Sir Anthony Hopkins' wife believes he is autistic

He told the Sunday Times Culture magazine: "I'm obsessed with numbers. I'm obsessed with detail. I like everything in order. And memorising.

"Stella looked it up and she said, 'You must be Asperger's.' I didn't know what the hell she was talking about. I don't even believe it."

The Silence of the Lambs star has no plans to seek a formal diagnosis because he thinks it is all "nonsense" and simply a modern fashion to seek a "label".

He said: "Well, I guess I'm cynical because it's all nonsense. It's all rubbish. ADHD, OCD, Asperger's, blah, blah, blah.

" Oh God, it's called living. It's just being a human being, full of tangled webs and mysteries and stuff that's in us. Full of warts and grime and craziness, it's the human condition.

"All these labels. I mean, who cares? But now it's fashion."

Pulling an exaggerated sympathetic face with his hands over his heart, he added: "And you know, people do this."

"Oh, give me a break."

Anthony believes he feels uneasy with himself because he feels a sense of "embarrassment" about his career.

He said: "I think maybe it's some kind of embarrassment that I'm an actor. 'What d'you do?' 'I act.'

"No, I've not done a stroke of work in my life. When I look at my life, the reality is I haven't had a good, decent job in my entire life. I've done nothing except show up, speak the lines and go home.

"People out there are digging the streets and working in shops and stores. That is real work. I haven't dug a street out. I've done nothing. I look at [myself] and think, 'I haven't done a day's work in my life.' That's the reality."

Meanwhile, although he received a knighthood in 1993, the Father star doesn't worry too much about people using his formal title - and he even "forgot" to mention it in his new memoir, We Did OK, Kid.

Asked why he didn't mention his knighthood in the book, he said: "Oh. Is that rude? I forgot."

"It's only a title. I'm very grateful. Really appreciative - I don't dismiss it. But I can't think about it. You don't have to call me Sir Anthony. I can't go around with that albatross around my neck, that would be insanity."