Levinson’s 1988 film won four Oscars, including best actor, best director and best picture
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NEED TO KNOW
- Director Barry Levinson is looking back on his Oscar-winning 1988 film Rain Man
- Levinson, who won the award for best director, recalls watching stars Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, whom he calls “wonderful together”
- Levinson’s latest project is the documentary Bucks County, USA, co-directed with Robert May, which premiered on PBS Sept. 20
Rain Main director Barry Levinson is reflecting on his time on the set of the Oscar-winning film.
Levinson, who co-directed the new documentary Bucks County, USA with Robert May, had a front row seat to watch the Rain Man performances of co-leads Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, whom he calls “wonderful together.” In the 1988 comedy drama, Cruise and Hoffman portrayed long-lost brothers Charlie and Raymond, who meet following the death of their estranged father and set out on a cross country journey. Hoffman, who played Raymond, a man with autism, won an Oscar for his work in the film.
“We literally drove across country,” Levinson recalls to PEOPLE. “And the point was — it’s not like it was an adventure movie of going across country — it was about two people, one who was autistic and a brother who was very aggressive in his tactics in the business world, and obviously not doing too well, and not that interested in his brother that he really didn’t know, and knows nothing about autism.”
Credit: United Artists/Kobal/Shutterstock
“Along the way, this relationship begins to evolve, and we’re trying to explain to an audience that doesn’t know anything about autism, not to say no one, but for the larger group didn’t know much about it,” he continues. “And the two of them were wonderful together, Dustin and Tom, because we had to do a lot of improvisational things as we went along, and Tom was not known for that, but was exceptionally good.”
In addition to Hoffman’s win for best actor, the film, which was the top-grossing movie of 1988, won three more Academy Awards that year including best original screenplay, best director and best picture.
Outside of his own work, which includes the films Diner and Good Morning, Vietnam, Levinson is also dad to Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, 41. Euphoria, which wrapped its third and final season in August, was nominated for 32 Emmy Awards in total and won nine during its run, including two consecutive best actress in a drama series wins for Zendaya.
“It’s terrific because you raised your kids, you never know which way they’re gonna go, what their interests will ultimately be,” Barry says of his son. “But Sam was always interested at a very early age in terms of film. It fascinated him. And as a little kid, he would be in the editing room while we were cutting a film because we did it at the house. And so he watched all of those things, and he began to pick up on that and started to think about that at a very early age.”
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“Through difficult times that he had in terms of growing up and everything else, his focus was always about storytelling and characters,” Levinson adds. “So it’s great to see that he finds his own way to write and direct.”
Barry’s latest project, which premiered on PBS Sept. 20, looks at how political divisions can ripple through a community, focusing on Bucks County, Penn., which has become a swing area in recent elections.
“We weren’t trying to do a political investigation,” Barry says. “We just wanted to show a town, what the community is like and why there are problems in what seems like an idyllic area.”
Bucks County, USA is now streaming on PBS.
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