Anthony Hopkins (Reuters)

Anthony Hopkins goes out of his way to avoid working with method actors who stay in character when the cameras aren't rolling, as he finds them "unpleasant", "grumpy" and "miserable".

Daniel Day-Lewis recently hit headlines when it was revealed the cast and crew of Steven Spielberg's new movie Lincoln had to address the actor as "Mr. President" even when he wasn't filming scenes as assassinated U.S. leader Abraham Lincoln.

When asked about the Lincoln cast's methods, Hopkins reveals he did not stay in character during the shooting of his new film Hitchcock, about legendary moviemaker Sir Alfred Hitchcock, and he can't stand actors who take themselves too seriously.

He tells The Hollywood Reporter, "I don't (stay in character). There's no such thing. Well, you can do it if you want, but I don't go along with being called 'Mr. Hitchcock.' I think that's a lot of c**p. I just don't understand that. If actors want to do that, fine. If they want to be miserable, that's up to them. I'm not interested.

"It's a job. I do the job. I'm certainly not going to make my life miserable just to be a character... It's a pain in the a**. Who the hell wants to be with some miserable grump because he wants to get his performance right, so you have to call him this or call him that? It's so boring. I've been with actors like that and they're a pain in the a**, they really are. They're unpleasant to work with and I don't think they're always that good either. I've worked with some awkward customers, fortunately not too many. I go out of my way never to work with them again."