The 'heart and soul' of a film is an often-overused term, but it's practically unavoidable when it comes to Anthony Hopkins in James Gray's 'Armageddon Time.'
Just as the film’s small, specific moments reverberate with larger meaning, Gray’s film — about a young artist’s coming of age and the people who formed him — has profound connections for Hopkins. It’s a role deeply felt by the actor, resonate with echoes of his own grandfather. Growing up in the working-class Welsh town of Port Talbot, Hopkins says he was closer to his grandfather than he was to his parents.
“I needed somebody of a great stature to play my grandfather because he was the person who loved me and made me feel wanted,” says Gray. “Really, there’s a very short list of screen legends and great people in the world today. Tony Hopkins is number one.”Hopkins responded immediately to the screenplay. “What I like is: less is more,” Hopkins says. “If a script is too full of gobbledygook or direction and all that, I tend to turn off. When a script is clear and concise, it’s like a roadmap.
“I have a similar memory,” Gray adds. “I remember saying goodbye to my grandfather in a very unsentimental way. I didn’t contemplate his mortality at all. I remember waving and saying ‘Goodbye, grandpa,’ and then I never saw him again.”Countless details in “Armageddon Time” are derived directly from Gray’s childhood. The interior of his house was meticulously recreated. Hopkins wore his grandfather’s clothes and hat.
“I was very obnoxious as a kid. The older I got, the more unruly I was,” says Gray. “My grandfather would say, ‘Come on. Be a mensh.’ He’d say that to me to sort of reorient me. I don’t understand this entirely, but he had more authority over me than my father did, even though my father, in his inept way, was trying to enforce discipline. My grandfather, he ruled with a velvet glove.”
The most poignant moment in “Armageddon Time” comes in a scene where the grandfather meets Paul to set off model rockets near the old World’s Fair grounds in Flushing. It’s a lovely, unsentimental scene beneath a soft, gray autumn light, with Hopkins sitting on a park bench. He knows he’ll die soon, though Paul is naively unaware.
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