8 RESEARCHING YOUR CHARACTER

DUSTIN HOFFMAN TEACHES ACTING 19

LESSON RECAP
I always have an audience in my head that I’m aiming towards…
If I’m playing an ex-con I want my part to be believed by ex-cons. ▶▶ How does your
I want them to say, ‘That’s the way it is. He got it right.’ character think?
—Dustin Hoffman ▶▶ What does your
character want?
▶▶ How does your
character talk?
TAKE IT FURTHER

▶▶ When he was researching for Rain Man, Dustin wanted to

learn what it was like to think as a person affected by autism.
He found a way of describing it that made sense to him NOTES
“We all have vacuum cleaners in our head that get rid of the
crap we don’t need. They don’t.” Of course that’s not an all
encompassing technical definition of autism, but it was enough
to guide him into the role of Raymond. Take a look at a scene
from Rain Man.
▼▼ Think of five characters that have always interested you,

from history or movies or real life, and try to write in your

own words an explanation of what it’s like to be in each of
their heads.
▶▶ Take Dustin’s advice (not all the way, of course) and spend
some time thinking with the subtext he thought with while
filming Straight Time: wherever you are, ask yourself, “What can
I use to kill someone and what can I steal?” Can you feel your
behavior changing, even subtly?
▶▶ Observing behavior can be just as useful as learning about a
character’s thoughts and emotions. Dustin snuck into prison to
watch the way convicts moved and talked. You don’t have to
go to prison to do the same thing. You can pick any group of
people in any public place — at the mall, the park, the bank,
a restaurant — and observe their behavior. Write down what
you think makes their behavior unique. How do they carry
themselves? What do their voices sound like? You can even
try impersonating them, but you may want to wait until you get
home.

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8 RESEARCHING YOUR CHARACTER
DUSTIN HOFFMAN TEACHES ACTING 20

ASSIGNMENT
NOTES
▶▶ Using the three types of inquiry outlined above (How does my
character think? What does my character want? How does my
character behave?) and any other research methods you want,
put together a profile for a character (either someone you know,
someone from history or books etc.). Practice doing simple
things as your new character: introducing yourself, ordering
coffee, finding your seat on an airplane etc (you can do these
things at home alone, or out in the world). Did you feel you
knew how your character behaved in those situations? What
more do you think you need to learn to play the role?

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