He's incorrigible, a dreadful flirt with a wicked and often risque sense of humour. He's also one of Liz Hayes’ favourite people to interview.
When Liz met up with Dustin Hoffman two years ago, the script went out the window almost as soon as they sat down.
Nothing was off limits, even Liz’s private life!
Transcript
LIZ HAYES: He may be 70 and one of the old schoolboys of Hollywood but Dustin Hoffman is every inch a flirt.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: It's a first date!
LIZ HAYES: I know, I feel a little nervy myself.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: See! It's good.
LIZ HAYES: And as I'm about to discover, this is a man who is frighteningly honest.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: I mean we, just it's a... it's like every ten seconds there's a sexual thought.
LIZ HAYES: More than a little inquisitive.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: What kind of guy do you like? Less crazy?
LIZ HAYES: Oh, I've not been good at blokes. I mean, well that's all I... I... I've been married a couple of times. And sometimes just plain outrageous.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: I mean poll the room here, if it's your own fart there's nothing - it's kind of, mmm yeah. Unless you're sick cause then it that kind of tells you that you're sick. They say (sniff) I think I'm getting sick. There's an acidic...
LIZ HAYES: For Dustin Hoffman it all began 41 years ago when he played a student seduced by an older woman. 'The Graduate' changed your life, did it not?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: Yes, yes of course. So did my first wife, but that was only for eight years.
LIZ HAYES: Which did you prefer?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: I'll take fame.
LIZ HAYES: And fame it's been, ever since. We've known him in many guises, from the autistic savant in 'Rainman'... ..to the wildly unconventional dad in 'Meet the Fockers'. But who would ever have thought Dustin Hoffman as a small furry animal? Playing a wise old martial arts master, Hoffman has just taken on his strangest role yet in the animated movie 'Kung Fu Panda'.Can you clarify one thing for me. What what are you in the film?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: Such a good question. You saw it?
LIZ HAYES: Yes. You looked like a fox but...
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: Like a fox?
LIZ HAYES: It looked like a fox.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: I thought you were going to say 'a fart' but you didn't.
LIZ HAYES: I was going to raise that later.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: I didn't know what I was looking at, they told me I'm a rare red panda.
LIZ HAYES: After all these years, it's really no surprise that Hoffman is game for anything. But as a struggling young actor in New York, he never aspired to anything beyond bit parts and supporting roles off Broadway. That all changed in 1967 with 'The Graduate'. Can you remember what it felt like when you became a star?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: Yes, absolutely I mean it was, it was a shock. We were walking down Fifth Avenue and there's this lovely girl that comes up like 18, and she says, in a T-shirt, and she says "Sign me". And she picks up her shirt and her beautiful breasts are ... ..I'm sure they weren't like that but in memory they are.
LIZ HAYES: And you had arrived? This was stardom?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: I had arrived but I was embarrassed.
LIZ HAYES: Hoffman, who was once so perilously shy, now found himself not only a star, but against all the odds, a sex symbol - which suited him just fine. In fact you're quoted as saying that "Monogamy is not a natural state."
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: It isn't.
LIZ HAYES: Really?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: You and I know that, everybody in this room knows that. It isn't. We're not, we're not meant to be monogamous. I am because I value my marriage and I value the truth but it's... I do think and this is probably a sexist thing to say I think it takes more discipline for guys than for women. I'm not saying that women don't, "Look, oooh, yeah..." but I don't... it's a discipline with us. It really is. I mean it really is... our DNA is... I mean it's a tick with us, I mean we just, it's like every 10 seconds there's a sexual thought. I mean, let's face it - we're put on this earth to p-p-p-p- you know, populate the the species.
LIZ HAYES: After 'The Graduate' came a string of hits - 'Midnight Cowboy', 'All the Presidents Men', an Oscar winning role in 'Kramer vs Kramer' And the part that would change his view of women Dorothy Michaels in 'Tootsie' Were you pleased with how you looked as a woman?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: No I wasn't and it's, that's a great question. They said "What do you want?" I said "I want to look like a beautiful woman, "I want to really look beautiful", and they kind of like looked at the make-up people and they say - "I think that's as good as it gets", you know.
LIZ HAYES: As he was making the movie, Hoffman decided to let visitors to the set believe he was really a woman. But it proved to be a hurtful experience.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: I went home to my wife I said it was like a venetian blind - they looked at me, they didn't want to screw me that's what men do - and they were, "Where's Jessica Lange?" and I was just erased. And I had been erased as a kid by girls in school. You know, but nothing like this. It was so... it was beyond rude. It was so brutal.
LIZ HAYES: So you basically got an inside look at what it's like to be ah, a not-so-beautiful woman?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: Yes. And I said, "Jesus I think I'm an interesting woman. I do, I'm smart, you know, I have a good humour I'm passionate about my work...
LIZ HAYES: I've got something to offer.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: ..yes, and I can't help the way I look.
LIZ HAYES: But did this change how you viewed women?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: Yes it did, of course. I said "look at all the women I've erased "all the interesting women", because I was brought up just like every other guy. You know, you're attracted to what you're told to be attracted to. Right? It's brainwashing! It's what's on the magazine cover. I said, "look at all the women that I... " and I started crying. I had a very strong reaction to it. It was because I've lived half a life in a sense and it's true. It ain't right.
LIZ HAYES: Hoffman won a second Oscar for his role in 'Rainman'. He played Ray Babbit as the autistic savant, opposite Tom Cruise.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: It was really hot on location, and there we are in a real phone booth... ..and were doing takes and you know I squeezed one out and there was no sound and he just, you know he's just, he's, it was between takes he says "Did you, did you, did you fart?" and they said "We're rolling, we're rolling!" He's very quick and he just changed it to "Ray, Ray, did you fart?" He made it part of the scene. And I just took it up and went "yep, f-fart, fart."
LIZ HAYES: Farting is a bit of a theme with you.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: Yes it is. I think everything that's that is a theme if you want to put it that way is that which is basic to us and fundamental to us in terms of being a human and taboo.
LIZ HAYES: Hoffman has never played it safe, often taking difficult and unappealing roles.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: I love working, I'd be dead if I hadn't found myself as an actor I didn't have to be successful. I just... I found a life for myself there was nothing I have ever done that I just don't love the process of it, there's plenty that I've done where I feel, "I missed, I missed, I missed." and that's what you do.
LIZ HAYES: Ah you almost stole the show, in my opinion, in the Fockers, 'Meet the Fockers'. How did you feel about that role?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: I didn't want to do it because I, I didn't think there was a character in the script my agent said "I'm going to pin you down "I'm going to sit on you until you say yes."
LIZ HAYES: It was a movie that paired him up with his old friend Barbra Streisand.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: I used to whisper in her ear before every take, I said "My God..." you know, half of it is improvised anyways, I'd say "After this take I'm going to take you upstairs, "and then I'm going to take you to my camper "and I'm going to mount you like you have never been mounted," and she's..."Ahhhhh" and they'd say "Go!" and she'd love it. I said "Oh your breasts today, God Almighty." That's stuff of life, I think, when you're working.
LIZ HAYES: Yes, that sounds like a good time.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: And my kids said to me "for the first time you finally played yourself" because I'd never played that part. I mean, that's the person I know in the house.
LIZ HAYES: And now his latest role - one that even he has trouble recognising - that small, rare red panda. I suspect 40 years ago, or more than that, when you started in this acting career you hadn't anticipated doing an animation.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: No. Is that too quick? A Warren Beatty kind of answer?
LIZ HAYES: But it has become a very legitimate form of acting, hasnt it? No?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: I don't... by whose standards?
LIZ HAYES: What, why didn't you like it?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: Well it's kind of like, you're in a room with a microphone so it's like doing this interview and you're not there.
LIZ HAYES: In a world of homogenised movie stars, Dustin Hoffman is unique. After more than 40 films in 40-odd years he sure as hell isn't about to start slowing down. Ah well, now that you're in your... ..are you in your twilight years?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: No! I'm not. Come on! Twilight?
LIZ HAYES: Where are you?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: I'm 70.
LIZ HAYES: Well now that you're 70.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: Yes.
LIZ HAYES: Where are you in your career do you think?
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: Second act.
LIZ HAYES: As I get older I become aware of my mortality.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: But look at you! Look how young you are. You love life.
LIZ HAYES: I do.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: Yes. Especially after you got out of those two. You got rid of those two dudes right?
LIZ HAYES: Correct.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: And you have final cut. You can take any of this s--- out.
Video and link:
http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/stories/lizhayes/583005/tales-of-hoffman
