Dustin Hoffman Finds “Inner Peace” in Acting

If there’s ever a time when Dustin Hoffman is completely at peace, it’s when he’s in front of a camera or on stage.

“I don’t know what it’s called, outer peace, inner peace or sideways peace,” Hoffman told the Associated Press in a recent interview. “The moments where I think I’ve found it, I can feel that I’ve found it, is whatever it is I’m trying to do when I’m working. When I’ve been hovering around the edges and suddenly, you do a take or whatever, and it’s a feeling, and you think, that’s it.”

Hoffman, whose voice appears in upcoming animated flick Kung Fu Panda 2 (out May 26), also spoke to the timelessness of such points in time. “There is that envelope, sometimes, of time for us where we’re never going to die. There’s no such a thing. We’re just in a timeless element at that moment.”

These moments, says Hoffman, are beneficial in “filling up the vacuum of fear so that you’re no longer fearful.”

Very deep words from the 73-year-old, known for such introspective classics like The Graduate and Rain Man.