Simply Dustin Hoffman

"Psychologically, myself, we did not think about making it in the terms that people think about. We fully expected to be failures for our entire life. Meaning that we would always be scrambling to get a part. We were actors. We had no pretensions. There was more dignity in being unsuccessful." (Gene Hackman)

If a movie were to be made about your life, what would it be called, and who would play you?
"It would be called The Dustin Hoffman Story. When we were starting out, [Robert] De Niro, me and Hoffman were always sort of mixed up. People mistook us for each other."  (Al Pacino)

Everyday, Dustin sent me books and articles about the disease....every...day!"  (During Production of Outbreak)   (Morgan Freeman)

Q: Why were you recording off the T.V., so you could recite lines from a T.V. show?

OLDMAN: Yeah, I just used to always…long before I wanted to be an actor, I got… you know that wonderful, wonderful…the Dustin Hoffman Lenny?

FREEMAN: Oh yes.

OLDMAN: Who was the director?

Q: Bob Fosse.

OLDMAN: I remember, before I’d ever even seen the movie, I’d found the record. I thought it was music and I put this thing on, I didn’t even know how I came by it, it was in an attic or somewhere, or someone had it, and it was all those monologues.

FREEMAN: Lenny Bruce?

OLDMAN: Yeah, with Dustin Hoffman doing it.

FREEMAN: Really?

OLDMAN: Yeah, the soundtrack from the movie. So I just learned them all, before I even had an idea that I wanted to be an actor. I used to be at school, and I used to be the only 13, 14 year old walking around going, “Eleanor Roosevelt gave Lou Gehrig the clap.” I didn’t even know what I was talking about! So I used to tape stuff…

  (Gary Oldman) 

"Dustin is such an original and unique person that it was just a completely different relationship than I’ve ever had with anybody else. He’s just so wonderful and has such a combination of being a mentor and a colleague and a parent and a friend and a kid, all of those things. There are many different levels to it, both in the movie and in the professional working relationship." (Natalie Portman)

"If a guy like him can become a star, what'll happen to guys like Newman and me?"   (Steve McQueen)

"I think Dustin is out of this world in the movie (Last chance Harvey) Harvey, his character, was a bad father who seems to recognize that. Dustin, though, is a wonderful father — his children are his life."  (Emma Thompson)

Q: Ben, this is a heavy weight cast. Who was the most intimidating one to work with? (During Meet The Fockers)
S: Very quickly after meeting Dustin, the whole image I had of him was shattered. I was intimidated by the idea of working with Barbra, Dustin and Robert, but it left very quickly after we went into rehearsal, after a couple of days,  we were all just actors sitting around, trying to make this thing work. And I felt a very warm feeling from both Barbra and Dustin as parents (Barbra touches his hair). There’s a lot of physicality, and Dustin would do that to me too which wasn’t quite as nice. 
Q: Were you excited to get Barbra and Dustin as your parents?
S: Extremely. We wouldn’t even believe it that we would…when we talked about who the parents would be, Dustin and Barbra were high in the sky ideas of who we’d like to see."   (Ben Stiller)

"Dustin is a great believer in physical acting. Whenever we had to do a running scene -- you know, most actors would just say: "Well, just dab a bit of glycerine on my face, and I'll look sweaty." Not so with Dustin. He had to run right round the Ninety-first Street area of Central Park, so that he was really out of breath, which has always made me curious as to what they do when they're going to enact someone murdering somebody. ... Or having sex." (John Schlesinger)

Q: You dropped out of Columbia University in New York with two years to go. Was that a tough decision?
GYLLENHAAL: I completed my core courses in my first two years, so in my third and fourth years, I would be majoring (specialising - ED). My point was that I had a movie (MOONLIGHT MILE) with Dustin Hoffman coming up at the time, and so I just thought to myself, "what better university than the university I'm in, working with great teachers like Dustin Hoffman?" So that was what made up my mind for me. No regrets.
Q: Describe your working experience with Hoffman?
GYLLENHAAL: I think that everyone kind of feels like they have to tiptoe around icons like that. And with the younger actors, I think that he does like to do a little trip, a little intimidation game. I would, you know, show my feathers and he would rip them out.
Q: Did he do that the whole time you were shooting the movie?
GYLLENHAAL: Yeah. I think the dynamic kind of showed itself in the film a little bit too. Working with Susan though was a much more relaxed experience. Maybe it's because it's male-female versus a male-male dynamic, but with Susan, we just really became friends. We talked and we hung out.
Q: Totally different from Dustin Hoffman?
GYLLENHAAL: Yeah. And they have two totally different styles of work. I mean, Susan does two takes. Dustin works forever and has little pieces of brilliance. Susan has no notes on her script and Dustin has eight thousand notes all over his script and they both get to the same end. As a young actor, it's a little confusing because you're wishing for a key!
Q: Where are you on that continuum? Closer to Dustin Hoffman?
GYLLENHAAL: I don't really know. I mean, I do a tremendous amount of preparation. After I did MOONLIGHT MILE, I went to London to do a play on the West End, and my decision to do that was primarily influenced by Dustin who kept telling me that I had to get on stage. He said: "You're pretty good, but you've gotta get up on the boards, it's a real testing ground." The play was really the end of a series of 'teenager in transition' roles I had in "Donnie Darko", "The Good Girl", and "Lovely & Amazing". It culminates the end of a period of my life for me. Following that, I decided I wanted to take on different kinds of roles and that's pretty much where I'm at now.   (Jake Gyllenhaal)

"I've been so lucky in my career to work with the people I've worked with. Going to work everyday with Dustin Hoffman is once again just an amazing. gift you know. Really a funny, funny guy. Very inventive, very creative, very quick, very clever."      (Johnny Depp)

"One of the joys of the movie (All the President's Men) was working with Dustin; he has one of the most wonderful acting minds I've ever worked with."               (Robert Redford)

"He's energized and the greatest combination of the generous and the selfish that ever lived. He wants to be the greatest actor who ever was."   (Meryl Streep)

"The first two weeks of filming (Stranger Than Fiction) were with Dustin everyday and to get to work with someone that you admire as much as Dustin Hoffman, you know...and to have him be as friendly and as warm and as giving as an actor and person as he is...it was just so much fun, you didn't want those two weeks to end."    (Will Ferrell)

"Dustin Hoffman is I suppose one of the most siminal figures of my life in a sense that from his early work is embeded in my consiousness. I'd always been very much in love with Ratso from Midnight Cowboy. I'd always had this dream and fancy that I would be able to met him and make him better and we'd live happily ever after because he was so charistmatic and wonderful and funny and touching. So that's been...a sort of a dream come true working with Dustin."    (Emma Thompson)

[On The Lost City cast] "Along with Bill Murray I was also very fortunate to get the support of dear friend of mine and one of the greatest actors in the history of film. Like Bill, you know, he's a Dustin Hoffman. What makes him such a great actor like Bill is, he...they bring a lot to the table."   (Andy Garcia)

Q: Did you ever work with any of the other voice cast or were you always by yourself?                                                                                                                            I was mostly by myself. I got to work with Dustin Hoffman once for like 30 minutes just because our characters have some nice serious scenes together. It’s hard just doing it by yourself. And definitely when you’re acting with Dustin Hoffman instead of just by yourself, he definitely brings out the best in you. When you work with good people, it helps.   (Frankie Muniz)

"I was removed from that (Lenny) at the time it was offered to me. I've since got some ideas for comics and what they go through and who Lenny Bruce was. Dustin did a great job, so I was happy about that."   (Al Pacino)

SB: You mention Dustin Hoffman and you've mentioned him before. Is he somebody you've considered working with?                                                WA: I've always thought, that all the parts I can play, he can play and probably much better   (Woody Allen)

This is the first time you've worked with Dustin Hoffman. Did you know him from your early days in New York, or had to met him before?           I've known Dustin and known his work, of course, for years and years, but we had only met briefly a couple of times. Well, actually, that's not true - way back in the 70's, when Bob Evans was going to do the popeye originally, he wanted Dustin to play Popeye and I was tapped to be Olive Oyl. I don't know how certain I was as Oliver Oyl or not, but we met over at Bob Evan's house that many years ago. Anyway, of course I was thrilled to work with Dustin. He's very mensch-y and very easy to get on with, anyways. And I'm totally open to whatever anybody has to carry with.       (Lily Tomlin)

"I want a career like Jeff Bridges or Dustin Hoffman. I'd rather be known for my work than my face."   (Sam Rockwell)

"I just met Dustin Hoffman, we may be doing a film together, and to see the relish and the almost carnal way he regards acting is terrific, you know...that's kind of an inspiration."   (Anthony Hopkins)

“I was introduced to what [acting] could be and the magic of it,” LaBeouf said. “I watched a lot of Dustin Hoffman and watched a lot of Voight, and you start seeing that these dudes are magicians. There was this beauty to not having to be yourself. Playing other people and being able to get away from yourself. It was therapeutic.”   (Shia LaBeouf)