Anthony Hopkins’ favourite co-stars of all time: “The best I’ve ever worked with”

Posted On August 18, 2025August 18, 2025

There’s a difference between working with a great actor and enjoying being around a co-star, an experience Anthony Hopkins has been on both sides of numerous times during his career.

The two-time Academy Award winner once remarked that in terms of sheer talent, nobody he’s shared the screen with came close to Peter O’Toole. However, they weren’t what anyone would call friends, with the pair almost brawling in the streets when the cameras weren’t rolling.

Hopkins initially thought he’d had a miserable time on The Bounty before reconciling with director Roger Donaldson two decades later, but he was smart and experienced enough in the ways of alcoholism to warn Mel Gibson that he was in danger of going off the rails if he didn’t curtail his hard-partying ways.

In his younger days, Hopkins had a well-earned reputation for being an angry man, which didn’t always make him the easiest to be around. However, he’s gotten a lot calmer as he’s gotten older, and he’s now settled comfortably into his current status as one of Hollywood’s most knowledgeable and beloved veterans.

He’s sparred onscreen with some of the all-time greats of multiple different eras, so it takes something, or someone, pretty special to leave a lasting impression on the famous curmudgeon. Fittingly, Hopkins’ opposite number from his most iconic role fits the bill, but the other one wouldn’t be most cinephiles’ choice for a genuine top-of-the-line talent.

Reflecting on his newfound role as a respected elder statesman in an interview with Total Film, Hopkins passed judgment on a well-acted but ultimately middling drama. “Working with Gwyneth Paltrow in Proof, I’ve always wanted to work with her; she and Jodie Foster are the best actresses I’ve ever worked with,” he revealed. “We had a good director, John Madden, who’s very precise, knows what he wants.”

Even though she’s an Oscar, Golden Globe, and Primetime Emmy-winning actor, few would go out on a limb and call Gwyneth Paltrow a generational talent. She might have been if she could be arsed, but she’s effectively been in a state of semi-retirement for almost 20 years, with Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme only her fifth non-Marvel movie role since 2008 and her first in ten years.

Foster? She’s got two Oscars and has been inspiring actors since the 1970s, so that checks out, never mind the fact that their fractious chemistry in The Silence of the Lambs was a huge part of the classic psychological thriller’s success. Still, the quality of the performer has nothing to do with the experience of working with them, and Hopkins was evidently impressed by Paltrow in Proof.

It means even more coming from someone who famously hates almost everything about actors and the business in general, because when Hopkins can barely mustre a shred of positivity on his chosen vocation or the majority of people who occupy it, hearing him namedrop two stars as “the best” he’s ever had the pleasure of working with is about as high as compliments come from the Welshman.

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