Anthony Hopkins

Anthony Hopkins plays Dr Robert Ford, the co-creator of the park, in Westworld. Ford's authority is not dependent on volume. Hopkins can make a courteous explanation feel like a reminder that somebody else has misunderstood who is in charge.

Born in Port Talbot, Wales, Hopkins trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and RADA before joining the National Theatre. His film career includes The Lion in Winter, The Remains of the Day, Nixon and The World's Fastest Indian. The range matters: his command of a scene is not confined to threatening characters.

His Academy Award-winning performances in The Silence of the Lambs and The Father show very different uses of that control. Hannibal Lecter's composure makes other people uncomfortable; the disorientation of The Father makes familiarity itself unreliable. Neither needs constant outward display to hold attention.

Westworld draws on his ability to suggest a long history behind a short conversation. Ford speaks as someone who has spent years considering questions that other people have only just begun to ask. The performance gives the park a past before the series has explained much of it.

Hopkins also plays the emperor Vespasian in Those About to Die. His later film work includes The Two Popes and One Life. Across those roles, the pleasure is often in watching an apparently settled expression change by the smallest amount.