Variety<\/u><\/a>\u00a0that he initially thought \u201cThe Silence of the Lambs\u201d was a movie for children \u2013 at least until he read the script.<\/p>\n \u201cI was in London in 1989, doing a play called \u2018M. Butterfly,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cMy agent sent the script.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After 10 pages, Hopkins immediately called his agent back, wanting to know if the offer to star in \u201cSilence of the Lambs\u201d was real.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the best script I\u2019ve ever read,\u201d Hopkins declared at the time.<\/p>\n
During an appearance at the 2015 Austin Film Festival, \u201cThe Silence of the Lambs\u201d director Jonathan Demme recalled that Sean Connery was his first choice to play Lecter but the James Bond star rejected the role after reading the script.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWord came back shortly that he thought it was disgusting and wouldn\u2019t dream of playing that part,\u201d Demme remembered during an interview with Paul Thomas Anderson, via Deadline. \u201cSo, great, now we can go to Tony Hopkins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Demme explained that he believed Hopkins would be a great fit for the role after being impressed with the actor\u2019s performance as surgeon \u201cFrederick Treves\u201d in the 1980 historical drama \u201cThe Elephant Man.\u201d<\/p>\nActor Tim Curry, 79, regrets never being considered for the iconic role of Hannibal Lecter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cIt was so easy for me to see that Anthony would be a superb Dr. Lecter because he had been such an amazing good doctor in \u2018The Elephant Man,\u2019\u201d Demme said. \u201cHe had been as believable a doctor as you can imagine, and he was good. What if you cast Anthony Hopkins in the part of Dr. Lecter, who is not the worst doctor, but he\u2019s a\u2026 good doctor turned bad? That was my engine for Anthony Hopkins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Curry lost out on the chance to play Lecter, the actor has portrayed a string of iconic characters. He rose to cult-icon status as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in 1975\u2019s \u201cThe Rocky Horror Picture Show,\u201d followed by memorable turns as the malevolent clown Pennywise in the 1990 miniseries \u201cIt\u201d and the butler Wadsworth in \u201cClue.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Curry also left a lasting impression as the demonic \u201cDarkness\u201d in Legend, Rooster Hannigan in \u201cAnnie,\u201d and Long John Silver in \u201cMuppet Treasure Island.\u201d He is also known for his voice work including playing Nigel Thornberry in \u201cThe Wild Thornberrys.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his appearance on \u201cThe Academy\u201d channel, Curry discussed other roles for which he was considered but ultimately did not land.<\/p>\n
He noted that he auditioned for the burglar Marv in \u201cHome Alone\u201d after being approached by director Chris Columbus, who had purchased two of Curry\u2019s studio albums.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually met Chris Columbus, who apparently had the only two albums of mine and was a bit of a fan. Nobody else had ever bought them,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n
While the part of Marv ultimately went to Daniel Stern, Columbus cast Curry as the Plaza Hotel concierge Mr. Hector in the sequel \u201cHome Alone: 2.\u201d<\/p>\nCurry also almost played Marv in \u201cHome Alone\u201d and Scar in \u201cThe Lion King.\u201d \u00a920thCentFox\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nCurry remembered working with a young Macaulay Culkin, who played the lead role of Kevin McAllister in both films.<\/p>\n
\u201cMac used to stay up watching late-night movies and fall asleep in the makeup chair,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI liked him. He was a very nice kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before Jeremy Irons was cast, Curry was considered for the role of the villainous lion Scar in the mega-hit 1994 Disney animated movie \u201cThe Lion King.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would have been nice,\u201d Curry said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim Curry\u00a0has played some of cinema\u2019s most unforgettable characters, but the actor recently revealed that one role he never landed still haunts him.\u00a0 During an appearance on \u201cThe Academy\u201d YouTube channel, Curry, 79, reflected on his career of over five decades, sharing he is still disappointed that he was never even considered for one\u00a0iconic part.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2273514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[25538,25661,21751,21741,368717,23032,366020],"class_list":["post-2273513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-actors","tag-anthony-hopkins","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-hannibal-lecter","tag-media","tag-tim-curry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Tim-Curry-says-iconic-villain-role-that-slipped-through-his.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2273513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2273515,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273513\/revisions\/2273515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2273514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2273513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2273513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2273513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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