Dustin Hoffman : Is he a nice person?

Is he a nice person?

I know that you probably never met him but from what you have heard or read do you think he's nice?

Re: Is she a nice person?

I've read he's difficult to work with, but I always take that with a grain of salt. Anyone can run across a celebrity on a bad day and label them as "difficult."

Re: Is he a nice person?

In the early 70s my sister (a teen) had a big crush on him and had drawn some pictures of him. She sent them to him and he sent back an encouraging letter and a bunch of autographed pictures. A real letter, handwritten etc.

He took the time for a kid - not a sick kid or a photo op situation kid - which seems to me to be a nice guy.

Aside from being "difficult" to work with - you don't hear about him trashing hotels or throwing cell phones at assistants. I don't think he rates high on the Jerk Meter.

Re: Is he a nice person?

Not long before Elizabeth Wilson died I read an interview where she said that Hoffman was kind during the making of THE GRADUATE, but once he became a star told her that he couldn't hang around with nobodies anymore.

I don't know if that story is true or not. But there are others who got along well with him like Susan Sarandon;

“I was surprised how sweet he is. There was no vying for position, and that is not necessarily typical. He was the antithesis of the alpha male. I didn't ever get Dustin spraying his ground. Despite all the sexual innuendo he's always throwing around, he is very respectful. After all these years, he still loves the process.”

Jake Gyllenhaal and Cate Olson enjoyed working with him. Hoffman is an actor who likes to push himself to the limit. This has created some tension with coworkers [Marthe Keller comes to b68 mind]. Hoffman sees it differently and claims he is not difficult, “`Difficult'?” he asks. “Or `meticulous'? Maybe they are one in the same.”

Re: Is he a nice person?

Fantastic. Actors - true ones such as him - must experience intimately a large array of emotions and thoughts strange to most people not only in number but nature as well at times, that tends to diminish egos and enhance what is best, our humane - not merely 'human' - qualities. Adorable to hear good things about people who make good people (on screen, theater or written pieces).

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Re: Is he a nice person?

Watch the making of Death of a Salesman where he actually argues with Arthur Miller about why they should change a scene... Really... arguing with Arthur Miller.

Dustin Hoffman came off as extremely annoying in that and I believe he probably is still. However, he's a fantastic actor and it doesn't' make him a bad person. Just kind of annoying.

Re: Is he a nice person?

Did they (change it)?

I don't see why he shouldn't.

I saw that film way back, I believe I liked it a lot, incidentally.

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Re: Is he a nice person?

yes they did change it. It was something very inconsequential and I think Arthur Miller and the director just gave up arguing with him. It was random, like some mood swing he (Dustin) was having and just decided to latch on to this tiny little aspect and try to get it changed. It made little sense.

Re: Is he a nice person?

I don't know.... not sure there is such thing as an

inconsequential
alteration on a film.

I tend to think Hoffman was probably right and the director realized it. Like when Jodie Foster told Kaplan "One never looks at the jury." She had him change that scene.



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Re: Is he a nice person?

From what I gather and have observed about Hoffman, he does\did appear to be very caught up in his own self-importance as an actor. When he won his second "undeserved" Oscar for RAIN MAN-88', he carried on like he was the second coming. It was as though he believed his performance was the best thing since sliced bread. He even forgot to thank one of the most important elements of the film success, Tom Cruise, who in my opinion gave the better performance and went un-nominated. Yes, it's nice to be honored by your peers; but he came over as very self-absorbed.

He is talented and he knows it, and he also appears to be one of those method actors, that place a high degree of importance on what they do. It is as though that is all that matters and what is "real"; but it is really all about boosting up his own ego. Like Streep, I would say he might be a bit out of touch with reality, or at least how the rest of the plebs live and operate. I suppose this goes with the territory though, and when one is revered and lives a privileged life, that is his given I suppose.

Re: Is he a nice person?

Hoffman and Laurence Olivier got along great together when they made MARATHON MAN [1976].

Just recently on the CFB a poster mentioned a brief encounter with a very rude Dustin Hoffman.

Re: Is he a nice person?

Many sources saying that he almost tortured Meryl Strepp during the filming of "Kramer versus Kramer". But could be the "Method" thing.

Re: Is he a nice person?

I've read that when he's on a project he tends to argue with the director about every little thing. He reportedly loves to demand changes to the script at the very moment they're to be filming the line in question. Most notoriously he insisted that the ending of MARATHON MAN be chan 1908 ged to his liking, which was particularly strange since it was based on a bestselling William Goldman novel. Sadly, the director (John Schlesinger, who'd previously directed Hoffman in MIDNIGHT COWBOY) had no choice but to oblige, since Hoffman and producer Robert Evans were longtime drinking buddies (and reportedly co-womanizers). As a result, the ending is lame and the film suffers for it.

DETAILS ABOUT THE ENDING OF MARATHON MAN ***SPOILERS***

The original ending of MARATHON MAN was to show Babe (Hoffman) shooting Czell (Laurence Olivier) at point blank range with a pistol, and Czell's body would subsequently drop into the water inside a sewage treatment plant. This is how both the novel and screenplay ended. However, Hoffman and Olivier had become friends and Hoffman claimed, on the set, that he simply wouldn't fire a gun in Olivier's direction. He and director Schlesinger went back and forth and it reportedly became a very heated debate. Producer Evans was called and, after hearing both sides of the argument, sided with his buddy Hoffman. The ending was changed so that Czell charges Babe with a knife, Babe hurls a briefcase filled with stolen diamonds down some stairs that lead to the water in the sewage treatment plant, and Czell charges instinctively down the stairs to retrieve them. Czell, however, loses his footing and falls onto his own blade. He then plummets off the stairs and into the water where he dies.

Re: Is he a nice person?

A friend of mine worked as a waiter and all round dogs body for a company that hired out luxury boats to rich people on holiday in the med.
Dustin hired one for a few days and my mate said he was the most down to earth bloke you could meet, my mate had to wear a suit and bow tie even though it was summer and sweltering and he said DH would say "take the *beep* tie off and and get in the shade and grab yourself a drink", he didn't feel comfortable ordering the staff around and got his own food and drinks.
I'd say that makes his a decent guy.
Now as for Celine Deon, that's a different story, she was meant to be an awful person, throwing bread at him because it wasn't fresh enough etc. But that's a different story.
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