Hear Dustin Hoffman Talk Sex, Drugs and Gangs in Rare 1971 Interview

A rare 1971 interview with Dustin Hoffman, in which the actor discusses fame, sex, drugs, gang violence, growing pains and playing Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy, is the latest archival tape to be animated for PBS ongoing Blank on Blankseries.

The wide-ranging clip begins with Hoffmans ambivalence about fame andbecoming a recognizable figure, which took an absurd turn when he upstaged an accidental Weather Underground bombing in the building next to his apartment. But despite his rising profile, Hoffman noted thatyoung people whom, a few years removed fromThe Graduate, would have beenhis target audience cared the least about him.

Youth itself is today more famous than anybody, than any single person, Hoffman said. There is a sense of self. Theyre their own movie stars.

While he chastised the older generations attitude towards youth cultures acceptance of sex and drugs as pure envy, Hoffman didnt necessarily identify with the freewheelers himself. He discussed his difficult adolescence and while cleverly animated in a scuba suit, la The Graduate hepositedthat marijuana would not have helped him.

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Hoffmans teenage years, rather, were fraughtwith violence: I grew up on the coattails of an aggressive society, he said. I carried a knife taped to my leg. I never used it, but it was there, and thought of gang warfare as being really quite glamorous and exciting, and dragging your car next to another guy, and evil-eyeing him, see who could evil-eye out the other one. Getting the girl was based upon how tough you were, not what an egghead you were.

Hoffman returned to the peculiarities of fame, noting that when he wasrecognized, fans often called him Ratso and repeated his famous Midnight Cowboy line, Im walking here! That scene was famously improvised when a rogue cabbie threatened to ruin the shot, and as Hoffman recalled, in that moment he was himself, butsaid the lines through the character.

Maybe thats what actings all about, Hoffman mused. I felt connected with the role. It was a side of myself that Id always felt a little bit like Ratso. He added: There are traits in my own personal character which I dont feel are admirable, which I feel are unattractive. Ive tried to bring out unattractive aspects of me in roles that Ive played, and sometimes achieve that.

Blank on Blank has animated rare interviews with an array of subjects as well, including Michael Jackson,John Lennon and Yoko Ono,Tupac Shakur and Jim Morrison.