Sir Anthony Hopkins "doesn't quite get" 'Transformers: The Last Knight'.

Sir Anthony Hopkins

Sir Anthony Hopkins

The 79-year-old actor has joined the franchise as Sir Edmund Burton, who devoted his life to the study of ancestries of humans and Transformers, and though he had a "terrific time" making the movie, he wasn't really sure about the "complicated" plot.

He said: "You're not going to ask me to explain the plot are you? Because it's so very complicated and there's the whole mythology of four previous films that come into play. I have to admit, I don't quite get all of it.

"All I know is I play a highly educated, eccentric English lord. I had a terrific time making it. Mark Wahlberg was wonderful to work with, the locations were excellent (Northumberland, Norway, Arizona, the Isle of Skye and Stonehenge) and I showed up, put my costume on, said my lines and stayed out of trouble. That's all I ever do. It beats working for a living."

The veteran actor has never shied away from making popcorn blockbusters, after his father Richard advised him to go where the money was when he was a stage actor in his 20s.

He recalled to Event magazine: "And he was right. He told me to go to Hollywood like Richard Burton and make some cash. That's why I came to Los Angeles all those years ago [in the mid-Seventies] and I fell in love with the sunshine - it's a great place to make a good living."

And when he first got to Hollywood, Anthony accepted any roles he was offered, and acknowledges they weren't all particularly good.

He said: "As Michael Caine says, you make bad films till you become famous and then you can afford to make good ones."

While his most famous role was as Hannibal Lecter in 'Silence Of The Lambs', Anthony insists it wasn't his greatest performance.

He said: "No, no, definitely not. I learned my lines, showed up and was herded into my glass box. It was a good role but for me my best performances have been in 'Remains Of The Day', 'Nixon' and 'The World's Fastest Indian', not 'Silence Of The Lambs'."

"The best thing about that film was that it got me back out of the theatre. I'd done six months and the boredom had kicked in."

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