Anthony Hopkins 'astounded' by Best Actor BAFTA win
Sir Anthony Hopkins was "astounded" by winning the Best Actor prize at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday night.
The Silence of the Lambs actor caused a surprise by winning the accolade for his role in The Father over awards season favourite, the late Chadwick Boseman, for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, as well as Tahar Rahim for The Mauritanian, Mads Mikkelsen for Another Round, Sound of Metal's Riz Ahmed and The White Tiger's Adarsh Gourav.
Hopkins, who lives in Los Angeles but is currently on holiday in his native Wales, didn't appear virtually at the ceremony and his director Florian Zeller accepted the award on his behalf. However, the 83-year-old spoke to press after the ceremony and admitted he didn't expect to be recognised by BAFTA again after scoring his last competitive win in the '90s.
"This is wonderful. I'm at this time in my life where I never expected to get this you know," he said, reports the PA news agency. "I mean, I got to a point in my life and I thought I wonder if I will ever work again, an actor's nightmare.
"I'm just so astounded. I'm sitting here painting in fact, in my room in a hotel, and I'm covered in paint and this cheer went up from next door and I thought 'Are they were watching a football match?' and then I got a message from Florian."
On Monday, Hopkins shared a video of him thanking someone on the phone after they offered up their congratulations, and in the caption, he thanked his director as well co-star Olivia Colman.
"Thank you BAFTA, Sony Pictures Classics, Florian Zeller, Olivia Colman, and the entire cast and crew. Celebrating a surreal moment at home in Wales," he wrote on Twitter.
Hopkins was previously honoured with the BAFTA Fellowship prize back in 2008.
