Do people remember Rain Main (1988)? Given the subject matter—Tom Cruise discovers that he’s got an autistic older brother, played by Hoffman, and immediately kidnaps him to go scam casinos—and the time period (1980s), I wonder if it’s one of those movies that, as they say, “didn’t age well.”
That doesn’t mean some stuff isn’t funny, though. I’d forgotten all about this scene until I tripped over it in one of those movie trivia “improvised scenes that made the final cut” lists. Cruise has Hoffman, his brother, trapped in a phone booth with him so he doesn’t wander away. Dustin, ever the method actor, needed to fart. So he went with it. Cruise’s response is about what you’d expect. It’s cinematic gold like this that surely helped Hoffman score the Best Actor Academy Award that year. He’s been nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award 7 times and won twice.
But why, may you ask, am I suddenly writing about it? Here, now, on a Shakespeare blog? Because what I didn’t know is that Hoffman himself has given interviews where he claims that he’s more proud of this scene than his Shakespeare work!
“And it’s one of the high moments of my life. I have done Shakespeare, and I have done plays by Arthur Miller, but nothing can touch the fart scene.”
Among other works, Hoffman played Shylock in Peter Hall’s 1989 Merchant of Venice, for which he was nominated for the Best Actor Tony.
There you go, all you Shakespearean actors out there looking to break free from the pack. The next time you want to play a little prank on a costar, especially if you find yourself trapped in tight quarters, go ahead and let it happen. It’s Dustin Hoffman approved.