High Drama, Low Comedy

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STILLER: Well, Bob just gave his opinion. How would you write that out?

HOFFMAN: "What do you think, Bob?" "Arrwarrrgh."

DE NIRO: [LAUGHING AND SNIFFLING.] When I leave in 20 minutes, you write whatever you want.

LET'S RETURN TO COMEDY FOR A MOMENT. WHEN YOU'RE DOING A COMEDY THAT'S NOT FUNNY, DO YOU KNOW IT'S TANKING WHILE YOU'RE DOING IT?

STILLER: I do when I see it, but not when I'm in it. I feel like you can't know because while you're doing it, you have to be immersed in the process. If you're pulling back and wondering, "Is this funny?" and judging it, then you can't do what you need to do.

HOFFMAN: I loved the scene in this of Ben getting electrocuted. I saw him shooting it that day, and I went up to him and said, "That's Keaton. That's as good as Keaton."

POLO: Yeah, Michael's a good actor. [Laughter.]

STILLER: I'd have taken Diane.

HOFFMAN: You know, something can be funny while you do it, and then you go to rushes [the unedited reels of film that were shot that day], and it's still amusing, but when they cut the movie together, it doesn't work. Because the beats of comedy are in the cutting. If a director doesn't know what he's doing, a laugh can disappear. Most of the time, the laugh in a film is the reaction someone gives to the supposedly funny moment.

POLO: [To Danner.] In that case, you and I are brilliant in this movie.

HOFFMAN: You never know a movie's going to work. You only know if there's something wrong. I'm not just talking comedy. Any kind of movie. Usually when there's something wrong, the director feels that it is working and is very happy and very satisfied, and you know it's not. And you know before the first week is over.

DANNER: Do you ever go nose to nose with a director and say, "This isn't working"?

HOFFMAN: You go to the producer. Always to the producer.

WHO HAD TO STRETCH THE LEAST TO PLAY THEIR CHARACTER IN THIS MOVIE?

DANNER: Dustin.

HOFFMAN: Well, maybe. I think we're all working off ourselves in this movie to some degree. Bob is a very shy, reticent, understated person, and he's parodying a central quality about himself. And I think everybody's kind of doing that.

STILLER: And yet Bob is definitely playing a character. Bob is not at all a Wasp, and yet you totally buy it.

STREISAND: Do you guys like to talk about acting?

DE NIRO: Depends.

DEPENDS ON WHAT?

DE NIRO: Well, it's a different format if you're talking to students about acting, or even that thing, uh, with the studio--

POLO: Inside the Actors Studio?

DE NIRO: Yeah, with that guy, uh, Lipton. That's ... [Grumble.] Is it all right if I ... I ... arr ... Yeah.

STREISAND: Honey, go to bed, and get some hot tea with a little liquor in it. Try to sweat it out.

DE NIRO: If you ... just ask Dustin what I would say. [De Niro leaves.]

HE SEEMED TO HAVE A GOOD TIME.

POLO: Yeah, that was Bob enjoying himself. Dustin, you're the first person I've ever heard say in front of Bob that he's shy. But he really is. I mean, he's intimidating, of course — he's Robert De Niro. But he's not standoffish or cold. Just shy.