Thirty-five years ago, moviegoers gobbled up director Jonathan Demme‘s thriller that hit theaters in the dead of winter. Now, some of those involved with The Silence of the Lambs are acknowledging its complicated legacy in light of criticism from the transgender community.
The feature adaptation of author Thomas Harris’ best-selling novel starred Jodie Foster as FBI trainee Clarice Starling as she tracks down serial killer Buffalo Bill, known for skinning his female victims. To understand her target, she consults with convicted cannibal and chianti connoisseur Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins.
Silence of the Lambs surprised the industry as an Oscar-winning, generation-defining smash. But over the years, the characterization of Buffalo Bill (whose sexual orientation is not explicitly stated) has been viewed as gender nonconforming and identifying as trans. For his part, Ted Levine — having played the character who is also known as Jame Gumb — has conflicting feelings about the movie, despite its success.
“There are certain aspects of the movie that don’t hold up too well,” Levine, who has never previously addressed pushback surrounding Buffalo Bill, tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We all know more, and I’m a lot wiser about transgender issues. There are some lines in that script and movie that are unfortunate.”
Ted Levine in The Silence of the Lambs.
Courtesy of Everett Collection
Levine did not have concerns while making the movie but has developed a fuller understanding of the trans experience in the ensuing decades. “[It’s] just over time and having gotten aware and worked with trans folks, and understanding a bit more about the culture and the reality of the meaning of gender,” says the actor, whose credits include the features Heat and The Fast and the Furious and the series Monk and Netflix’s forthcoming Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. “It’s unfortunate that the film vilified that, and it’s fucking wrong. And you can quote me on that.”
As for his performance, Levine clarifies, “I didn’t play him as being gay or trans. I think he was just a fucked-up heterosexual man. That’s what I was doing.”
After Michael Mann’s underperforming 1986 film Manhunter adapted Harris’ earlier Hannibal novel Red Dragon, Orion Pictures landed Gene Hackman to direct and star in The Silence of the Lambs. While Ted Tally was working on the script, Hackman left the project, and Demme was hired to helm.
Demme offered Clarice to his Married to the Mob star Michelle Pfeiffer, who turned it down, as did Meg Ryan. Foster loved the book and had even tried to option it, but Demme didn’t see her as a fit, only relenting amid studio pressure. “[Ultimately,] I fell madly in love with her,” he admitted in 2015. (Demme died in 2017 at 73.)
Hopkins got the Hannibal gig after Sean Connery passed and has said, “This is the best part I’ve ever read.” Edward Saxon, who was Demme’s producing partner, tells THR, “The studio came to us and said, ‘Offer it to Sean Connery and Jack Nicholson. If they say no, you can cast anybody within reason that you want to.’”
Anthony Heald and Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs.
Orion Pictures Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection
Orion released Lambs on Feb. 14, 1991, making an unconventional Valentine’s Day option. It became the year’s fifth-highest-grossing title, collecting $272 million globally ($659 million today), and was just the third feature in history to win the “big five” Oscars: best picture, director, actor, actress and screenplay. The film flouted typical studio strategy as the best picture winner with the earliest release date, and it has been cited as the only horror movie to win the coveted prize.
“We weren’t thinking of it as a prestige play,” says Saxon. “We thought we made an entertaining film. We had zero idea that we would be going to award shows at the end of the year.”
The project’s legacy includes a number of catchphrases having joined the cultural lexicon, such as Levine’s line to his victim: “It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again.” When asked how it feels to have a snippet of dialogue frequently quoted over the years, Levine admits with a laugh, “Pain in the ass, but it’s OK. Kind of put me on the map. But [the annoyance recently] is less so. The edges have worn off. It’s not a big deal. It’s fine.”
For his part, Saxon — whose next movie with Demme was the Oscar-winning Philadelphia, about a gay lawyer diagnosed with HIV — acknowledges that Silence’s filmmaking team had not anticipated that their work would cause pain for LGBTQ viewers. “We were really loyal to the book,” he says. “As we made the film, there was just no question in our minds that Buffalo Bill was a completely aberrant personality — that he wasn’t gay or trans. He was sick. To that extent, we missed it. From my point of view, we weren’t sensitive enough to the legacy of a lot of stereotypes and their ability to harm.”
Saxon continues, “There’s regret, but it didn’t come from any place of malice. It actually came from a place of seeing this guy. We all had dear friends and family who were gay. We thought it would just be very clear that Buffalo Bill adapts different things from society, from a place of an incredibly sick pathology.”
Silence of the Lambs has continued to be a steady part of popular culture throughout the decades, with AFI naming Hannibal Lecter as its top screen villain. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump brought up Hannibal Lecter in reference to migrants, while also having used the phrase “a wonderful man” to describe the character.
“To compare people who are looking for a better life coming over the border to Hannibal Lecter is about as perverse as anything we were able to come up with in the film,” says Saxon. As for Trump’s fascination with the character, the producer adds, “It’s a fascination with power and an elevated sense of self. Our president is stuck in a period: the Village People, Hannibal Lecter. I don’t think he stays up late watching new movies.”
Regardless of any misgivings over elements of the finished product, Levine holds positive memories from making The Silence of the Lambs. “Jonathan’s a wonderful, wonderful man,” he says of his director. “And the movie was a great experience — probably the best I ever had on a film.”
A version of this story appeared in the Jan. 2 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.