
DATE: Sunday, November 9, 1997              TAG: 9711100270

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  151 lines

AFTER PLAYING A REPORTER AGAIN, DUSTIN HOFFMAN WARILY MEETS THE PRESS ``ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN'' STAR GOES ELECTRONIC IN THE DRAMA ``MAD CITY''

``JUST BECAUSE I played a reporter in `All the President's Men' and, now, in `Mad City,' I don't pretend to understand the workings of the media,'' Dustin Hoffman said as he took a look at the notebook upon which I was noting every word he said.

For Hoffman, it's been a career of movie milestones. This year marks the 30th anniversary of ``The Graduate,'' the film that both made him a star and marked the beginning of youthful rebellion and the generation gap. His Ratso Rizzo in ``Midnight Cowboy,'' Lenny Bruce in ``Lenny'' and title role in ``Tootsie'' are universal movie memories to two generations.

Now, he's playing Max Brackett, a former network-TV reporter who, desperate to get back in the big time, manipulates a hostage situation into a nationwide story. The film is ``Mad City.'' John Travolta plays Sam Baily, the janitor who, after life has largely passed him by, rebels by taking people in the museum hostage. Brackett-Hoffman turns him into a national everyman - drawing the story out, keeping it in the headlines, and encouraging the man not to release the hostages.

``The person I play starts as a cynic, but he eventually proves he has his heart in the right place,'' Hoffman said, ``so the film isn't as much an indictment of the media as you might expect. I was in favor of the TV reporter becoming a bit soft. Audiences need someone to root for. They get upset if all the characters are unlikable.''

Hoffman has met his share of the press. ``I have been perplexed by the way the press covers movies in general,'' Hoffman said.

``In spite of the fact I was playing this college kid in `The Graduate,' I was 30 years old when I got the part. This woman came over to my apartment from The New York Times to interview me. I remember it well. It was the first time I had been interviewed. She was there for two hours. When the story came out, there were at least 10 total distortions. I never knew if she did it on purpose or she just misunderstood or if some editor changed what she wrote. But I've been wary ever since.''

He laughingly added, ``Barbara Harris, the actress who lived across the street, told me never to tell them the truth - just to make something up. She told a story about how she had a pet alligator in her bathtub. Every paper in the country printed the story.''

Soberly, he added, ``I never make up stories. My wife always told me that the nicer the reporter looks, and acts, the more you'd better watch out. Once a reporter came back to me, almost in tears, and said his editor had refused to print his interview with me. He'd been told that there wasn't enough negative in it. They sent him back to find something negative.''

Hoffman watched hours of videotapes to prepare for his role, but he claims he didn't use any one reporter as a source. During research, he remembers attending an exhibit of photos from The New York Times. He was particularly attracted to a photo of a Vietnamese monk who had set himself on fire and was burning to death. ``The photographer was there and I asked him why he didn't put out the fire. He answered, `You never put out the fire - you just take the picture.' ''

The actor says ``All the President's Men,'' the drama about the breaking of the Watergate affair by two crusading reporters, is ``like ancient history'' now.

``First, the newspapers had to sell out to compete with television,'' he said. ``Now, the New York Times has color pictures on the front and is insisting that the stories have to be shorter. Television is selling out to compete with the tabloids. In this situation, competition has not been good. Competition has been the force that drove the media to cheapen itself. But you can't blame the media as if it were in a vacuum. People want to see the bodies at a car crash. This is what people want.''

He laments present trends in the movie business as well. ``It's impossible now for a film to build via word of mouth. For example, `All the President's Men' was never No. 1, but it was a big hit. It built slowly. That couldn't happen today. You have to open big on the first weekend or your film is pulled out of theaters and goes straight to the video shelf.''

He dislikes, too, that producers depend so heavily upon audience screenings.

``Who is ever going to vote for a sad ending?'' he reasoned. ``Does this mean that we'll never again get a movie with a sad ending? It worked well, though, with `Rain Man.' They showed the movie and the audience was up in arms because Tom Cruise sent me back to the institution at the end. They wanted Cruise to be a nice guy. They changed the ending, and, of course, it was a big hit.''

The son of a furniture designer, Hoffman dropped out of college to attend Pasadena Playhouse and began acting at 19. He struggled for years as, among other things, a janitor and an attendant in a mental hospital. In 1965, after years of small TV roles and summer stock bookings, he got a role in an off-Broadway play. He was seen in a British comedy called ``Eh?'' by director Mike Nichols, who chose him for the lead in ``The Graduate'' - even though advisers were urging him to use Robert Redford instead.

Since then, he has received two Academy Awards (``Kramer vs. Kramer'' and ``Rain Man'') and a half-dozen nominations.

He's been pronounced ``difficult'' by his critics while his friends say he's merely a perfectionist. Sydney Pollack, director of ``Tootsie,'' tells horrendous stories of difficulties during filming.

``I think those stories were exaggerated,'' the actor said. ``I was never difficult unless you just don't care about the picture you're making. `Tootsie' was difficult to make, with all the makeup, but it is my favorite role. Once I got all that stuff on, I actually looked like a woman. I said to the makeup man, `Now I look like a woman. So, now, make me beautiful.' I learned from `Tootsie' just how mixed-up men are. Men always look only at the exterior.''

He has two more movies coming out within the next six months. First, he'll star with Sharon Stone in ``Sphere,'' a science-fiction thriller directed by Barry Levinson. It's based on a novel by Michael Crichton.

``No, I won't have any love scenes with Sharon,'' he added. ``I don't think people would pay to see that.''

The other will be ``Wag the Dog,'' co-starring Robert De Niro and again directed by Levinson. It is scheduled to be released in December. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

WARNER BROTHERS

Dustin Hoffman...John Travolta...

FILE PHOTO

Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford starred in ``All the President's

Men.''

Graphic

FILMS OF DUSTIN HOFFMAN

The Tiger Makes Out'' 1967

The Graduate'' 1967

Madigan's Million'' 1968

John and Mary'' 1969

Midnight Cowboy'' 1969