as the character in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, I feel like both films are rather underrated; yes, even RED DRAGON.
Should Hopkins have retired the character after THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS or are you glad that we got to see him tackle the role two more times?