Matt Adcock Meets Dustin Hoffman

"I'm a very good driver..."

Matt Adcock meets Dustin Hoffman


Dustin Hoffman is a true movie legend, he’s won two Oscars, been nominated for seven more and his diverse roles have included such gems as The Graduate, Tootsie and Rain Man. Now however he’s taken on the challenge of being one of the most embarrassing dads ever to hit the screen in smash hit comedy sequel Meet the Fockers.

In Meet the Fockers you appear to having great fun, did you like your role?

“Bernie is great – he is basically that kind of guy who wouldn’t mind leaving the open while he went to the bathroom on an airplane just so he could continue a conversation with the people that he was talking to. When I played him I just let it all hang out – in fact that’s what the director told me to do.”

How was having Barbra Streisand as your Mrs Focker?

“Unbelievably this is the first time we’ve worked together but I loved it - there was an openness, especially as the director said to ‘make out all the time – as much as possible!’ I'd say to Barbra, ‘Man, your breasts look great today’. And she loves her breasts... I’d whisper that to her during the scene - I like to do real stuff because I wanted it to be real. I don’t like fake arousal scenes, it has to be real. It might simply be to do with a look. There are five senses, so sometimes it's in a look or in a smell. I love the neck, snuggling into it and smelling that. It’s like prolonged foreplay – that goes on all day – when you can’t wait to get to go to bed together even after being married 20 years. Barbra said I should ‘do whatever I wanted’ and I think what existed between Barbra and I was an affection that was genuine.”

And bouncing off Robert De Niro?

“This is the third time I’ve worked with Bob and it’s always easy and fun to be in a project with him. This time I even managed to get some beautiful blushes out of him! I set out not trying to get to De Niro's character, but to get to Bob himself. I know Bob doesn't like his space being invaded but I said to the director that the first thing I was going to do in the scene where we meet and shake hands, was feel his peck muscles because I know he works out. And then give him a nice kiss on the neck. But I didn't want him to know it was going to happen.”

So are you much like Bernie Focker in real life?

“My family say that what I did on screen in Meet the Fockers is more the way I am at home than in any other film that I've done. I'm a grandfather now and I find that’s great, it broadens what you can do – so putting a large side of myself at home into a role - I’ve never done in a film before, because no one has ever asked me to do that.”

And with that he has to go – but I’d urge you catch him in Meet the Fockers as soon as you can - it’s definitely the funniest film of the year so far.

Click here to read: Matt Adcock's Film Reviews

"D'oh... I'm a father Focker"