YES, SIR, TONY'S JUST A REGULAR GUY : IF YOU ASK HIM, THERE'S NOTHING AUGUST ABOUT `AUGUST' STAR-DIRECTOR HOPKINS.

Byline: Amy Dawes Daily News Staff Writer

Anthony Hopkins is never one to cultivate a mystique or put on airs, and he hardly seems the sort of person who would eat your liver.

``Tony Hopkins,'' he says in greeting, pumping your hand like any friendly American, waving away the `Sir' that came with his knighthood, or any other distancing formalities.

He has just buzzed in from seaside Pacific Palisades, where he lives most of the time now, though he still keeps a house in London. From his white running shoes to his tan, his open shirt collar and baseball cap, he looks every inch a Californian.

Indeed, since he first arrived here for a Broadway role in 1974, America has embraced Hopkins as eagerly as he has embraced it, allowing him to move freely between major American and United Kingdom roles, from the cannibal psychopath Hannibal Lecter in ``The Silence of the Lambs'' and the former U.S. president in ``Nixon'' to stiff-upper-lip British roles such as the repressed butler in ``The Remains of the Day.''

``I think I've found a balance now, between myself and America, that I'm very much at peace with,'' said Hopkins.

And yet he is still a son of Wales - so much so that he chose for his directoral debut a movie that allowed him to return to his homeland and the sentiments of his youth.

``August,'' which opens today, is the story of a tragicomic weekend at a country house in North Wales, involving characters who grapple famously with universal concerns such as loneliness, stagnation and the fear that one has wasted one's chances in life. The story has entranced audiences for almost 100 years - it's adapted (and relocated) from the Russian playwright Anton Chekov's ``Uncle Vanya.''

Hopkins said he had been wondering for several years if he could direct a movie, when producer June Windham Davies heard him mulling the idea and jumped on it. At the time, he was planning to direct a stage version of ``Vanya''; instead, he tailored it for the screen. It was financed by Manchester, England-based Granada Films. (Hopkins later directed a stage version.)

Hopkins plays the lead role, and also performs the piano music in the movie's haunting score, which he composed.

Born a baker's son on New Year's Eve in Port Talbot, South Wales - the same area that produced another great Welsh actor - Richard Burton - Hopkins began piano lessons at age 6 and says he was always ``making up tunes.''

He entered Cardiff School of Music and Drama to study the piano, but eventually chose to focus on acting, enrolling at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and joining Laurence Olivier's National Theater Company at age 29.

Music remained a great love, particularly the work of impressionist composers such as France's Claude Debussy and the Englishman Frederick Delius. ``The music in the film comes from somewhere in my childhood, and I think it captures - more than melancholy - a sort of angst,'' said Hopkins. ``I was a very poor student, I had no idea what they were talking about in school. And so I didn't feel I had a future. I felt doomed.''

The emotions in the score, as well as his connection to the themes of Chekov's play, he said, reflect his ``awful fear of stagnation. I felt that if I had to live my life in that sameness, I would just go nuts.

``I wanted the score to open with these great heartbreaking strings that speak of the sorrow and sadness in all our lives, and the joy that's underneath it, and to close with a sort of lullaby, indicating that finally, nothing is of any importance, because nature will take over, and death will take us away.''

He says this with that enigmatic half-smile of his, the one that often punctuates his delivery of the iciest material in his performances. Because Hopkins, his deep feelings aside, is not one to overdramatize things.

Of directing himself, he says simply, ``Sometimes it comes out a bit off from what you thought, but you don't get ingrown toenails about it. You just think, `Oh well, I did the best I could.' ''

Of directing ``August,'' he says, ``There's no mystique. Once you know what the setup is and what the scene is about, it's easy, really, very, very easy.

``People said to me, `You'll go mad, because they'll keep coming up to you about all these decisions.' But when it comes down to it, you're sitting in your chair with a cup of tea, and they say, `Do you like this hat for her?' and you say, `Yeah, if she likes it. Put it on, that's good.' That's the way I like to do things. Because, finally, in the end, it's no big deal.''

Of the sense of inner struggle and emotion he creates in his famously ``still'' roles, like his Oscar-nominated butler in ``Remains of the Day,'' Hopkins says, ``There's nothing difficult about playing a minimalist character. All you do is speak quietly and not move so much. People say, `Wasn't there more to it than that?' and I say, `I don't know. I don't think so. It's just a lot of common sense, really.' ''

As a youth, Hopkins preferred American movies to Shakespeare, and dreamed of coming to the United States. He got his chance in 1974, when he was invited to play the psychiatrist in ``Equus'' on Broadway. The Watergate scandal was in full swing, and Hopkins watched the resignation of then-president Nixon with fascination.

``Here was a man who so wanted power, and then blew it. I watched him, thinking, there's more to him than this sad wreck that he's become. This man is magnetic, he seems to be driven by something. I appreciated that, being neurotic myself. Little did I know that 20 years later, I'd be playing him.''

Hopkins' early work in America brought mixed results - from Broadway acclaim and two television Emmys to some lamentable TV movies that kept him off Hollywood's A list.

He succumbed to melancholy and drinking. After waking up in Phoenix one morning in the early 1980s, unable to remember how he got there, Hopkins joined Alcoholics Anonymous, then returned to England in 1984 to again tackle the stage.

By 1990, Hopkins believed his Hollywood days were over. ``I had settled back in England for a respectable career,'' he said. ``And suddenly, along came Jonathan Demme.''

The director of ``The Silence of the Lambs'' had handpicked Hopkins for the prime role of Hannibal Lecter, which won him an Oscar in 1992 and made him a household name in America.

``This whole resurgence of my career - it's wonderful. I've had the most remarkable life,'' says Hopkins, now 58. His second marriage has endured since 1973. He and his wife, Jennifer, have a daughter.

And yet, success is not something he has pretensions about. ``It doesn't make any sense. I know there are better actors than me. I've got a sort of average technique. I think it has something to do with personality.

``I think if you are angry enough when you're young, it becomes a driving force. But then you have to get in control of that anger and ambition, because it'll burn you up.

``You can't push your ego, push and demand. You have to take your luck when it comes. Appreciate the few moments in the sun, and when it gets cloudy, say, `Well, that's that. Maybe it'll come around again.' And it usually does, if you can keep a perspective and a sense of humor about it all.''

His passion for America is also unabated. ``I think it's an amazing country, America. I still feel this great force and energy here. In England, there's a close-mindedness. That's the way we are. We tend to laugh at some of the things Americans do, and I agree, some things are a bit crazy.

``But what I love about this place is that everyone's prepared to do anything to expand their potential, even it it means going up a gum tree and falling off the edge. They still think it's worth having a go at it. And that's what I love about it.''

As for the fallout from his most famous role, Hopkins says he's still subjected to jokes in restaurants about fava beans and chianti, some of Hannibal the Cannibal's favorite culinary complements. ``But it's all in fun, and I don't mind. I had such a good time on that movie.''

The possibility of a sequel lingers - ``Silence of the Lambs'' author Thomas Harris has been working on a follow-up book for the past five years. ``Hannibal becomes a vegetarian,'' jokes Hopkins, just checking to see if you'll laugh.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) The Many Faces of Anthony Hopki ns

(2) Anthony Hopkins is at the center of ``August,'' his directorial debut. He plays the lead role and performs the piano music in the film's score, which he composed.

(3) Of directing ``August,'' Hopkins says, ``There's no mystique. Once you know what the setup is and what the scene is about, it's easy, really, very, very easy.''