Anthony Hopkins reveals the secret atheist message he put into The Rite

In the exorcism thriller The Rite , Anthony Hopkins spiel an unconventional non-Christian priest lock in deathly combat with Satan . But Hopkins , an agnostic , was uncomfortable with his fictitious character – he told us how he slipped a agnostic ’s content into the film .

The Rite open up this weekend , and earlier this calendar month we joined several diary keeper to question Hopkins about his role in the moving picture . When asked what he thought about the movie ’s paranormal subject thing , Hopkins pointed to a particular line from the film that he order encapsulates what he believes . And it for certain should – he really wrote it for his persona , the exorciser Father Lucas .

Here ’s how Hopkins explains the line :

There ’s a scene in the courtyard after the first dispossession , and I ’m talking to the young priest [ played by ] Colin O’Donoghue , who in his fictional character has heavy doubts about [ exorcisms ] . He thinks it ’s all a old bag of tricks , he thinks it ’s all mumbo jumbo and maybe there ’s no such thing , which is the argumentation : Is there such a thing as anthropomorphic presence of the hellion or is it genial disturbance ? That ’s the debate , I gauge , in the moving-picture show and probably in the world .

And after that I say to him the problem with sceptic and atheists , is that we never get laid the truth . We ’re always try on to find the truth . What would we do if we found it ? And I asked [ theatre director Mikael Håfström ] if I could write that occupation . To describe myself as an atheist , as a skeptic which makes the vernal priest turn [ and say ] , “ You ? ” , and I go , “ Oh yeah , every daytime I struggle . Most days . Some days I do n’t bang if I believe in God or Santa Clause or Tinkerbell . ”

Though it does n’t needs negate what Father Lucas says and does elsewhere in the film , the line for sure perplex his characterization as an untiring warrior against the violence of iniquity . As Hopkins explains , it ’s a line that he wrote because it was important for him to incur something of himself in Father Lucas , even if he had to put it there :

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It gives a illusion of humanity to somebody who says they do n’t know … I wrote that . Not because I ’m canny . I write it because I wanted to fit like a mitt a slice of myself in that because that ’s what I trust . I do n’t know what I believe , myself personally .

Hopkins then offer his own thoughts on the peril of being perfectly certain and that , while he himself seems to fall somewhere between atheist and agnostical , the real antic is to leave some room for doubt . Here ’s his eloquent explanation :

Anyone who says they hump , like Colin the young non-Christian priest [ who ] order , “ I consider in the Sojourner Truth . ” Oh , the truth , oh yeah , raft of trouble that got us into , did n’t it , over the last maybe thousand class ? Hitler acknowledge the truth , so did Stalin , so did Mao Zedong , so did the Inquisition . They all have intercourse the true statement and that make such repulsion . Certainty is the foe .

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It ’s like anyone saying “ the debate is over . ” Who tell it ’s over ? “ The public debate is over . We live . ” We ? Who ? Human being , we do it nothing . And someone say , “ But are you an atheist ? ” Well , I do n’t be intimate what I believe . But who would I be to rebut someone like [ German pastor Dietrich ] Bonhoeffer who give his living for his church service and terminate up in Flossenburg being executed by the Nazis ? The cracking martyrs who died at the stake , destroy for their personal beliefs . So who am I to controvert anything ?

“ I would detest to live in a world of sure thing . Have a closed circuit , a windowless room where I know for sure ; like Jean Paul Sartre ’s [ idea ] that we ’re living in Hell , a shut keep . I ’d rather last with uncertainty because Socrates was told that he was the wisest man in Athens and he say , “ Well that ’s not likely . ” So he went around seem for people who were wiser than him . And he detect one who said , “ I ’m glad I do n’t have it away anything . ” I think it was Plato who said “ Be kind because everyone is struggle a great battle . ” Whatever the Devil is or is not , I think when we turn our back on our own frailty and our own humanity and say we get laid for sure , we know the truth – we are in problem . ”

It should be manoeuvre out that this oral communication was completely impulsive and totally off the cuff , because Anthony Hopkins is awesome . The Rite opens nationwide this Friday .

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