Dustin Hoffman and director Francois Girard noodle on piano during ‘Boychoir’

By Victoria Ahearn, The Canadian Press

TORONTO – Dustin Hoffman says he got into some competitive piano playing with Quebec director Francois Girard while shooting their new film “Boychoir.”

The two-time Oscar winner stars as the director of an elite American choir that takes in a troubled semi-orphaned boy, played by newcomer Garrett Wareing.

Co-stars in the drama, which is making its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, include Kathy Bates, Eddie Izzard and Josh Lucas.

Hoffman studied classical piano as a kid and played it both in the movie and offset with Girard, whose previous features include “Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould” and “The Red Violin.”

“As far as Francois and I noodling on the piano, I would have preferred it was only me,” Hoffman said jokingly of their casual piano playing. “He was busy lining up the shots, but he did noodle, so there was a bit of competitive noodling.”

Girard said the two jammed together at each other’s homes and while onset.

“There was a lot of piano jams. There were pianos everywhere we went, organs, harpsichord. On tech scouts and location scouts, you get bored and we’d jump on the piano all the time.”

Yet Girard didn’t even realize Hoffman could play the piano when he cast him in the role of a gruff choirmaster who is reluctant to accept the boy into his institution.

He said the two first wanted to work together on a project 10 years ago and had a script that they “were chasing passionately,” but it didn’t come through.

When Girard presented the “Boychoir” script by Ben Ripley to Hoffman, the actor-director asked: “Why do you think it should be me playing this part?”

Girard told him it was because he had a “lovable factor” that would make audiences feel compassion for his character despite his steely exterior and make them wonder: “Why is he so tough?”

“That ‘why’ was my drive, the narrative drive,” said Girard. “If you keep the audience wondering why, that ‘why’ is the hook. If people … feel that there’s some goodness in there and there’s a heart beating behind this steel of anger, then you have a movie.”

“I think the lovable factor in Dustin is remarkable and there is no comparison to that,” he added. “Any other actor I would consider for the part would not come through the way that (he did).”

In one scene, Hoffman’s character plays Sergei Rachmaninoff’s famous composition Prelude in C-sharp minor.

“The Graduate” star — who also dabbled in music when he directed the 2012 film “Quartet” — said that piece wasn’t originally in the script. He added it in himself, having learned it when he was 10.

Still, Hoffman played down his piano talents, noting he wanted to be a musician but “was never talented enough” and was neither “a good ear or a good site reader.”

“I have small hands — and by the way, there’s apparently no correlation to your hands and your personal parts,” said the famous wise-cracker in an interview. “But I can’t reach much more than an octave.”

Asked if it was his small hand span that ultimately dashed his dreams of being a musician, he pointed to two NBA players who rose above their physical limitations to make it in the big leagues.

“Have you heard of Muggsy Bogues and Spud Webb? These were two basketball players who were five foot four, and I think one of them said, ‘The other guys own the air but I own the floor.’

“No, I think you have to have one of the two qualifications, which I think is I think you have to have a really good ear. People can play by ear, I’ve never been able to.”

The Toronto International Film Festival runs through Sept. 14.

— Follow @VictoriaAhearn on Twitter.

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