Entertainment
Anthony Hopkins on Holocaust drama 'One Life': 'This can happen again at any moment'
In 1988, the BBC television series “That’s Life!” aired a program on Nicholas Winton, a former stockbroker who helped to save 669 children from the Nazis in the months leading up to World War II and the Holocaust. As seen in the episode, the producers of the show surprised Winton by seating him in the audience next to several now-adult survivors of the Kindertransport. Years later, Iain Canning, the Oscar-winning producer of “The King’s Speech,” rediscovered the popular clip and wondered about the story behind it.
“It was such a stoic, emotional moment,” Canning tells The Times. “I just felt it was a life and a story worth exploring in film.”
He and Emile Sherman, who, together, had recently established their See-Saw Films company, went to visit Winton, then 101 years old, in 2010. Canning describes him as “humble, generous and also incredibly kind,” but says Winton was reluctant to be painted as a hero onscreen. “He believed that we all have the capacity to do the right thing at the right time,” Canning recalls.
A few years later, the producers enlisted screenwriters Lucinda Coxon and Nick Drake to adapt “If It’s Not Impossible…: The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton,” a 2014 biography of Winton written by his daughter Barbara Winton. She gave her blessing to the film, titled “One Life” — as long as her father was played by Anthony Hopkins.
Although the actor initially had to turn the role down, the opportunity came back in 2021 and he gladly accepted.
“It sounds weird to say that this story was personal to me because obviously I wasn’t involved in the Holocaust, but I do remember the war,” says Hopkins, 86, currently writing his memoirs and pleased to hold court in a suite at London’s Dorchester Hotel. (He wants us to take pastries and we oblige.) “I remember the bomb damage. That period of history encompasses my own life. It’s part of my consciousness.”
“One Life” shifts between two timelines. Hopkins plays Winton in the late 1980s reflecting on his life. Actor Johnny Flynn plays Winton in 1938 when he accompanies a friend to pre-war Prague and discovers that thousands of people are living in refugee camps in Czechoslovakia after fleeing Nazi persecution. Although Winton was at the time working as a stockbroker, he joined forces with the British Committee for Refugees, based in Prague, and devised a plan to move children across Europe by train to England.
“It’s hard for us on this side of the Holocaust to imagine that, in 1938, people didn’t know what these events were pushing toward,” Flynn says. “It was an existential threat, certainly for people back home in Britain. But Nicholas, who had Jewish heritage, connected to the plight of these people. Because of the type of person he was, he went there and saw it and he came back to England going, ‘No, these people are starving and dying.’”
Romola Garai and Johnny Flynn in the movie “One Life.”
(Julie Vrabelova / Bleecker Street)
Winton worked with a team of like-minded people, including Doreen Warriner (Romola Garai), Trevor Chadwick (Alex Sharp) and his mother Babette (Helena Bonham Carter). Traveling back and forth between London and Prague, he raised money, fought with the Home Office to grant visas for the children, many of whom were Jewish, and found foster families willing to take them in. Winton kept detailed records of his efforts in a scrapbook, now displayed in Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem memorial, that includes photographs of the children he shot and developed himself. The filmmakers also had access to Warriner’s 1984 book “A Winter in Prague” and Chadwick’s personal records, as well as other historical accounts to ensure accuracy.
“You always want to stay as close to history as possible — or at least I do,” director James Hawes says. “It gives it an authority. The nature of a drama is you always have to squeeze things for time, but we went out of our way to adhere to the truth. There are moments, like in the BBC studio, where we had an extremely good record of how things were, although we changed that slightly. But a huge amount of it is very true and anchored.”
Although author Barbara Winton died halfway through the filming, which took place first in England and then in Prague, Hawes remained in close contact with Winton’s grandson and son-in-law. “We could literally ring them up for photos and details,” Hawes says. “Because once you get into production beyond the script, props want to know, ‘What sort of car did they drive? What sort of meals would be right for each of them to eat in front of the TV?’ We went down to that kind of detail.”
Flynn shot his scenes after Hopkins wrapped so he was able to observe the elder actor’s portrayal of Winton. He also had footage of Winton in 1938, including a clip of him holding a rescued child, which was re-created in the film. Although it’s told from Winton’s perspective, the movie makes it clear that he didn’t work alone.
James Hawes, director of the movie “One Life.”
(Jack English)
“Nicholas knew that he wasn’t the most important aspect of the operation,” Flynn says. “He was just the person who was there as a face for the children to see and meet. He was working back in England to get the bureaucratic side done with his mother, which was all done from their front room in their house. They had to be pretty ruthless with the Home Office and that’s all there in the film. Nothing needed to be exaggerated.”
To re-create the episode of “That’s Life!” the team built a replica of the 1980s BBC studio at Pinewood outside London. Instead of casting actors to play the adult survivors, the filmmakers invited the family members of the original Kindertransport children to be in the studio audience. Hawes approximates nearly 50 of them participated.
“We had organizations working with us to make sure that we reached as many children as possible to let them know it was happening and to invite them to be in the audience,” producer Joanna Laurie says. “The response was astonishing. On the day, everyone was weeping.”
Although the scene was emotional to shoot, it was important to the filmmakers to ensure it played authentically. Hawes shot it from Winton’s perspective, reframing the well-known clip.
“It was quite an experience,” Hopkins says. “But James didn’t want to make a spectacle of it. He didn’t want to make it sentimental.”
Hawes adds that much of the feeling in the scene came from the crowd itself. “If you look at the line [of people] just behind Tony in the second audience scene, there’s a family of three sisters and a brother and you can see the emotion they’re giving,” he says. “It breaks me just to remember it. They felt it utterly and honestly.”
Anthony Hopkins in the movie “One Life.”
(Peter Mountain / Bleecker Street)
Despite Winton’s reluctance to be recognized, “One Life” spotlights the importance of doing good — especially when no one is looking.
“He wasn’t trying to save the world,” Flynn says. “He was just doing what he could do in that moment. There’s so much cynicism around doing good things now because of the potential to virtue-signal. No good deed goes unnoticed by Instagram. But I think what’s nice is to remember a time when that wasn’t a part of it.”
Hopkins agrees that today “everyone wants to show how clever they are.” He sees a film like “One Life” as an opportunity for audiences to be reminded of what’s at stake if we don’t learn to compromise or help. He remembers meeting a survivor of Auschwitz more than 20 years ago, who told him she goes into schools to teach them that the Holocaust could be repeated.
“It’s easy to forget,” Hopkins adds. “And nobody wants to be lectured and have it jammed down their throats. But I hope for at least an awareness. This can happen again at any moment and if we are not aware of that, we are doomed. But the human being has, I think, the capacity also to survive and pull ourselves back from the brink.”
The sixth outing in the director’s chair for filmmaker Kirk Jones, I Swear dramatizes the real-life story of touretter John Davidson (played by Robert Aramayo). Tourette’s Syndrome, for those unfamiliar with the condition, is a nervous system disorder that causes various tics, the most prolific being erratic and explicit language. However, as I Swear expertly showcases, the syndrome is far more than ill-timed outbursts of curse words. Davidson’s story is one of societal frustration, finding your people (both with and without the condition), and using your voice to help others rise. The subject and subject matter are handled with absolute care and understanding under Kirk’s measured vision and Robert Aramayo’s BAFTA-winning performance.
The film kicks off with the greatest exclamation to democracy ever uttered (*%#! the Queen!), as a nervous John Davidson prepares himself before entering an awards ceremony hosted by Britain’s royal family. Right away, the film tells us what it is: a triumph over adversity that blends humor and human drama with education. It’s an important setup, as the film flashes back to Davidson’s 1980s youth, where we see his time as a star soccer recruit flatline as his condition takes hold. Davidson’s life spirals from there. Some aspects, like school bullying and accidental run-ins with authority figures, are expected but important to empathizing with young Davidson’s (young version, played with heart by Scott Ellis Watson) new everyday life. The more tragic, a complete meltdown of his family system, is unsettling if quick. His father (Steven Cree) is never given enough screen time to explore his alcohol coping tendencies. However, his mother Heather’s descent into easy fixes and blaming is crushing and convincing. Harry Potter series actress Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle) gives a layered performance as Heather. Someone who loves her son, but also feels cursed by him as the entire family exits the picture. It’s bitter, she’s tired, and fills each conversation with ‘only medication and your mother can save you’ energy.
From there, the viewer and Davidson find refuge in a host of characters. Maxine Peake plays Dottie, the mother of a childhood friend and a retired mental health nurse. Screen vet Peter Mullan plays maintenance man Tommy Trotter. Together, they help Davidson build a life and an understanding of himself that carries the film forward into its second half. After that, the film is primarily a 3-actor show as director Kirk fills the screen with these tour-de-force performances. Peake and Mullan are great vessels to get the film’s main message across: patience, love, and a shared responsibility between the diagnosed and those who understand their struggle can help change the path for people quickly left behind by a normative world. Together, they are the soul of the movie, with the filmmakers clearly hoping the audience will follow their lead after they exit the theater (in my case, the beautiful Oriental Theater for the Milwaukee Film Festival). Both performances are perfectly warm and reflective and shouldn’t be left out in discussions of I Swear.
I say this because the movie is anchored by The Rings of Power actor Robert Aramayo, who leaves Elrond’s elf ears behind to bring an acute naturalism to his performance of main character John Davidson. Aramayo’s physicality and timing of the fitful Tourettes Syndrome never feel out of place or overplayed. In fact, the movie as a whole does an amazing job of never veering into sentimentality. While many moviegoers left with tissues dabbing their eyes, the filmmaking never felt like it was forcing that reaction out of audiences. It straddles the line between feel-good and reality with every story beat and lands squarely on the side of letting the real inform our feelings. Anyone with an ounce of empathy will grasp the film’s message and hopefully take it with them into life.
I Swear continues at the Milwaukee Film Festival on Tuesday, April 21st, and releases nationwide April 24th, 2026, courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
Several private equity firms and Hollywood power players, including United Talent Agency and longtime agent Patrick Whitesell, have expressed interest in buying parts of Casey Wasserman’s music and sports management firm after it abruptly went up for sale.
Wasserman became ensnared in controversy earlier this year after his salacious decades-old emails to Ghislaine Maxwell, an accomplice of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, were released as part of the U.S. Justice Department’s trove of Epstein files.
The agency auction is in the early stages, according to three people close to the process but not authorized to comment.
Earlier this week, several interested parties submitted proposals to meet a preliminary deadline in the auction, two of the sources said.
The company, which changed its name to the Team last month, is expected to be valued at around $3 billion.
Providence Equity Partners holds the majority stake. The private equity firm has discussed selling the entire company or carving off Wasserman’s minority interest. Providence also has considered selling the bulk of the firm and staying on as a minority investor, one of the sources said. Another scenario could involve separating, then selling the individual business units that make up the Team.
Wasserman and Providence’s company boasts an enviable roster of music artists, including Kendrick Lamar, Coldplay and Ed Sheeran. Its sports marketing practice is viewed as particularly lucrative and has potential to grow in value as big dollars flow into sports that draw large crowds.
Wasserman, who declined to comment, has a veto right over any sale of the company that he has spent a quarter of a century building.
UTA, which also declined to comment, is among the most aggressive suitors, the sources said. The Team’s sports marketing and music representation divisions would dramatically boost the Beverly Hills agency’s profile and client roster.
Whitesell, former executive chairman of Endeavor, separately has been motivated to make investments in sports, media and entertainment since last year when he left the talent agency that he and Ari Emanuel built. Whitesell launched a new firm with seed money from private equity firm Silver Lake, and last spring he started WIN Sports Group to represent professional football players.
Whitesell wasn’t immediately available for comment.
European investment firm Permira also has expressed interest, according to a knowledgeable source. Permira declined to comment.
The New York Times first reported that Permira, UTA and Whitesell had expressed interest.
The sales process is expected to stretch into summer, the knowledgeable people said. The auction could become complicated particularly if Providence decides to unwind the business.
For example, UTA could not buy the entire company because of the Brillstein television unit. The agency is bound by an agreement with the Writers Guild of America that prevents it from owning television production.
Investment bank Moelis & Company is managing the sale. A representative of the firm declined comment.
Wasserman also is the chairman of LA28, the nonprofit group that will be staging the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in two years.
Following revelations of Wasserman’s 2003 emails with Maxwell, several musicians and athletes — led by pop artist Chappell Roan and soccer star Abby Wambach — said that, to stay true to their values, they would leave the agency then known as Wasserman.
Wasserman apologized to his staff for “past personal mistakes” and said he would sell the agency.
He had limited dealings with Epstein, flying on the financier’s jet along with former President Clinton for a September 2002 humanitarian trip through Africa.
Wasserman, a prolific Clinton fundraiser whose legendary grandfather, Hollywood titan Lew Wasserman, helped the Democrat win the 1992 presidential election, was joined on Epstein’s jet by his then-wife, Laura, actor Kevin Spacey, Epstein, Maxwell — who was convicted of sexual abuse in 2021 — and others, including security agents.
The LA28 board’s executive committee unanimously voted to keep Wasserman as chairman, citing his “strong leadership” of the Games.
Pizza Movie (2026) Director: Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, Star: Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone
Somehow, I got through an hour of this movie. I was seconds away from turning off in the first fifteen minutes because of the juvenile humor. Pizza Movie is too silly, repetitive, and the characters are annoying. Stranger Things Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone star as college friends, Jack and Montgomery. College angles are rarely seen in films right now, and that’s the one saving grace of the film. Similar to high school, people are also trying to fit in. The story and visuals were too corny. You can only watch someone’s head exploding for so long without letting yours.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) Director: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, Stars: Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy
I never saw the first Super Mario Brothers Movie when it was out, but I heard it got positive reviews. My brother always loved playing Super Mario video games as a kid, and I’d watch him. I tagged along with my friends to see Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and it’s a cute and fun film. I like it when movies explore the video game world. The animation creates unique worlds and characters. The characters are split into their own storylines, and for me, I felt like it worked. It adds more action, especially for kids who are seeing the films.
Emily in Paris Season 5 (2025) Creator: Darren Star, Stars: Lily Collins and Ashley Park
After a bright spot in season 4, I thought season 5 of Emily in Paris would continue its growth in the story and its protagonist, but no, it’s all drained out in the usual Emily (Lily Collins) mishaps. Ashley Park (Mindy) has become too good for this show. Emily and Mindy waste several opportunities because of their love lives. The whole relationship angle is ruining it. I don’t understand why Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) is still in the show. I thought writers learned their lesson, but by the last episode, they’re continuing to bring the past into an apparent season 6.
Sarah’s Oil (2025) Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh, Stars: Naya Desir-Johnson and Zachary Levi
There’s always history lurking right beneath our noses. Sarah’s Oil (2025) tells the true story of Sarah Rector, an Oklahoma-born African American girl who became the first black female millionaire in the U.S. Naya Desir-Johnson is fierce and driven as Sarah. Zachary Levi is also along for the ride as Bert, a man who helps Sarah. Kate (Bridget Regan) was another favorite character as an intelligent woman. Cyrus Nowrasteh was drawn to the subject for its story and its themes. Nowrasteh’s direction is compelling as he unearths a hidden story from history. The film is streaming on Amazon Prime.
Jack Goes Boating (2014) Director and Star: Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Ryan
Jack Goes Boating (2014) didn’t quite work for me, largely because of its slow pace and uneven storytelling. The film stars the late Seymour Hoffman as Jack, who also directed the film. This was Hoffman’s first and only time in the directing chair. Amy Ryan also stars in the film, giving a solid performance. This was also based on a play that Hoffman starred in. Jack wants to participate in a swim championship. That’s hardly what the film is about, tracking other characters’ stories. While the film aims for quiet intimacy, it ultimately drags, making it an underwhelming viewing experience.
You Kill Me (2016), Director: John Dahl, Stars: Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni, Luke Wilson
Meet You Kill Me (2016), yet another film that I found in the museum of underrated gems. The concept revolves around Frank (Ben Kingsley), a hitman, who is sent to an A.A. meeting to get his mind focused again. A different story happens, where Frank falls in love with Laurel (Tea Leoni). Leoni is one of my favorite actresses. It also stars the funny Luke Wilson. I liked the trio’s dynamics. You Kill Me is a mental health movie. It’s okay to make changes if you’re not happy. I recommended that you keep an eye out for this movie.
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