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
Philip Seymour Hoffman one of the year's biggest blockbusters, "Twister", playing a grubby, hyperactive storm chaser alongside Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. According to a "People" survey of Twitter and Facebook users, "Twister" is the film with which Hoffman is most popularly associated. He then reunited with Anderson for the director's second feature, "Boogie Nights", about the Golden Age of Pornography. The ensemble-piece starred Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, and Burt Reynolds; Hoffman played a boom operator, described by David Fear of "Rolling Stone" as a "complete, unabashed loser", who attempts to seduce Wahlberg's character. Warmly received by critics, the film grew into a