My tiny little mission in life is to say to them ‘there’s no mystery to acting’ and the great pleasure is seeing them open up.”Dressed rather formally in a cream check sports jacket, turquoise shirt, cream trousers and loafers, he looks tanned and fit, his silver hair cropped short Watching him interacting with the students is compelling. He works through lunch without a break, transforming pedestrian performances into polished theatre.Is it true that you read your lines 250 times to practise for the role, asks one student “Yes, I’m a little whacko and a little phobic,” he grins. “I have a kitchen at home with everything in it that I never use If it gets even a little out of order I can’t stand it I don’t like disorder. So, with learning lines I know 40 times is enough, but because I’m such a perfectionist I have to go further and further, it’s my ego.”At the college, Hopkins resonates warmth and passion; he’s engaging and friendly.

The next time we meet is at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, where he is in a different frame of mind. Here to promote his latest film, Bad Company, an action-comedy with the comedian, Chris Rock, he’s polite and charming, but more reserved and detached. He won’t discuss anything “personal” such as his recent divorce from his wife of 29 years, Jenni Lynton, and admits he’s wary of British journalists who he claims often misquote him and are mean spirited about his success in the States. “Everything I did in England was ripped to pieces by the critics. I’ve had some unspeakable things said about me, so I thought ‘I’m off’.”A US citizen for the past two years, he owns houses in Malibu and Pacific Palisades and says he doesn’t miss Britain and has no plans to return “I love Los Angeles,” he sayssoftly, stroking his chin. “So many people say ‘how can you live there?’ But I think it’s a wonderful place, there’s so much life here.

I love the climate, I love the coast, there’s a sense of openness.”He has been criticised, particularly in Britain, for taking on less substantial films like Bad Company. “It’s just a job,” he says with a sigh, “it’s not brain surgery. I did it because my agent thought I should do a big, commercial blockbuster.” Hopkins plays a veteran CIA agent, Chris Rock is his prot? and they have nine days to save New York from devastation, following the theft of a nuclear device. The film is pure popcorn from the producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who was behind films such as Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop “I said ‘who’s in it?’ My agent said, ‘Chris Rock’. I said, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve seen him on television, he’s very good,’ so I partly read the script and called him and said, ‘let’s do it.’”I arrived in New York and realised the script was overwritten as far as I was concerned, and said to the director, Joel Schumacher, ‘I’ve got too many lines, let me just cut them out.’ Some writers overwrite and you can say more by not speaking. Coming from the British stage there’s a lot of talk and in films it doesn’t really work.” He adds that he has no interest in the theatre any more.