Dustin Hoffman Helps a Troubled Boy Find His Voice in “Boychoir”
Dustin
Hoffman decided to become an actor he dreamed of a career
as a classical pianist. Now, at age 77, Hoffman gets the chance to indulge his
passion as Boychoir’s
inscrutable Master Carvelle.
“I
wanted to be a musician but I was never talented enough,” says Hoffman.
Initially, he studied music at Santa Monica College before making the switch to
acting.
“I
have small hands so I can’t reach much more than an octave,” he says with his
fingers stretched over an imaginary keyboard. “And, I think you have to have
one of two qualifications; you have to have a really good ear or be a good
sight-reader, and I’m neither.”
Directed by
Canadian François Girard (The Red Violin), Boychoir
stars Garrett Wareing as 11-year-old Stet, a troubled kid blessed
with a golden singing voice.
When Stet’s mom dies, his
long-lost dad (Josh Lucas) shows up and arranges for his son to attend the
prestigious American Boychoir School (a real institute founded in 1937 and located
in Princeton, New Jersey). The unruly boy comes under the watchful eye of
Hoffman’s strict choirmaster Carvelle, who helps turn him into the star of the
school’s world-renowned travelling choir.
It’s an unusual role for
Hoffman; Carvelle is a steely disciplinarian and rather subdued. Hoffman’s
performance lacks the lively exuberance we’ve come to expect from the actor
whose résumé includes such classic movies as Midnight Cowboy, All the
President’s Men and Tootsie.
But keeping Carvelle
somewhat in the shadows was a conscious choice. “There was a discussion to keep the characters two-dimensional except
for the lead, it’s the story about the boy,” says Hoffman, adding that the
decision mirrors a choice made in another of his films.
“When
we did ‘All The President’s Men’, in the first cut — Robert
Redford produced it — we had scenes with our wives and our girlfriends
at home, and the first thing Redford said was cut the scenes out, we should be
two-dimensional, it’s the story that’s three-dimensional. We shouldn’t know
anything about them outside the newsroom, and I think that was the decision
made here, you should know nothing about me outside of what I do.”
Hoffman bonded with Wareing,
and when asked if he considers himself a mentor to the young actors he works
with, he smiles and says, “I think what the public maybe doesn’t
understand is that’s what we actors do constantly.
“Most
of us, we mentor each other, and sometimes the director doesn’t like it so you
have to talk out of the side of your mouth like in those old prison movies,
‘The next take, just do it the way you want, you were great, oops here comes
the guard.’ We want the scene to be as good as it could be. If you are better
than the other actor then the scene’s not going to be as good.”
It’s been almost five
decades since his breakout role in The Graduate, and from work as
disparate as Tootsie, Midnight Cowboy and Straw Dogs, this
remarkable actor has continued to push his talents in sometimes surprising
ways. With Oscars for Kramer vs Kramer and Rain Man, and a
Lifetime achievement from the AFI way back in 1999, it would be easy for him to
hang up the gloves and bask in the fame.
“BOYCHOIR” is
released and distributed by CAPTIVE
CINEMA.
SHOWING
ON JULY 1.
NATIONWIDE!
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