In a succession of discontinuous scenes, family members merge and diverge amid the collapse of reality, leaving not only a grieving main character, but viewers in awe. The suspense, before this unreliable narrator, comes from the hand of Sir Anthony Hopkins, an actor who moves through the quicksand of someone who loses his head while giving us one of the best performances of his career.

Q: How did you create such an amazing character?

A: I found it tricky how the script creates confusion in the character's mind and, from his perspective, confuses the viewer. I admit that I did not have to work too hard because it is my turn to react when I open the door and I do not recognize the person in front of me. It doesn't take much for a scene like this. There is a moment in the film, when my character is with his daughter at the doctor's office, in which they ask me the day of my birth; I gave them mine, the real one. Because I didn't need to invent to understand my role.

Q: It is true that you understand how dementia works on the memories you keep from your father?

A: I don't want to exaggerate, it happened while filming the last scene with Olivia Colman in the character's room. We recorded the first take and Florian, the director, who only needs two takes at most, asked me to repeat, suddenly I stopped, and asked him if I could disappear for a few minutes, it is normal to take about 15 minutes to clear your mind. I walked around a bit, turned around, and when I came back I felt weird, so I asked for a few more minutes. It was then that I looked around and noticed the room: I saw the bedside table near the bed, on it; a pair of glasses, a book, a photo of his daughters in their youth and the image took me to my father, it was a regression to the past. A memory is keeping those who have gone alive, a walking proof that the past exists. Now we have photos, but my mother and father exist in my memories. Time is such a peculiar event that it made the scene work better because of the effect that the moment had on me.

Q: Actually, everything that Anthony's character goes through in the film, Hopkins went through with his father, a very characterful Welsh baker.

A: My father was, in the latter part of his life, quite a belligerent man and I clearly remember his pain, and my mother's pain in caring for him. They fought because he was rude, but it was because he lived in fear. I can say that the character in the film is my father.

Q: What is age for you?

A: With age I have become wise and now I know that I know nothing. All I want is to spend my days in peace because I am aware of my mortality and I want to continue working with energy. In this rare time of COVID, I have learned to take advantage of my days: I meditate, play the piano, I read, I paint and I am at peace. Of all the things I thought I knew, I only know that life is a mystery. Last year I met a former teacher at my school, who is 90 years old, and who was in charge of remembering that I was not very bright, nor very intelligent at 10 years old. It's true, I don't remember doing anything great in my life. I

think it was Schopenhauer who said: -When we look back, it seems to us as if someone had written a novel of our life and we have no idea how we got there. And I believe it. I look back on my life and I don't believe what I have achieved, if it happened, it was because I was in the right place on time. Thinking that I don't know anything gives me wonderful freedom and when I meditate I think about it. Life is much more than what a human being can understand and I am talking about the divine process of being alive, it is a wonder to be alive, just being here at this moment is quite strange, so no, I don't know anything.

Q: COVID has devastated homes with patients in need of palliative care.

A: We are in a society that needs to pay attention to the sick in the long term and I hope that this film is that much-needed call to seek a new model for aging populations. I think most of the damage is done by intellectual nonsense and people who just want to show how smart they are. Pride, ego and political marketing are doing us a lot of damage. It is difficult to make politicians understand that this invisible microbe has come not only to destroy the human ego, but to completely annihilate it. People will criticize me because I'm just a stupid actor, but they should think about what I say.

Q: Do you keep up to date, do you even have an Instagram account?

A: Yes. I am taking advantage of the COVID lockdown to show my followers what I do. I enjoy making videos talking to my cat, or dancing, in these rare days that we have had to live, I enjoy my time painting and playing the piano. My ambition right now is to enjoy every minute of my life.

Q: How do you keep in shape?

A: I like to create characters that, against their nature, do not look like what is expected of them. Elia Kazan once told me that to play a psychopath the best thing to do was to give him peace of mind.

Q: Are you still developing as an artist in other areas?

A: In music and in painting, yes. In fact I am going to present my paintings to various exhibitions. Q: What does the world of painting give you that you don't find in interpretation?

A: I am not a trained academic, I have no education as an artist. I freely paint what I feel and my paintings are sold. I also write and compose music, although I never studied. My work in that sense is free, I like to compare myself with people like Stravinsky.

Q: How do you keep fit, healthy?

A: I try to avoid thinking about bad health. I stay active. I exercise every day and I only eat a thousand calories a day

Q: Do you speak Spanish?

A: A little, not enough. My wife is Colombian and, although we have been married for many years, she has not managed to make me learn to speak as a native.

Q: Have you read Spanish authors?

A: Many, from Garcia Marquez to Cervantes. I do love Don Quixote, it is a wonderful book and now, during the pandemic, I’ve been watching lots of lectures on literature and one was about Don Quixote. I love that character.

Q: Don't you usually watch the movies you play?

A: With old age you grow apart, now I am disconnected from everything I do. Q: Would you like to reconnect with your past?

A: Yes. I feel haunted by my past. Many times I dream of the city in which I was born. I dream of returning, of reconnecting with my past and putting all the pieces together. Life is an illusion.

Q: Everybody has a weakness. What is Sir Anthony Hopkins's?

A: Cookies, Big Nags for breakfast that's my biggest weakness. My wife has to hide them. When I ask, do you have any cookies? She tells me, NO! and I answer her. You're lying! She loves me and treats me like I'm an alcoholic.

Q: What is the greatest pleasure in your life right now?

A: Playing the piano and painting, those are my pleasures. I play the piano a lot and write music too. I really enjoy composing. I am very prepared with my music.

Q: Why did you choose to paint?

A: Friends of my wife have a gallery and my wife and I are their partners and we help them. My wife asked me to start painting and I began to paint. I sent a hundred paintings to the exhibition, all landscapes. They sold them in six days, then I sent another fifty and I'm doing it for fun. I do it quickly and I never know what I am doing, I do not have any type of preparation in the painting. I put a lot of colors on the canvas and I did them, yesterday I made four, with many yellows and some red I ended up making some beautiful flowers. Red breaks as the first base of color on the canvas and then creates its own shape. I didn't know what I was doing but I love painting landscapes.

Q: Have you ever thought about retiring?

A: Now I have many things to do, but I recognize that every time I say that I am going to retire from acting, a script appears that catches me, what is certain is that now I live a full life and I don't need acting to enjoy myself.

Maria Estevez

Correspondent writer