Red panda
power
Dustin Hoffman is 
an
Academy Award winning actor (Kramer vs Kramer) who has made a
name for himself in many a modern day classic; The Graduate, Midnight
Cowboy, All the Presidents Men and Tootsie to name a few.
Despite the obscene number of accolades he’s collected in
his career, the 61-year-old feels that the best is yet to come.
Take his latest film for example. In Kung Fu Panda, he plays
a martial arts master named Shifu who has the burden of transforming
Po the panda (voiced by Jack Black) from an overweight, lazy bear,
into a mean lean fighting machine, so he can take on the evil
snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane), and save the world.
Now many who have seen the film think Shifu looks like an oversized
rodent. But as the Hollywood actor was at pains to point
at the Cannes Film Festival Shifu is in fact a rare (and apparently
extremely virile) Chinese panda.
If you could choose any animal, would you choose
this one?
Maybe a poodle, I have no idea. Are you questioning my sexuality
when you say that?
No sir.
You may if you want.
What animal would you choose?
A rabbit so I could satirise my feelings about sex.
I’d like to know which way you consider
yourself a Shifu?
Was sexuality a part of that question?
(Ignoring the question I move on) Is it different
to act in an animated movie and how do you make it look so natural?
The directors deserve credit because most actors start from themselves
and slowly rehearse and say oh maybe I should have a moustache
or maybe I should sound like this and here we were presented by
the directors because they’ve worked on it four years before
you met them, with basically the image that they have of the character.
Now what these guys did which I didn’t expect was while
we recorded in the studio mostly by ourselves they filmed us at
the same so that they then gave that film to the animators, and
the animators developed the characters that that had already created
and somehow infused it with ourselves as much as they could. So
basically, I didn’t do it – they did. We showed up
and we trusted ourselves to them.
You’ve played mystical figures before,
so did you go after this role?
Mr. Katzenberg asked me, and Mr. Katzenberg is at the top of the
line for animated film and if you want to do one, you do a Katzenberg
film and that’s the truth. But I just want to say one thing
because nobody asked the question. There was a point in time where
Angelina could have chosen between me and Brad. 
Do you have any martial arts skills?
I don’t know anything about martial arts. I have no flexibility
and I never had. The first thing I ever did was I took some Capoeira
lessons for “Fokkers” and I told the director and
he said show me your moves and I showed him and I said shall I
try to be funny? And he said no, just do the best you can.
What’s the main difference between being
an actor in the Seventies and being an actor today?
I started in 1967. In the Seventies, in Hollywood there were basically
six studios. And I think in the 70’s they were making the
same kind of films the indies are making today. The difference
is that in order to make a film like the Seventies, you basically
have to do an indie because the costs are so out of the park for
studios that they have to think of blockbusters. Its different
now as it is wtih anything. It’s become product now because
of the costs and if you want to do real good work then you find
ways to make an indie film, whatever your profession is you find
some subterranean way to do it.
You’ve amassed a wonderful body of work.
Do you still learn things or are you more a guru for younger actors?
No I don’t want to be a guru. Ever. I don’t
understand it when people say they’ve learned their craft.
I swear. Any craft. I think you remain a student of writing
or acting or painting whatever. You’re always trying to
not just get it right, but to bring out the deepest part of yourself
and you’re getting older. And that means either you’re
evolving, or if you’re not evolving you’re altering,
you’re changing and that alters what’s coming out
of you. You’re life is different every day so why
shouldn’t your work be different and why should the challenges
be the same?
You mentioned about the essence of Jack Black
in the film. Did you see the essence of your character in Shifu?
Also, are you more satisfied when you play a part that is more
like you?
I think all actors are trying to use themself and their imagination.
And you create in your imagination a portrait I guess as best
you can and that’s the external element the audience sees.
I think behind that is yourself and your coming through that.
You’re always filtering through that portrait. I think when
actors work with each other in a film whatever character they’re
playing, that is the quote character unquote but we are behind
it. And when we are relating to each other, we’re
not relating to each other’s character, we’re relating
to each other. And you’re making the transformation
and if I say something to Lucy [Liu], its coming from me filtered
through this character which she then responds to filtering it
through her character. Yes everything that’s there
in Shifu is me. He’s intolerant. He’s impatient. He’s
arrogant. He’s authoritative and that sums me up to a tee.
But yes its all that stuff you have in you. He does have
an arc which is kind of nice which they wrote and at the end he
has a certain amount of humility because he has an insight because
he was wrong. And isn’t that something we all wish for ourselves?
That we can reach a point in life where we can say I can face
that I was wrong here, that I was wrong there? Otherwise
I don’t understand how people can play characters or do
anything that is not coming from themself. I don’t
think you can condescend to a character, well that’s not
me, that’s the character. Its got to come out of you.
You don’t make a judgment, you let the audience do that.
How do you find the balance between big Hollywood
films and small indies?
The biggest difference in how I try to find it is basically not
to have the same criteria that I use to have. That I had
the luxury of having as a younger actor when I had leading parts
were people my own age in a sense and The Graduate suddenly put
me in a place where I could say who’s the director, is it
a good script? Is it a good part, do they have enough money
to really give it the budget that it needs? I would look for something
to fill all that criteria and now I’m just saying, and my
wife even encourages me and says, don’t even read the script,
and don’t look at the part. Are you going to have
a creative experience? Is that director someone that will
do the very thing you’re suggesting and forget everything
else because this is a different ball game.
Gaynor Flynn
