This is Fresh Air. I'm David B. and Cooley, sitting in for Terry Gross.

A census taken once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some father beans and a nice kiyanti.

For Halloween this year, we're looking back at some of our favorite scary scenes and characters

from the movies. One of the most chilling characters to ever appear on screen was that of the psychopath

and serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the 1991 Jonathan Demi film The Silence of the Lams.

Anthony Hopkins won an Academy Award for the role of Lecter who used exquisitely precise ways

of killing his victims and then eating them. Throughout the film, he taunts FBI agent Clarice

Starling, played in the film by Jody Foster, who is desperately trying to track down another serial

killer by the name of Buffalo Bill. She thinks that Lecter may help her peer into Buffalo Bill's

deranged mind and visit Lecter in prison. I'm offering you a psychological profile of Buffalo Bill

based on the case evidence.

I'll help you catch him, Terry.

You know who he is, don't you? Tell me who decapitated your patient, Doctor.

All good things to those who wait. I've waited Clarice, but how long can you and old Jackie

Boye wait? I live a belly must already be searching for that. Next special lady.

Terry interviewed Anthony Hopkins in 1991. He told her how he came up with the voice for Hannibal Lecter.

When I was assured that the part was on offer to me, I started to work on it and simply to

learn the lines and think about it. And it was such a well-written part and the story was so

compelling that when I, after the first reading, I heard the voice of Hannibal Lecter. It sort of,

I heard it in my head, I saw a vision of it, I saw what he looked like. Well, not strictly within

the first reading, but let's say maybe two or three readings of the script. Because my work is

kind of quite simple. I just learn it, you know, before I start filming. Just learn the text,

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