Dustin Hoffman: 'Work brings me inner peace'

Dustin Hoffman has revealed that the closest he ever comes to achieving "inner peace" is when he is acting.

After spending more than 40 years making films, the 73-year-old said that he considers the moment he comes to truly understand a character he is playing as one of life's great joys.

"I don't know what it's called, outer peace, inner peace or sideways peace," The AP quotes him as saying. "The moments where I think I've found it, I can feel that I've found it, is whatever it is I'm trying to do when I'm working. When I've been hovering around the edges and suddenly, you do a take or whatever, and it's a feeling, and you think, that's it."

The actor also likened those moments of "inner peace" to "filling up the vacuum of fear so that you're no longer fearful", adding that they can often transcend the physical world.

"There is that envelope, sometimes, of time for us where we're never going to die. There's no such a thing," he added. "We're just in a timeless element at that moment."

With decades in the spotlight, Hoffman remains one of the most acclaimed stars in the history of cinema, having been awarded two Academy Awards, three BAFTAs and five Golden Globes.

Angelina Jolie and Jack Black are among the stars to have joined Hoffman in lending their voices to the animated movie Kung Fu Panda 2, which opens on May 26 in the US and June 10 in the UK.

> Hoffman's Quartet to shoot this Autumn

Watch a trailer for Kung Fu Panda 2 below: