One wonders, though, if he is giving Slipstream the soft sell to buttress himself against a hostile reception. (Slipstream did poor business when it was released in the US late last month and, at the time of writing, is yet to secure a UK distributor.) Although he wrote, directed, starred in and scored it, he continually tries to deflect credit away from himself and on to his collaborators.
Quite why Hopkins has turned film director at the age of 69 isn't immediately apparent. Why wait till now? On one level, it appears, the film is about himself. This is Hopkins in Proustian mode. Despite the Hollywood and Nevada settings, Hopkins says he was trying to achieve "that poignant feeling of loss." Some of the music echoes his childhood experiences in Wales during the war years, when he used to spend summer evenings listening to "someone in the street playing Chopin. I made up my own music, just the sound of a piano - the melancholy, heartbreaking sound of lost memories of childhood."
The film also expresses his confusion about himself and the world he lives in. "I have always been slightly lost - not sure where I am," he says cheerfully. "But that is a good thing, not a negative."
Hopkins remains a contradictory figure. He may joke now about how seriously actors take themselves, but in his roaring youth, he was as earnest about his profession and as tough with directors as any other stage or screen star. One moment, he says that he doesn't "have any roots" since leaving Wales to live in the US. "Now I am in limbo somehow." A little later, he speaks with undisguised nostalgia of Wales, where he will be returning at the end of the year to celebrate his 70th birthday.
"I dream constantly that I am back there," he says. "It is strange flexible geography. I dream that I am in the house I was born in. It is my background calling me back in a way. I am going to see people that I haven't seen in 60 years - kids I used to play with. We've contacted the people from my hometown. It's like Dylan Thomas' Return Journey. It is a very powerful memory structure I have of Wales."
In the past 15 to 20 years, Hopkins believes he has mellowed and become more philosophical about his craft. He now treats his directors with tolerance and (that word again) respect. Having made a movie himself, he realizes how difficult their job is. However, when he injured a tendon and was briefly confined to a wheelchair early on during the making of Slipstream, he was startled at how easy it was to delegate decisions. "You let everyone contribute and it makes life easier ... . This was relatively easy, for an independent film, to make," he says. "I like the independent movie.
It's a whole new breath of fresh air."
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