38 AMERICANWAY
JANUARY 1 2009
D U S T I N H O F F M A N
characters. But listening to him speak, it
seems that he, too, is looking for himself in
the rolesheplays.
“We’re trying to fuse our self — our im-
perfect self, our self that would like a dif-
ferent face, adifferentbody, adifferentnose
— into this other person for twohours, and
we do it unconsciously,” he says. “Suddenly,
weareJuliaRobertsorweareGeorgeCloo-
ney, and thoseareparticularkindsofactors.
For lack of a better word, signature actors.
That’s their signature. And I never felt that
I had a signature. Emma and I agree; we
don’t have a signature. We’ve spent a life-
time looking for a signature.”
Actors, as a general rule, are largely un-
comfortable in their own skin. So it stands
to reason that even the greats— andHoff-
man, withmore than four decades’ experi-
enceunderhisbelt certainlyqualifies— live
with a reasonable degree of insecurity. But
his particular brand looms larger than his
“five-foot-six-and-three-quarter-inch”
frame.Whenhe looks back at the instantly
identifiable stars of the screen, he doesn’t
seehimself in their company.
“I’m not like, say, Nicholson or Bogart,
where the audience goes to a film and says,
‘That’s Jack.’ Or, ‘That’sBogart,’” he says. “I
mean, if yougo seeamovieI’vedone,would
youknowwhat to expect?”
Perhaps not. But that seems to be the
genius of theman:He’s as able as he is en-
dearing. Hoffman’s been skilled at hiding
himself in so many memorable characters
thatwestillhaven’theardhisownstory.But
you get the feeling, watching
Last Chance
Harvey
, that you’re seeing a glimpse of it.
The film offers perhaps themost complete
pictureofDustinHoffmananaudiencehas
had the chance yet to see. Hoffman and
Thompson let us into their characters’ con-
versations at the same time that they open
thedoor to their own experiences— anop-
portunitymostactorsdon’tallow.There, on
the screen, is theactorwitha love story rat-
tling around inhis head, the romanticwho
had his heart broken at 24, the man who
was never part of the pack. Hoffman is the
unlikelyherobecausehe’s a fallibleone.
We must respectfully disagree with Mr.
Strasberg:That is a
real
leadingman.
CouRtNEYHAzlEtt
covers pop culture andmedia forMSNBC
and writes a daily column, “The Scoop,” for MSNBC.com. She
lives inNewYorkCity.
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