After workaday roles in "Sphere", "Mad City", and "Wag the Dog", Dustin Hoffman fell off the radar - but his star hasn't faded. He became the stuff of Hollywood legend with the words, "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me." Now, over 35 years after "The Graduate" defined the slacker movie, Hoffman is appealing to Generation X once again in "Moonlight Mile".
Brad Silberling [director] wrote the script from a very raw, personal experience. Did that affect your decision to make this film?
That's what got me interested. We had a meeting but I had one of those embarrassing moments when I saw him again - I had no memory of it. You know, coming out of the 70s, you lose a lot of memory. So I said, "What are you working on now?" And he said, "Well, I'm trying to get this thing together. You read it but you turned it down."
I couldn't remember, so I read the script again and we started talking, and then he told me what it sprang from: about trying to deal with his own sense of loss and the family of his dead girlfriend. I had never worked with a writer/director who was coming off something quite so personal, so I wanted to be a part of it.
Did you meet the real-life Ben Floss in preparation for the role?
No. I didn't want to, because I wasn't going to try and be that person. I didn't want to go there.
Until "Moonlight Mile" you hadn't acted in a long while. Why?
I had always been rather picky. Starting with "The Graduate" in '67, I averaged about one film a year. For a movie star - quote unquote - that's not a lot, because movie stars get offered a lot of stuff.
I had a certain criteria, which if I had to start all over again, I wouldn't change. I wanted parts where I could see a way in, and to work with a director I think is gifted. Then I said to myself, maybe I should work more often and I did a lot of films and something happened which I'm still trying to figure out.
I was on my way to work and I saw the soundstage in the distance and I thought I was going to vomit. I started out in a career where I'd see that soundstage and I'd get goosebumps and feel so lucky just to be in a film. I guess I just didn't like what's happened to the industry and I didn't like what happened to me as a part of it. So, I just backed off.
Now, I'm simply working with people I want to work with. I just want to have good working experiences and let the dice fall where they may.
There are echoes of "The Graduate" in this film, only this time you represent a different generation. How was that for you?
Yes, the central character [Jake Gyllenhaal] is worried about his future. He's in that malaise of not knowing what he wants to do next and, probably like Benjamin in 1967, he's the product of a family that traded material gifts for love.
How did it feel for me playing the older guy? Jake Gyllenhall is 21 and so is my son. It's no fun getting old, but it was natural for us to fall into a father/son relationship.
