Sir Anthony Hopkins didn't take his musical ability "seriously" until recently.

The award-winning actor has turned his hand to composing and has written some orchestral music that is being released this month.

Music has always been a hobby of Anthony's, but he never thought twice about releasing it into the public sphere until his wife Stella Arroyave pointed out his talent.

"I have a piano I play every day, if I'm home and I've always improvised music and composed," he said in an interview with British newspaper The Independent.

"But I never took any of it seriously. I did it not out of ambition to be a musician or to be a composer, but for the sheer pleasure of it. Stella heard my playing over the years and said, 'Why don't you write those down?'"

Anthony says music comes naturally to him. The 74-year-old star warns that thinking too much about something is destructive to creativity.

"That's because I don't worry about it. I don't think, 'I've got to get this perfect, I've got to analyse it...' If it sounds OK to me and other people like it, then I go ahead," he explained. "I have catholic tastes and no preconceptions. I love listening to Vaughan Williams, Delius and Elgar, but I also listen to country and western music and jazz. I listen to anything."

Anthony has explained the roots of his musical interests. The Hollywood star's passion for music started before his love of acting.

"I was a lonely kid because at school I was a real duffer. I was completely stupid, I didn't know what on earth was going on, so I withdrew into myself. I didn't have any friends at school and I never played with other kids. I sort of created my own world," he explained.

"It sounds a little bit like a fairy tale, but I had no other choice. I could draw and I could play the piano. And that has stayed with me all my life."