worked at it until I was good enough. That's the thing I most regret.

After "Straight Time," it took more than 30 years for Hoffman, a two-time Academy Award winner for "Kramer vs. Kramer" and "Rain Man," to try directing again. After finishing production on the 2008 romance "Last Chance Harvey" in London, Hoffman told cinematographer John de Borman to let him know if any interesting scripts came his way for the actor to direct. Soon after, de Borman called Hoffman about "Quartet," which had been adapted by screenwriter Ronald Harwood from his stage play.

Hoffman read it on the plane flying home and was hooked. While his lead players are actors, Hoffman filled up the retirement home with real aging opera singers, "people who had performed in places likeLa Scala, but no one has rang their phone or knocked on their door in 20 years," he said.

"They're a special breed of people. Everything is heightened. I do think they're superhuman," Hoffman said. "They're like an exaggeration, kind of, of actors. I mean, we're all horny bastards but they're off the charts. And they're detached from themselves. 'How are you doing today, Maurice?' He says, 'The voice isn't good.' Not my voice. It's THE voice."

Just like his aging opera stars, Hoffman has found his acting choices diminishing as he ages. A stage star in his 20s, Hoffman hit it big in Hollywood at age 30 with "The Graduate" and had a solid run of leading roles well into his 50s.

Inevitably, he has fallen back mostly on secondary