Hollywood has produced some of the finest psychological horror movies through the years, but no other movie has ever achieved the heights of The Silence of the Lambs from 1991. On a certain level, the film’s critical acclaim speaks for itself. It is still the only horror film to have won ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy Awards.
Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs
Directed by Jonathan Demme, with an adapted screenplay written by Ted Tally based on a 1988 novel by Thomas Harris, the film follows Clarice Sterling, a young FBI agent who turns to Dr. Hannibal Lecter (a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer who is imprisoned for his crimes) to seek aid in order to search for and capture a serial killer. Both critics and horror fans alike have reiterated time and again that this is one of the best movies ever made.

Foster has admitted to being scared of her co-star on multiple occasions

In addition to its two stars, The Silence of the Lambs horrified audiences all across the world thirty years ago. The main leads, Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, initially met during a table read in London shortly before filming. In a conversation with the folks at Vanity Fair, Foster said,

“We didn’t speak too much before the actual read-through.“

Jodie Foster

“We met at a reading. I didn’t really get a proper meet with Tony. So we’re sitting across from each other, and he launches in, and we start the reading. And I was just petrified.
I was kind of too scared to talk to him after that.”

And this isn’t the only time she has confessed her fear of the Marvel star, either. On an episode of The Graham Norton Show, Jodie Foster was questioned by host Graham Norton about if it was true that she never spoke to Anthony Hopkins while filming the picture. Foster said,

“No. Never spoke to him. He was scary.“

Jodie Foster
Foster revealed that Hopkins was either in his cell or behind a glass wall when they were filming. He was locked inside at the beginning of the day since the scenes were lengthy; the next day, he used to be on one side and she would be on the other. She explained that they managed to reach the movie’s ending without ever really speaking to one another, and admitted that she really tried to avoid him. Well, given the character that is Hannibal Lecter, that is absolutely understandable.

The film was a Box Office success worldwide

Released on February 14, 1991, The Silence of the Lambs earned close to $14 million from 1,497 theaters over the course of the four-day Presidents’ Day weekend. It spent five weeks at the top of the charts. In June 1991, the movie premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London and made £290,936 in its first week of sales, setting a new record for a single theater. The next week, it added 281 screens and set a UK record with £4,260,472 in weekly revenue.
Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter
With a $272 million global gross, the movie made $131 million in the United States and Canada alone. It was the fifth highest-grossing movie globally and the fourth-highest-grossing movie in North America in 1991.