December 12, 2008

Hoffman and Broderick: Of Mice and Rats

By Jamie Portman, CanWest

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- You're not getting a conventional news conference when one of the stars produces a live rat from his shirt pocket.

But, of course, Dustin Hoffman is not in a conventional mood today. He feels it's his duty to be an advocate for rats. That's because he supplies the voice for a rat named Roscuro in Universal's new animated film, The Tale of Despereaux.

Roscuro's problem is he believes himself to be a human -- and it's the abiding tragedy of his life that the rest of the Kingdom of Dor thinks otherwise. So, he can't really understand the appalled reaction when his gourmet yearnings cause him to accidentally fall into the Queen's bowl of soup, a mishap that leads her to die of shock.

Perhaps it's in defence of rats that Hoffman has produced a live example for the delectation of reporters, as well as table companions Sigourney Weaver, Emma Watson and Matthew Broderick.

Or, maybe he simply wants to liven up proceedings.

Or, perhaps he's simply in the mood for playing the lovable curmudgeon. After all, the rat materializes shortly after one reporter asks Hoffman if he can compare the animated Roscuro with his legendary portrayal of a street runt named Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy four decades ago. That's a cue for Hoffman to behave more like a performer than an interview subject.

"I wanted to time it right," he announces at the moment when he places this grey and hairy rodent on the table.

A reporter questions whether it's really a rat. Maybe it's a hamster.

"We're not sure, we're not sure," Broderick says from the other end of the table.

Hoffman notes he also brought a second rodent for Broderick to extract from his shirt pocket, but that Broderick spoiled this strategy by wearing a pullover sweater. "Thankfully," interjects Broderick.

"I hope there are no cats here," Weaver worries. She gives the animal a closer inspection. "Oh, he's got a fur coat. He's not a normal hamster. Oh, he's so sweet. I'm not sure he's happy."

"No, he's not happy," Hoffman says. "All right, I'll hold him. Sorry about this. I was hoping for a better take." He peers out at reporters and decides he's playing to "a tough house, a very tough house."

Hoffman has decided he doesn't like the way reporters use the word "rat" in their questioning. "I don't know why I resent it, but I do," he mutters. He spots Kate DiCamillo, author of the bestselling children's novel on which the film is based, sitting at the back of the room. He summons her to the front to defend rats: "Come on, give the press conference a little weight. Come on. I always thought press conferences were so ludicrous for actors until the Bush administration. Now, it gives us a kind of dignity, actually."

DiCamillo is finally persuaded to come forward. She thinks the comparison with Hoffman's performance in Midnight Cowboy is funny, but insists Roscuro is very much his own person -- or, if you like, his own rat.

"I think this rat is absolutely a rat unlike any other," she says sweetly.

In fact, she hints that she likes Roscuro better in the movie than in her original Newbery Medal-winning story.

"This movie is different from the book in a fabulous way, in that Roscuro becomes very much of a hero," DiCamillo says. Hoffman suggests reporters attribute her quotes to him when they write their stories. DiCamillo takes her leave: "Thus said, Dustin, now I'll go away."

She vanishes. So does the rat, which is turned over to a publicist.

You'd scarcely know from all this that the title character of the movie opening Dec. 19 is actually a mouse named Despereaux, a mouse with oversized ears. He proves to be a tiny hero with a large-sized heart. He befriends the reviled rat, Roscuro, falls in love with a lonely human princess named Pea (Emma Watson), and rescues her from kidnapping.

Broderick, no stranger to the world of animation, supplies the voice for Despereaux in a film the actor calls one of the most visually beautiful he's ever seen.

"I just really loved the story, and I didn't particularly think of him as a mouse," Broderick says. "I thought of him as a kind of teen, or a boy trying to turn into a man, and I tried to take it seriously and think of it like my own life. I didn't think too much about ‘mouseness.'"

Broderick can't stop talking. "I'm not scared of knives. I like cheese. . . . We all discussed it pretty carefully, so we tried to take the situation that I was in very seriously. I know that's not a great answer."

Hoffman: "There's not a sound bite in there."

Broderick: "I know, I really wanted to talk about the bailout plan for the auto industry."

It seems everybody connected with The Tale of Despereaux loved the project while working on it. But the bantering mood persists throughout the news conference.

Hoffman says he has known Broderick for years. "We met years and years ago and we were friends, and then we did a film called Family Business. It didn't do well, and we vowed never to work together again."

"And yet here we are," grins Broderick.

To which Hoffman replies: "It's not by accident that he's at one end of the table and I'm on the other."

Hoffman can't get away from the subject of rats. He sees the film as a plea to tolerate people who are different. He feels for the rodent he portrays, because it has been banished from society. He cites a line in the movie about the common belief that a rat is a rat, no matter where it's from.

"That's a very important line. If you just insert another nationality or another race in there, then you start to see what the movie's talking about," Hoffman asserts. "In other words, you break down the stereotype, because those of us that know rats know that they're all different and they're all individuals."

Weaver: "They do eat mice, though."

Hoffman: "They do eat mice, yes. In fact, mice eat mice."

Emma Watson: "There are lots of different types of rats. My friend has rats as pets. She has two. . . . They're very intelligent, very clever."

Question from a reporter: "What do they feed them?"

Watson: "I don't actually know."

Hoffman: "People."