He won a long-awaited Oscar for his performance in The Silence of the Lambs in 1992 - despite having been on screen for barely 16 minutes of its total two hour run time.
Yet Sir Anthony Hopkins' latest role could even top that chilling turn as Dr Hannibal Lecter, with some describing it as the best work of his acclaimed 48-year, 130 plus movie career.
Go With Me - which the Port Talbot screen legend filmed last year in British Columbia, Canada - tells the tale of a young woman (The Bourne Identity's Julia Styles) who calls on the help of a grizzled ex-lumberjack (Hopkins) when she falls foul of a local king pin (Goodfellas star Ray Liotta).
The film has been directed by Daniel Alfredson who recently oversaw Hopkins in his role as Freddy Heineken in a recent Amsterdam-based thriller based on the real-life kidnapping of the infamous Dutch lager magnate.
“It’s an excellent script," says Hopkins, who turns 78 in December.
"There’s not too much dialogue. It’s a brutal and harsh look at life.
“I like scripts that are simple. Sometimes you do a movie and it’s so hacked about because everyone has their own good ideas.
"Danny (director Alfredson) is flexible to all that, but at the same time he doesn’t take to people messing about.”
The finished product is due to be privately screened in Vancouver soon, which will be the first time any of the actors - other than Hopkins - will have seen it in its entirety.
It will then get its world premiere at next month's prestigious Venice Film Festival.
"Anthony thinks it’s one of the best films he’s done in a long time - he might even have mentioned Silence of the Lambs in there,” says producer Rick Dugdale, who, in turn, compared it to backwoods cult classics like Deliverance.
"He feels the same way we do, that we executed it exactly as we intended to.
"Obviously I’m close to it, but I really do think the film is good," he adds.
"And the reactions we’re getting from people…hey, you don’t get into Venice without the film being worthwhile.”
“I’ve probably watched it 300 times, I'm not even making that up."
WATCH: Hopkins ups the chill factor in the Westworld teaser trailer
Meanwhile, the Welshman can next been seen in the small screen remake of the '73 sci-fi chiller Westworld - the tale of a futuristic holiday resort peopled by role-playing robots.
The series, due in 2016 and made by the award-winning HBO , will mark Hopkins first ever regular TV role.
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