Really? I'm a lot taller than he is. He's a short guy.
There are so many. It's tough to choose. In Barney's Version, we were shooting a scene in a bar in Montreal that used to be Mordecai Richler's favourite watering hole. That's why we were there. It was a scene between Dustin Hoffman and Paul Giamatti, who played his son in the film.
At one point, the director said at the end of a take, as directors do, “Cut.” Without turning around, Dustin, who had the back of his head to the camera—the camera was on Paul Giamatti—said, “Just keep rolling.” Then he said to Paul Giamatti: “Let's do it again, but this time just let it all go. Do it like a baby. Just let it all go.” Giamatti said his lines again. Dustin Hoffman said, “Let's do it again, even younger, like a baby.” The scene had to do with Paul Giamatti as a son telling his father that he had fallen in love and wanted to divorce his current wife because he had met the love of his life.
By the fourth or fifth time that Dustin had Paul redo the scene without cutting and without the director having anything further to do with it, Giamatti had tears in his eyes, and his face had completely changed. It became a remarkable take, which is the one that's in the film, and at the end of it was one of my favourite moments. Paul Giamatti went over to Dustin Hoffman and said: “This is why I went to acting school. Thank you.”