Dustin Hoffman describes why he loves the film: Next came director Barry Levinson's "Rain Man" (1988), where Hoffman starred as an autistic savant, opposite Tom Cruise. Levinson, Hoffman and Cruise worked for two years on the film, and Hoffman's performance gained him his second Academy Award. Behind Hoffman's motivation for doing the film, he has said, "Deep inside, "Rain Man" is about how autistic we all are." In preparation for the part, Hoffman spent two years befriending autistic people, which included taking them bowling and to fast food restaurants. "It fed my obsession," he has stated. Hoffman worked at the New York
Dustin Hoffman disciplined and Dustin is very improvisational, all over the place with his lines. I didn't know where it would end up, but Sean met Dustin improvisation for improvisation, and a great deal of richness and humor came out of it." In 1991, Hoffman voiced substitute teacher Mr. Bergstrom in "The Simpsons" episode "Lisa's Substitute", under the pseudonym Sam Etic. As a reference to this episode, during the Itchy & Scratchy movie, Lisa claims that Dustin Hoffman had a cameo in that movie but didn't use his real name. Throughout the 1990s, Hoffman appeared in many large, studio films, such as