Dustin Hoffman, Producer

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 30, 1999 / 10:13 AM EDT / CBS

Maybe acting just isn't enough of a challenge after you win the Oscar for it twice. That's one way to explain actor Dustin Hoffman's latest role, that of producer. The film he produced is called A Walk on the Moon, and it's about a family threatened by changing times in the late '60s. CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Mark McEwen interviews Hoffman.

Ask Hoffman why he wanted to produce this movie, and he answers in one word: "greed." "I'm too old to play any of the parts. I didn't want to let it go," he says.

A Walk on the Moon is not a typical '90s film, he says. "This kind of movie used to be made when I started out. I don't think you could have made Midnight Cowboy today; I'm not even sure Rainman would have lasted. It's a very commercial movie but it's not violent. It's not action. It's not a cartoon."

Hoffman says A Walk on the Moon is about family:

"Anna Paquin is 14 years old. She's becoming aware of her own sexuality. Her mother, who never had that because she got knocked up with her daughter the first time she ever had sex, is suddenly reliving what her daughter is living for the first time."

Hoffman says the story is about how they come to terms with that, and it shows the fragility of the family and their struggle to survive.

A Walk on the Moon, a Miramax film, has opened nationwide. It stars Diane Lane, Viggo Mortensen, Liev Schreiber, and Anna Paquin. For more on the movie, see the Official Web site from Miramax Films.