JANUARY 1 2009
AMERICANWAY 37
What they did know was where they
didn’t
want it to lead: to something easy,
predictable, or unbelievable. They wanted
to make a movie about love in its truest
state—honest,flawed, and sometimeseven
a littleuncomfortable.Real love.
“
[
When I go to themovies,
]
Iwant to see
peoplewho I actually believe exist, who are
vaguely like me, falling in love,” Thomp-
son says. “People who aren’t perfect, who
aren’t sobeautiful that anyonewouldgo for
them.”
While Hoffman and Thompson might
seem like an unlikely romantic pairing —
about 22 years andahandful of inches sep-
arate the two— that’s part of what makes
a romantic comedy work, especially at this
stage of Hoffman’s career. And the veteran
actor, who’s been married to his real-life
wife,LisaGottsegenHoffman, fornearly30
years, knows well that love doesn’t always
playout likea fairy tale.
“I find itmore fascinating tohave an au-
dience sit there identifying with an imper-
fectionofwhat it is tobehumanrather than
an ideal. And that’swhat Ihad inmind,” he
says.
Hoffman speaks with such pride and
ownership for the film that it sounds as
though he had a hand in directing it. He
didn’t, but likemany of his on-screen con-
temporaries, Hoffman says he has aspira-
tions togobehind thecamera todirect.And
he is also at work on a screenplay, though
it’s still locked within a hard drive and far
from realization. So, one wonders, what
kindof storywill he tell?
“Oh, definitely a love story,” he sayswith-
out hesitation. “Love stories — that’s what
we’re always telling, aren’t we? I think it’s
amazing that two people, a man and a
woman, with DNA so wired to repel, just
want so badly to be together. In fact, I’ve
never understoodmengoingout ingroups,
thepackmentality. I’veneverbeen that guy,
neverbeenpartofa sports team,neverbeen
at that table full of pals ordering steaks.
Never have. I’ve just always wanted to find
awoman I can talk to. Talk toall the time.”
He pauses, andwith an expression that’s
equal parts wistful and hopeful, he quietly,
sweetly restates, “Yes, a love story.”
Andwhy wouldn’t he? After all, it was a
love story that catapulted his career when
he was 30 years old, playing fresh-faced
college alum and hesitant lothario Benja-
min Braddock in 1967’s
The Graduate
. A
decade and a half later, he had audiences
and critics swooning once again, this time
over his role in
Tootsie
as a cross-dressing
actor who falls in love with Jessica Lange’s
character, Julie Nichols, and gets caught
in an unusual multigender love triangle.
But since then, the actor has mostly shied
away from romantic roles. He convincingly
played an autistic genius in
RainMan
and
a scheming film producer in
Wag the Dog
.
He’s alsomasteredparts as apirate (
Hook
),
a grieving father (
Moonlight Mile
), and a
zany in-law (
Meet theFockers
).He’s tackled
virtually every genre in the 26 years since
Tootsie
, but onlynowhashe revisitedaplot
that tackles serious romance, thehonest-to-
Godgrown-upkind.Perhaps it’sbecause, in
his heart, he still doesn’t feel like a leading
man.
“I toldEmma, ‘I thinkwe’ve spent a lotof
time playing characters. We’re not leading
men or women, and it’s not like we’re try-
ing to be leadingmen or women,’” he says.
Sensing that this revelation, coming
from the man behind so many great
starring roles, is startling, he recalls a
story to illustratehispoint.
“I studied with Lee Strasberg in
New York many moons ago,” Hoff-
man says. “And one of the things he
said was— and he was a great influ-
ence onme — he said, ‘Everybody is
a character. There’s no such thing as
a leading man or an ingenue or a juvenile
or a leading lady.’ He said, ‘Have you ever
met someone in lifeand someoneaskedyou
afterward what was that person like, and
you said, “He’s a lot like a leading man”?’
He said, ‘Well
that’s
a character.’ So Ialways
thought then in those terms.”
Hoffman explains that audiences go to
the theaters to find themselves, or if they
can’t, then to project themselves, in the
Hoffman in
Tootsie
“We’re trying to fuseour self—our imperfect self,
our self thatwould likeadifferent face, adifferent
body, adifferent nose— into this otherperson
for twohours, andwedo it unconsciously.”
