LOS ANGELES -Sir Anthony Hopkins isn't afraid of death. The 80-year-old actor can't see the point in being frightened of his demise because it's something that will happen to everyone and finds it frustrating that people are always so evasive around the subject.

Asked if he's frightened of death, he said: ''Not at all. I've got no choice. What's the point in being frightened? We're all going to die...

''It's the inability to use words properly. 'He passed on'. What do you mean? He died.

''There's no respectable way of looking at it.

''When you're dead, you're a lump of meat and you decay very rapidly.'' And the 'Westworld' star urges people not to take their lives so seriously because they won't be around forever. He added to Radio Times magazine: ''I say this to the young kids, 'Don't take yourself so seriously! We're all going to be dead one day.' ''I tell myself every morning, 'You're not so hot. You're not that important.' ''We spend so much time worrying about what people are thinking of us and they're not thinking of us.

They've got better things to do. They're thinking about themselves.

''It's like Humphrey Bogart said, life is for the living - 'We're all just three drinks behind'. I like that philosophy.''

And Anthony is determined to enjoy the rest of his life.

He said: ''I don't think I will go mad now. The best I can say of myself is that I've tunnelled through the mountain of my life and come out the other side.

''I think once you get past the mid-70s and you're in your 80s, then you feel OK because you know your time is limited and you'd better get on with it and enjoy it.''