Latest Dustin Hoffman Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• We're not allowed in the cutting room - and that's extraordinary. So, when a director is asking for certain nuances and colours and we feel that they're phoney, but we do it because the director asks for it, that's the one that they pick in the cutting room. And I contend that when you see a movie with bad acting, don't blame the actor... blame those guys in the cutting room because they like that take.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Cutting, Guy, Acting

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• Usually, those people don't even like actors and they can't wait until they get in the cutting room. They kind of break down in categories: directors who like to be surprised and some of them abhor being surprised. As far as directing, we all direct when we're acting in movies... every single one of us.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Cutting, People, Waiting

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Press conference, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• I think one of the things you have to be aware of as an actor is that if you come on the set and see the director standing there mouthing all the words while a scene is going on, that's usually a very bad sign because it means the director has already shot the scene in his head. He knows exactly the rhythm and the nuances that he wants delivered in the line and you're not going to dissuade him.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Mean, Thinking, Directors

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Press conference, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• Well, 45-odd years of doing it, so we all pile up the things we like about directors and the things we don't like about directors. And sometimes they're very similar.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Years, Directors, Sometimes

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• So, most of it was done over the phone. But one of the first things I did as a director, because it's one of the first things you should do, even though most don't, is to ask good actors who they think is right for the part. They know better than anybody. But without missing a beat Maggie said Pauline Collins. I didn't know Pauline because I hadn't seen Shirley Valentine, but then I saw this thing that she did with Woody Allen [You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger], in which she was wonderful as a psychic, and I said to her on the phone: "The dialogue seemed improvised."

  Dustin Hoffman

  Valentine, Dark, Thinking

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• In terms of the stars, the only ones I cast were Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins. I was in Los Angeles working and a lot of this took place on the telephone. I'd met Maggie [Smith] once and I'd come back-stage, which I'm usually loathe to do because as an actor you don't want people coming back because you want to get home [laughs].

  Dustin Hoffman

  Stars, Home, People

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Press conference, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• So, they had this 40-odd year friendship with each other and with Mr Harwood. So, when I came on it Albert, Tom and Maggie were in the cast. But then Albert wasn't up for it, so he had to withdraw.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Years, Odd, Maggie

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• I came in on this movie after there had been a director and I came in after Tom Courtenay had talked to Ron Harwood about making a movie. So, you know Tom and Albert Finney had been friends since the beginning of their career as they became stars around the same time - Tom always reminds me that Albert was first with Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and then Tom with The Long Distance Runner.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Morning, Stars, Distance

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• This is not a movie about smelling the urine! It's another kind of movie." Volker Schlöndorff got Billy Wilder to agree to these conversations - you can buy it - because Volker spoke German at times. And he said to Billy Wilder: "What is in your mind?" And he said: "If you're going to try to tell the truth to the audience, you'd better be funny or they'll kill you." And I haven't forgotten that.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Mind, Trying, Kind

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• I knew that we had an obligation and that was to keep an energy in it and try to keep the audience interested. In fact, I asked some of the actors to take a look at His Girl Friday, a Howard Hawks film with Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant, because they talk over each other and there's a great energy.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Girl, Friday, Trying

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• There were a few things that went into it. When you're doing something you're trying to be your audience at the same time, so if somebody tells me that this is a movie about retired opera singers, you think 'maybe I'll wait for it to come to DVD'. You're not rushing off to see it.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Thinking, Dvds, Rushing

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• The trumpet player, Ronnie Hughes, has still got his chops today but for some strange reason the culture doesn't call him because he's 83-years-old. And these people are in their 70s and 80s and 90s and came with such verve every day and would still be shooting these 10 and 12 hour days. So, that in itself made this an extraordinarily special occasion for all of us. It wasn't a job for the crew after a few days, it took on another tone.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Jobs, Player, Years

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• I think we all felt it on this movie - crew and cast. You never know when you're making a movie... no one is saying in the middle of Casablanca that this is going to be a classic. The lead actors had turned it down and I think they wound up with B-list actors at the time.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Thinking, Actors, Down And

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Press conference, diymag.com.

• You're always in a tunnel that you can't see the end of. But there's something that took place on this movie that I don't think we expected and that was that once we decided that the entire cast would be real retired opera singers and retired musicians... and these people the phone hadn't rung for them for 20 or 40 years even though they can deliver.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Real, Thinking, Tunnels

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• I decided a long time ago but sometimes it takes you 40 years to get around to doing something - and that's the truthful answer.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Years, Long, Answers

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• Tom [Courtenay] and Albert Finney met Ron Harwood on the dresser, so that's how it started. It's a wonderful documentary. It's called Tosca's Kiss and Mr Hardwood told me about it when I asked him what the genesis was. It was made in 1983 and Verdi, who was rich and successful, toward the end of his life decided to build a mansion for himself in Milan, where he lived, and he stipulated that when he died opera singers and musicians - because he knew so many who were no longer playing at the Scala and some were poor - could live there.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Successful, Kissing, Musician

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Press conference, www.indielondon.co.uk.