Robert De Niro Reveals He Almost Starred in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and Why It Didn't Work Out

Robert De Niro has had an insane career as an actor and has played so many iconic characters over the course of his career. The actor recently revealed that he was originally offered the role of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs and also why things didn’t work out, with the part ending up going to Anthony Hopkins.

While a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher asked De Niro about some of his famous roles and if there were any parts he missed out on in his career, and he responded:

“The only one that I didn’t… I was taking so long to think about it as the famous one that Anthony Hopkins wound up doing. … It was with Jonathan Demme. … Yes, Silence of the Lambs. I could’ve played that part.

“But I waited so long, and I was thinking. I was like, ‘Just give me a little longer.’ He just cast it. … I don’t regret it. That’s just what happened.”

While I can see why De Niro was initially wanted for the role, Hopkins was the perfect actor to play this evil character and he proved that he was right for the role when he won Best Actor for it. But at that time, De Niro was one of the most bankable movie stars. The Silence of the Lambs was released in 1991, which was only a year after Goodfellas, and a few years following De Niro playing Al Capone in The Untouchables.

Even though De Niro has no regrets about how things played out, it’s definitely one of those fun “what if” casting decisions that almost was. It would’ve been interesting to see how De Niro would’ve brought Hannibal Lecter to life because it would’ve been very different than how Hopkins played it.