“People Steal, What Can You Do?”: Brian Cox Addresses Anthony Hopkins Taking Over His Career-Defining Stage Role For The 1999 Movie

Brian Cox has given a frank response to one of his iconic stage roles going to Anthony Hopkins onscreen. Cox is an award-winning performer on both stage and screen. Since his career began in the 1960s, he has been nominated for two British Theatre Association Drama Awards (winning both, for Strange Interlude and The Taming of the Shrew), five Emmy Awards (winning one, for Nuremberg), four Golden Globes (winning one, for Succession), and seven BAFTA Awards (winning two, for Outstanding Achievement and The Escapist).

Cox is best known in the modern age as one of the leads of the Succession cast, having played patriarch Logan Roy across all four seasons of the popular HBO drama. However, he has held a variety of onscreen roles in iconic properties over the years, including playing Samara's father in The Ring, William Stryker in X2: X-Men United, CIA Deputy Director Ward Abbott in The Bourne Identity and its sequel The Bourne Supremacy, Captain O'Hagan in the Super Troopers movies, and more.

Brian Cox Shares His Thoughts On Not Being Cast In 1999's Titus

He Played Titus Andronicus In 1987

While there have been many Brian Cox movies over the years, one that got away was 1999's Titus, and he has shared his thoughts on not being part of the production. The movie was adapted from William Shakespeare's notoriously violent play Titus Andronicus, in which Cox played the title role during a career-defining 1987 production. However, when the time came to cast the movie, which was adapted and directed by Julie Taymor, the part went to Anthony Hopkins, who had recently won an Oscar for his performance as Hannibal Lecter in 1991's The Silence of the Lambs.

The cast of Titus also included Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, Colm Feore, James Frain, Laura Fraser, Harry Lennix, Angus Macfadyen, Matthew Rhys, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

The Hollywood Reporter recently sat down for an interview with Brian Cox. During the conversation, he discussed what a big reaction the audience had to the 1987 Titus Andronicus, including the fact that "[people were carried out of the auditorium." He described an onstage trick where a twig was snapped during the scene where Titus breaks Lavinia's neck which helped drive the unprecedented "visceral reaction."

When reflecting on not being cast in the 1999 movie, he said "that's the story of my life." While he admitted that he hasn't seen the movie, he says that a friend told him that Taymor "uses the breaking of the neck thing," to which he responded by saying, "people steal, what can you do?" Read Cox's full quote below:

People were carried out of the auditorium. I think the first Saturday matinee, we had about eight people carried out because it was too much for them. And when I broke Lavinia’s neck, I had somebody behind me snap a twig, and the whole audience would go, “Oh!” I remember also one night there was some [audience member] who had an accent, and she was going, “Help me, help me, help me.” And I sort of continued talking, took her by the hand and led her gently to the vomitorium [a bathroom offstage]. I’ve never been involved in [another] play where I had that sort of visceral reaction from an audience. [Was I upset when Hopkins was cast as Titus?] Well, that’s the story of my life. I’m used to that. I never saw the film, but somebody told me she uses the breaking of the neck thing, which I did first. So it’s just the way people are. People steal, what can you do?

This Isn't The First Time One Of His Roles Has Been Filled By Hopkins

It is unclear what other roles Brian Cox was referring to when he said that he is "used to that." He has held many stage roles, particularly in Shakespeare plays, which he did not reprise in movies that followed. However, it's possible that one role he had in mind was Hannibal Lecter himself. Cox played the iconic character in the first Hannibal Lecter movie, 1986's Manhunter, but after Hopkins' turn in the role in Silence of the Lambs five years later, Hopkins was the star who was invited to return to the role in 2001's Hannibal and 2002's Red Dragon.

Source: THR