Is Dustin Hoffman a professional victim?

Ulu Grosbard, a great stage director who actually discovered Hoffman and directed a great movie with Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall called True Confessions, worked with Hoffman on two films Who is Harry Kellerman and Why is He Saying Those Terrible Things about Me? and Straight Time.

Hoffman was originally the director on Straight Time but fired himself and chose Ulu Grosbard as a replacement after he, himself was unable to make the film. After the film was finished shooting and Grosbard was editing, Dustin demanded to have final cut on the film. When Grosbard and the producers said no, since Hoffman was no longer the director, Hoffman threw a fit, saying, "You put in a lifetime of work and someone tries to take away your paintbrush". One person reportedly responded "How many paintbrushes do you think it takes to make a movie?". Not only are movies collaborative but isn't the director supposed to be the one with the final "paintbrush"? Hoffman seemed to think that his was the only opinion that mattered on the whole movie and he really hurt some people's careers due to his ego.

Hoffman sued Warner Brother, First Artists, and his former agent, Jarvis Astaire for $65 million dollars for taking away his creative control. This bad press ruined Straight Time's release and caused the movie to be mostly forgotten. It also ruined Hoffman and Grosbard's friendship. A judge ruled against Hoffman saying "this is beyond artistic endeavor, it is a [matter] of business."

Dustin Hoffman is always put on lists of "actors difficult to work with", but it kind of seems like he's more than just difficult. He always claims that he's just a "perfectionist" and that he's only difficult because he cares about his art so much, but that might be letting him off easy. The guy sounds like a jerk. I know he's a good actor but he's also a bully on movies, which makes me care about his acting ability a whole lot less. He was probably bullied growing up for being short and now he's taking advantage of his star power to bully other people, while always hiding behind the claim of being a "perfectionist".

In a New York Times article, Ulu Grosbard, who used to be a good friend of Hoffman, said, "[Hoffman] had [Straight Time] for five years and had controlled it completely. By the time he called me he had gone through four or five writers and six or seven drafts, and he had some of the best people in the field working for him. If he's so meticulous and such a perfectionist, why had he created such an enormous mess? Dustin is a professional victim, and when you put yourself in that position, you can make preemptive strikes against everyone and feel morally righteous. I think he does care about quality but that's no excuse for his behavior."

He even blamed the studio for the failure of Ishtar. All they did was try to distribute an expensive, terrible a movie! He had all of his "paintbrushes" so there's no excuse for that one!