THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 11, 1995 TAG: 9503110036
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines
IF YOU WERE LOOKING for a hero to save the world, it used to be that you'd call John Wayne. These days, you might seek out Clint Eastwood or Harrison Ford.
But Dustin Hoffman?
In ``Outbreak,'' the $50-million action-thriller currently threatening moviegoers with a virus that could end the world, it is Hoffman to the rescue. The lead character is Col. Sam Daniels, an Army officer whose scientific knowledge and physical skills are mankind's only hope.
The little big man himself modestly shook his head at the prospect.
``It's not my genre,'' Hoffman said, sitting in the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills the morning after the movie premiere.
``I never get offered these roles. In Hollywood, people don't ask you to do something unless they've seen you do it before. A track record only counts for what track it's on. Respect has nothing to do with Hollywood.''
``Outbreak'' is a marked change from the vulnerable, off-beat characters that have been Dustin Hoffman's forte. He has won two Academy Awards playing un-heroic characters - the struggling, newly divorced father in ``Kramer vs. Kramer'' and the autistic savant in ``Rain Man.'' He's been Oscar nominated four other times - for Benjamin, the disillusioned youth in ``The Graduate''; Ratso Rizzo, the bum in ``Midnight Cowboy''; the controversial comic Lenny Bruce in ``Lenny''; and an actor who resorts to cross-dressing in ``Tootsie.''
Still, director Wolfgang Petersen (``Das Boot,'' ``In the Line of Fire'') admits that Hoffman was not the first choice. He offered the part to Harrison Ford, who turned it down. When word leaked out that Tom Cruise might want to play a doctor, Petersen admits that ``that possibility had to be explored quickly.'' Cruise chose, instead, to do ``Mission: Impossible.''
Hoffman remembers it this way, ``Wolfgang and I are friends. We had been talking about another project when he suggested `Outbreak.' He suggested that the part could be right for me if they rewrote it. He liked the idea that, with me, the audience wouldn't be so sure about the outcome.''
Hoffman laughed. ``For example, there's a scene in which the character jumps from a helicopter to a ship. With Clint Eastwood, the audience has no doubt that he's going to make it. With me, it's not so sure.''
Petersen was literally out of breath after the film's debut. He had been amid a year-long race to get the film made before Robert Redford and Jodie Foster starred in a similar virus-threat movie called ``The Hot Zone.'' When both Redford and Foster eventually backed out, ``The Hot Zone'' was canceled.
Hoffman is known to be a perfectionist. Several directors have vowed they would never work with him again. On the set of ``Tootsie,'' he and the director almost came to blows while trying to set the initial mood for the movie.
``I'm aware that I have this reputation,'' Hoffman said, ``but it's only the story they always write about me - nothing more nor less. For example, I don't think Warren Beatty was any more promiscuous than the rest of us. Jack Nicholson probably didn't take any more drugs than a lot of other people. But they were the designated hits. We all have our persona. Everyone tries to put actors in a niche.''
He admits he's a stickler for getting things right. ``You have to remember that with a movie you don't get to try the part out on the road before you bring it into Broadway. With a movie, you're stuck with the mediocrity you did the first time. There it is, on film, forever.''
``With me,'' he added, ``the roughest time is in the first few days of filming. People said there was trouble on the set of `Rain Man,' but it was only during the first week. Then there was smooth going. With a movie, you're rehearsing on camera. It's fairly difficult to nail it the first time. I always ask to read with all the other actors at first.''
Hoffman became obsessed with researching viruses during the filming. He consulted texts from Robin Henig's ``A Dancing Matrix'' to technical books such as ``Mechanisms of Virus Injection.'' He interviewed Dr. Don Francis of Genetech Laboratories in San Francisco, one of the first scientists to identify HIV.
``Every day, Dustin sent me books and articles about diseases,'' said Morgan Freeman, who plays Hoffman's commanding officer in the film. ``Every damn day! Or he'd call me at 2 in the morning, saying `Did you SEE this? Let me fax it to you right now.' ''
Hoffman, 57, is cast opposite Renee Russo, 40, who plays his estranged wife - also a scientist. The film also stars Donald Sutherland, Kevin Spacey, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Patrick Dempsey.
``Outbreak'' is not the first time the actor has gone against type to take a major risk. After becoming a major star as the clean-cut Benjamin, a symbol to an entire generation of idealistic young people in ``The Graduate,'' he took the role of the dirty, low-down Ratso in ``Midnight Cowboy.'' His agents said he would ruin his career; it turned out to be one of his greatest triumphs, and suggested that he wanted to be a character actor rather than the usual ``star.''
``They say that character actors don't have to worry about age,'' he said with a laugh. ``But I'm very concerned with age. To a certain extent, it determines what you can play. Let's be brutally frank.''
Hoffman was already 30 when he played the young student in ``The Graduate.'' Born and raised in Los Angeles, he had originally wanted to be a concert pianist. At 19, he enrolled in an acting workshop at Pasadena Playhouse and subsequently decided to try New York. The result was years of odd jobs before he finally landed an off-Broadway role.
Director Mike Nichols has considered Robert Redford for the lead in ``The Graduate,'' but felt that Benjamin should be more insecure. When ``The Graduate'' became a sensation that heralded the beginning of the youth market in movies, Hoffman surprised everyone by going back to Broadway to appear in a play called ``Jimmy Shine.'' He's been going against the grain ever since.
After 1992's ``Hero,'' he took two years off because he didn't like any of the roles offered. Now, he's fighting off persistent offers to appear in a sequel to ``Rain Man.'' He'll do it if the script is right.
``The main thing I've learned is that you can make a movie like `Outbreak' and still come out alive - not even injured,'' he said. ``I've never done an action movie in which you take out all the stops. I guess this is it.''
If the past is repeated, Dustin Hoffman will find something entirely different to do next. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by Warner Bros.
Dustin Hoffman...
by CNB