The Beast in Me star Matthew Rhys reveals he “stole a lot” from Anthony Hopkins’ character in The Silence of the Lambs

Netflix's psychological thriller, The Beast in Me, premiered on November 13, 2025, and has quickly become one of the top shows globally. Created by Homeland's Howard Gordon, the show revolves around Claire Danes's Aggie Wiggs, an author who gets entangled in the life of a mysterious real estate mogul named Nile Jarvis, played by Matthew Rhys.

Recently, while appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Rhys talked about his character in The Beast in Me, which Fallon described as "charming yet terrifying", and shared that he took inspiration from Anthony Hopkins' character, Hannibal Lecter, from the critically acclaimed film The Silence of the Lambs. He said:

"I stole a lot from Anthony Hopkins."

More on this in our story.

The Beast in Me star Matthew Rhys took inspiration from Anthony Hopkins' character from The Silence of the Lambs

In Netflix's The Beast in Me, Matthew Rhys is introduced as a real estate mogul named Nile Jarvis. He is the new neighbor of Danes's Aggie and wants her to approve the jogging trail that he wants to create in the shared forest area. However, Aggie refuses to sign and agree to it.

Nile has a notorious reputation due to his being suspected of killing his first wife, who has been missing. In the series, by inviting Aggie to lunch, he tries to get on her good side so that she agrees to the jogging trail, but instead complicates their relationship further, as Aggie, while wanting to write his biography, also begins reinvestigating the disappearance of Nile's first wife and how he can be connected to it.

In The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, Rhys shared that he watched the popular psychological horror thriller, The Silence of the Lambs, to learn from Anthony Hopkins's character on how to play a notorious role that he portrays as Nile Jarvis. He shared:

"I went back to The Silence of the Lambs, to kind of, you know, if you're going to steal, steal it from the best. So I did steal a lot."

Apart from revealing and taking inspiration from Hopkins' portrayal of cannibalistic serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Rhys also spoke about how The Beast in Me is similar to a Hitchcock thriller, and quipped:

"It's an old-fashioned kind of Hitchcockian thriller where, you know, it's cat and mouse for eight solid episodes, as Claire Danes looks at Nile Jarvis and goes, 'Who are You? Who's the real You?'"

In the thriller series, Nile is the one who suggests that Aggie write a book about him, but she refuses. Later, she is visited by the FBI Agent who investigated Nile's wife's disappearance case and tells her to stay away from him. Furthermore, she also learns about the disappearance of the boy who killed her son in an accident, leading her to suspect Jarvis.

After the police reject her suspicions, she begins her own investigation and agrees to right the biography, beginning their 'cat and mouse' relationship.

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Along with Rhys and Danes, the Netflix thriller series also stars Brittany Snow, Natalie Morales, David Lyons, and Jonathan Banks, among others.

Also Read: Is The Beast in Me the new Homeland? Showrunner Howard Gordon breaks down the similarities

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