In New York there are a bunch
In New York there are a bunch.”Jesus Hopped the A Train was produced by New York’s LAByrinth Theatre Company, founded 10 years ago to offer work to struggling Latino actors (LAB stands for Latino Actors Base). It has since evolved into a multicultural collective, in which Hoffman – brought up in middle-class Rochester, New York, one of four children of a father who worked for Xerox and a mother who is now a judge – is co-artistic director.Does he take lucrative movie roles to underwrite his theatrical ambitions, as does our Steven Berkoff? He ponders. “I’m a single guy, living in a one-bedroom apartment, so my overheads aren’t huge I haven’t moved on to owning that car, buying that house. I make enough to give some money to the group each year, but I try not to make too many decisions based on money. Whatever I do, there has to be a universal issue involved, even if it is the issue of romance. Apart from which, a big movie takes four months out of your life.”His next big movie is Red Dragon, a prequel to Silence of the Lambs. “I play a tabloid journalist, who is kind of ruthless about getting the story.
Ralph Fiennes plays the main killer, and there is a scene where he kind of tortures me, but in a very distinct way Then… he does this one thing.” I lean forward in appalled anticipation, but he won’t tell “I have hopes it might be pretty good. There are some wonderful people in it – Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Fiennes, Emily Watson…”Hoffman is a sucker for wonderful people. I often ask actors which performers they most admire, but most answer unenthusiastically, with a predictable Dame Judi here, Sir Ian there Not Hoffman. “The people I admire more than anyone are those who have been around a long time. I’ve worked with Paul Newman, Jason Robards, Chris Walken, Meryl Streep, De Niro, and my admiration button was, like, going crazy.
It’s something about the way they carry themselves, the humility of them.”Has he learnt from them? “Oh, yeah. With Newman I was in a film called Nobody’s Fool, and you learn from his respect for acting, for how difficult it is. With De Niro, I did a film, Flawless, and there was one time I was playing a very hard part, which took a bunch of takes. I said to him, ‘Did you ever feel you didn’t do it right?’ He said, ‘If you feel something is wrong and you can change it, change it. If you can’t, move on.’ Basic, but great advice.”I think with those guys I’m admiring a time that existed, that they still carry with them. There’s something I fall in love with, and it’s a time when I wasn’t around, American film in the early 1970s, theatre in the 1950s.
