Hopkins Honored as Man of the Year

Academy Award-winning actor Sir Anthony Hopkins played a light-hearted cannibal last night--slaying a dragon and poking fun at his role as the psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter--to earn his pudding pot at the Hasty Pudding's Man of the Year award ceremony.

Hopkins received a standing ovation as he walked slowly into the theatre, waving and shaking hands with audience members to the tunes of the Pudding orchestra.

On the Pudding stage, a tux-clad Hopkins was "roasted" by Benjamin S. Forkner '01 and Suzanne M. Pomey '02, producers of Pudding Theatricals.

The roast's theme was Hannibal--the recently released sequel to Silence of the Lambs, the Best Picture of 1991.

As Hopkins stood on stage, Forkner and Pomey feigned fear and Hopkins played along good-naturedly, fixing the two actors with a malevolent stare.

"Just look at him, he's scary," Pomey said. "I think he might eat my face."

Hopkins smiled menacingly and shook his finger at Forkner before he finally spoke.

"I know your addresses," he said in his distinctive soft British accent.

He then turned to the audience.

"I know your addresses too," he growled, "all of you."

In order to earn his pudding pot, Hopkins underwent a series of rigorous tests to "evaluate [his] abilities as an actor," Forkner said.

Hopkins--who left the audience in hysterics with his Richard Nixon, Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson impressions--seemed amused by the tasks set before him

When asked to deliver a monologue from Silence of the Lambs, he laughed.

"You're very disturbed people," he said to the actors. "I run a psychiatrist's office. You should come see me."

Forkner also joked about Anthony Hopkins' knighthood status.

A Pudding actor dressed in a puffy, fluorescent green dragon suit raced onto the stage and attacked Pomey--who played the damsel in distress.

Armed with a plastic sword, Hopkins tackled the dragon and pinned him to the ground.

In line with the night's cannibalism theme, Hopkins stood above the dragon and pretended to eat a piece--using the plastic sword and trident as his utensils.

But the highlight of the night came after Pomey asked to see Hopkins play a romantic lead.

Hopkins took Pomey by the hand, pulled her into his arms and kissed her as the audience laughed hysterically and clapped.

Blushing, Pomey giggled and responded, "Lucky me."

As Hopkins held Pomey's hand, a Pudding actor clad in a black grim's reaper's suit and white mask limped onto the stage.

The actor wheeled a small serving table, with a plastic leg and skull speckled with blood on top.

"I'm a vegetarian," Hopkins said as the audience gasped.

Despite his vegetarian status, Hopkins agreed to taste the oatmeal-like substance inside the plastic brain.

As he chewed, Hopkins looked slightly repulsed.

"Take it away," he said.

Hopkins finally received his pudding pot--but only after posing in a curly blonde wig and black furry bra.

As he posed, Hopkins sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" in a high-pitched, whispery voice.

He then repeatedly tapped his furry breasts with his microphone, playing them like a drum.

"This is the craziest evening ever," the buxom Hopkins said.

As he toyed with the newly-polished lid of the pudding pot, Hopkins said he plans to bring the award back to his home in California--and place it next to his Oscar.

But first, he said--in another allusion to his man-eating role--he plans to put Forkner's fingers in the pot.

All joking aside, Hopkins said last night's award ranks with the Oscar in emotional significance.

"It's a part of Americana. It's a part of the myth," he said.

And Hopkins said the award is especially meaningful because it comes from Harvard.

"It's actually a piece of irony that I'm here tonight," Hopkins said. "I went through my academic career without a clue. To be at an American university as great as Harvard is a thrill and an honor."

--Staff writer Daniela J. Lamas can be reached at lamas@fas.harvard.edu.