Browsing: dustin hoffman

In an interview with NPR promoting his directorial debut Quartet, acting legend Dustin Hoffman talked about getting his start in acting. Famously, Hoffman beat out other actors for his breakthrough role of Benjamin in The Graduate like Robert Redford, who far more resembled the character in the original novel.

There’s a famous, though embellished, story about classically trained actor Laurence Olivier and method actor Dustin Hoffman on the set of Marathon Man. According to the legend, Olivier asked Hoffman why he looked so tired on the set one morning, and Hoffman explained that he had stayed up the whole night in order to properly play a character who had stayed up all night. As a joke, Olivier replied something to the effect of, “Why not try acting? It’s much easier.”

Based on the novel by Mordecai Richler, the movie follows the life of Barney Panofsky (Giamatti) as we watch him through 3 marriages, a popular TV show and a possible murder rap.