I missed the AMC showing , so I haven't actually seen the whole movie (and from some of the posts on here I might not actually want to- it sounds quite tramatic .) But I did find a clip from youtube. In the clip, you can see Hopkins moving his lips a little, but was he actually doing ventriloquism or did he just move his lips for effect and then have a voice-over later?
Anyone know?
I wondered the same thing. My guess is that it's mostly dubbed, only because if he did learn it he's doing it incredibly well for a beginner. The scenes where he "throws" his voice to a different room are almost certainly dubbed.
One thing I noticed, as Corky he slips further into madness, sometimes Fats mouths the words that Corky is actually saying.
I am remember reading that Hopkins became so good at ventriloquism, he was accepted as a member into some special organization for ventriloquists.
Mace.
No, The movements were perform by a real Ventriloqusit Victor J. Kemper. Who also Did the voice of Fats. It's on the Special Features of the DVD. Please Anthony Hopkins isn't that good.
shareIf Ventriloqusit Victor J. Kemper did the voice then why does it say in the credits it was Anthony Hopkins??? And HOW does he sound SO much Like him??
...Just curious??
Hopkins did learn the skill. A few years ago I read a transcript of an interview with Hopkins, and he answered several questions on the difficulty of learning ventriloquism and his methods. I've looked for the interview again on Google but can't find it. I am certain, though, that he did indeed learn ventriloquism for this role.
He's a talented man, that Hopkins; must be why they call him 'Sir'...
Actually you are incorrect. Victor J. Kemper did NOT perform the movements of fats, he did not do his voice either. It was Dennis Alwood who trained Tony Hopkins, did the movement for Fats, and supplied the voice of Fats. Hope this clears it up.
side note. Tony did in fact take a crash course in ventriloquism, as well as slight of hand tricks to prepare for this part. And originally, Jack Nicholson was going to be Corky, but he declined to wear a toupee, so he turned the part down, and Thats when Tony was cast.
Well right now I'm watching the interview with Anthony Hopkins and the annoying man who keeps interrupting him and repeating everything in Spanish… Dennis Alwood trained him 6 weeks before they started shooting the film. To my understanding Hopkins did do the voice of Fats. However on the DVD there is an interview with the ventriloquist Alwood and he says something about --full frame shots and--something something. but in other shots it was ok because he was hidden.-- ……so that throws me off. However I think Hopkins did do the movements of Fats and his voice considering his name is in the credits for being Fats. Also in the interview with Hopkins he clearly does the Fats voice while talking to the guy. So rmager3571 who made a comment on Thu May 10... Hopkins IS that good. Ha.
shareI'm watching it on TV right now, and not only is Anthony Hopkins credited as the voice of Fats, but if you pay close attention, you can see his throat moving whenever he speaks through his dummy.
sharethat can always be faked. just clench your teeth with your lips apart, and move your throat & tonsil area inside... and on the outside your throat moves & it looks how his throat movement looks. so when filming, it'll appear as if he's doing his ventriloquist business... but really he isn't. he's just "imitating the outer movements" of the real ventriloquist....
i'm in audio/video production - trust me. i highly doubt that Tony had to do the FATS voice on set. i'm 99.9% positive he'd been fed the lines off screen by someone so he could get the timing right, and then the 'line reader' was erased from the sound so that Tony could dub in his voice as FATS.
I'm a camera operator & am primarily visual in the process, and also an editor however... in one class we got to learn how to do ADR (additional dialogue recording) which includes dubbing over -- *and* we learned sound effects, and music, and putting it all together in time with the actions on screen. it's not that hard, but the knowledge i gained from that class tells me that logically they did the FATS lines in 'post' (post production) and dubbed it in.
the guy they're talking about who "did the movements" probably did the more in depth motions of the dummy/doll with the eyes, and mouth, and everything... Tony may have just rotated the head and stuff, but when you don't show a full shot of the person (side to side, and head to toe all exposed), it's easy to fake it. When you see him waist up, it's easy to fake that his arm is in 'Fats' when really it's someone else's arm up the dummy, who is controlling him....
that's what they mean. as well as when the dummy is "sitting on the couch" yet you clearly see him move -- there are ways of hiding the person behind cusions or whatever. whatever the camera doesn't see, we don't see - it's all 2 dimensional. As FW Murnau used to say "if it's not on screen, it doesn't exist" (at least "he" did in *Shadow of the Vampire* lol)
ANyway so yeah....
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You people are so stupid. To finally clear up this ridiculous post there WAS NO ventriloquist. It was Corky himself! He was alive and breathing. THIS is why they decided to do a movie about him in the first place. He comes from the species class of pupples, people. Grow a brain!
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Do you think it's possible that a different voice was used during filming and Anthony Hopkins dummy voice was dubbed over in post production?
share...and Victor J. Kemper was the cinematographer NOT a ventriloquist. Though Sir Anthony DID learn how to do vent (the professional name for both the practicitioner of and the practice of ventriloquism.) Also, several other people were considered for the role Sir Anthony Hopkins played including Jon Voigt and Gene Wilder. Also, Lord Laurence Olivier was to play the agent but was ill, so that role went to the very talented Burgess Meredith.
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Yes, but of course he didn't win anything for playing Corky, beyond a Golden Globe. And no one I know had ever heard of this until I mentioned it. I'm pissed off.
"I've been living on toxic waste for years, and I'm fine. Just ask my other heads!"
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I never said he didn't.
"I've been living on toxic waste for years, and I'm fine. Just ask my other heads!"
Yes. It was Hopkins all right. The dummy's voice was Hopkins as well and the ventriloquist who taught him the tricks of ventriloqusim learned to impersonate the voice of Fats and it was he, not Hopkins, who provided the voice when Hopkins couldn't do it (when he was doing something else in a scene). This was all on the DVD of the movie.
shareIn the biography by Faulk it says that he learned the skills in 6 short weeks and mastered them so well that he does pretty much everything you see on the film. Somr might be dubbed but not to my knowledge.
He has been credited by many ventrioquists who spent their whole life learning as "one of the best" even though it took him short of two months to learn.
He is a very talented man :D
"May I see your credentials?"
That says something about the skill level required for ventriloquism - a great actor can master it quickly because it's essentially a subset of acting.
As an attorney, I used to marvel at how effective various actors could've been as trial attorneys, before I realized (depressingly) that they get paid WAY more as actors pretending to be attorneys.
Same with ventriloquism. Or stage magic for that matter.
Yes, he did learn in order to make it look natural during the performance scenes. But I also believe he had help from a real ventriloquist as well.
While he was learning, Hopkins kept Fats in his house. But then became so disturbed by him he requested that someone else keep the dummy. I think I've heard that the shoot was rough on Hopkins, the role was a tough one.
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Yes, that's Hopkins himself voicing "Fats." The ventriloquist who served as a consultant for the show actually physically moved the dummy in many scenes, as Hopkins had enough on his plate throwing his voice and playing a disturbed man at the same time. He did well, don't you think?
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