Silence Of The Lamb’s Most Iconic Look Was Inspired By One Of Anthony Hopkins’ Phobias

While The Silence of the Lambs features one of the most iconic villain outfits in cinema history, it was a real-life fear suffered by actor Anthony Hopkins that inspired this costume. Hannibal Lecter is a complicated character. In 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs, he isn’t the main character or even its primary villain. Instead, Lecter is a deuteragonist who helps the heroine, Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling, hunt down its primary villain, Ted Levine’s Buffalo Bill. Despite this, Hopkins made such an impression on viewers that he ended up stealing the movie and earning an Oscar for the role.