Dustin Hoffman’s award-winning career spans five decades, however up until he signed on to DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda, the two-time Oscar winner had never provided a voice in a feature length animated movie. In Kung Fu Panda, Hoffman voices Master Shifu, a kung fu expert short in stature and short on patience. He’s a mentor to aspiring kung fu masters who seek the coveted title of Dragon Warrior, and his task isn’t made easy when a goofy panda named Po (voiced by Jack Black) is selected to be put through the training despite the fact he’s out of shape and completely lacks any kung fu skills.
As a master of kung fu Shifu grudgingly mentors Po in the film, and Hoffman’s Kung Fu Panda co-star Black felt there were a lot of ways in which Shifu and Hoffman were alike. “Shifu is the great master of kung fu, and Dustin Hoffman is the great master of acting,” said Black. “He’s just great as Shifu because he’s the master and he’s kind of Zen in his approach. He has a spiritual approach to his craft, from what I’ve seen him do in person. He comes from this quiet place inside. He’ll find the truth of the scene and just go after it in a real way…and he’s also just a little bit grumpy, just like Shifu. Perfect.”
Dustin Hoffman Kung Fu Panda Press Conference
Did you have some input into the look of your character? Did you have many notes for the directors?
“You can’t kid with the press. I was kidding, early on, I said I want them to change the nose. You know, I was speaking from a life point of view. But too late for that. But I…what was it, the mouth? They put a camera. What do you call the camera? Lipstick camera. And they shoot us, you know, one by one. I mean, we’re there by ourselves with the mic and the script, and you’re behind the glass booth. But then they show that to the animators. They ask your permission if they can shoot you while you’re trying to act so that those nuances of facial expressions, body language – the animators put it into the character. My kids, two of my kids saw it. They said, ‘Oh my God, dad, it’s just like you.’ [Laughing] I don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Did they tell you what kind of animal you were?
“They said I was a small red panda. And I think it’s a copout because I can’t believe that’s the proper name. No. ‘Small red panda.’ Small. I want to be called a Goodovafafa.”
The late Sydney Pollack described you as a something of a perfectionist. How does that translate into the way you work on a movie like this, which takes so long?
“A perfectionist? Well, first I’ll answer that. I’ve never understood the term, because it’s almost – you didn’t mean it that way, and I hope Sydney didn’t. By the way, we lost a great director with Sydney - is that it implies that there’s, it’s almost a pejorative. And I always say, ‘Well, if you’re on the table to get brain surgery, you want the guy to say, ‘Hi, I’m Dr. So-and-So. I’ll be operating. Don’t worry, I’m not a perfectionist,’ you know?”
But my first response to your question is, that’s what [directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson] do to the nth degree, which I never realized before. And I asked Mark if it’s fun and he was honest. He says, ‘No, it’s painstaking.” That work is, it is brain surgery, the animation work that they do. But that wasn’t your question…”
Did you find it frustrating?
“Yes. Yes, yes. I didn’t enjoy it. I don’t enjoy it.”
Why?
“Because you’re in a room with a microphone, you’re not interacting with other actors. One day I got to work with Jack Black and it was wonderful. And in my naiveté, I thought when I said yes to this job that we’d all be together. But you work a few days, they call you back in a few months. They rearrange the scenes. They change them. And they work on it the way most artists work – you know, writers, or painters. You know, movies, you kind of have to get it right the first time. But they [did worked on it for] four years. I mean, and longer than that, in terms of the idea. But four years working on it... You have to put yourself in their hands.”
Can you talk about what the day was like when you worked with Jack Black?
“Yeah. I never met Jack Black before. You know, my kids are always telling me, ‘Oh, you’re gonna get to work with so-and-so.’ And they were very excited when they heard that Jack Black would be in that day, because I wasn’t honestly aware of his work. And I was surprised - because I knew he was a comedian, my kids were telling me some of the stuff that he’d done that was funny - that his approach was from an actor’s point of view. It’s very serious. He’s looking at it and he’s trying to come from a genuine center in himself. And I found him to be bright and authentic. And what seemed to be vital to the character that he’s doing it’s in fact part of his signature. He’s extraordinary self-deprecating. Having met him and worked with him that first day, the little I still know of him, I feel when I look at the screen, that’s him. He did it. That panda is Jack. It is his essence.”
Given that you were shooting it over a period of time, was it tricky to find the right tone?
“Yes. But again, I yield to Mark, because they’re in possession of figuring it out. They said to me, gentleman’s agreement, I could do over anything I wanted to. Because I had heard that Mike Myers had seen Shrek and said, ‘Okay, I want to do it all over again,’ and they allowed him to do it. They said I could alter… I said, ‘Could I see some animation?’ They said, ‘But the lips won’t move.’ I said, ‘Just to see what we’re trying to find as a voice, that it matches.’ And after a while, it was a united effort. We both agreed, there it is. I didn’t want it to sound like me, per say. I didn’t want it to sound contemporary. I always think it’s no different than going to the closet and picking out, ‘I’m going to wear this. I’m going to wear this.’ You look and, ‘No, I’m going to take this off, try this on.’ And then you say, ‘Okay, I like that look.’”
Did you find the work hard? Would you like to do another animation film again?
“I found it very hard. I didn’t enjoy it. And I wouldn’t like to do it again. But that’s not saying I wouldn’t.”
