From The Archive

I've done a lot of life drawing over the years at a variety of places, from scruffy art college classrooms at Chealsea and Camberwell to an amazing loft studio in Bow. I recently went to the Cellar Arts Club in Worthing and was pleased to discover I could still draw.

I had a thrilling experience at a life drawing class in the summer of 2011. At that time, I was working in London and one afternoon, I got a call from my artist friend Chrissie, saying I was in for a surprise if I came to her house that evening. She held life drawing classes in the garden studio of her Brixton home. I asked her what she meant and she said that Dustin Hoffman would be visiting her studio that evening. I said: ‘Oh yeah, right’. What would a Hollywood legend be doing in an artist's studio in a scruffy part of south London? Chrissie said: ‘Just turn up and you’ll see’. When I arrived at Chrissie’s house, she explained all. Her nephew (a producer with BBC Films) was working on a film project called Quartet, about a group of elderly opera singers living in a retirement home. The cast had loads of British national treasures: Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins, Tom Courtney, Andrew Sachs and Michael Gambon. Dustin Hoffman was directing and he was coming to Chrissie’s to research an idea for a scene set in a life drawing class. There was only a small group of us at the studio that night and we were all very excited about our expected VIP.  Our model was a lovely girl called Madison, she stripped off and we started sketching. About half an hour later, Dustin arrived. Madison put a robe on, we all stopped work for a coffee break and to welcome our guest, who was accompanied by his very American PA plus Chrissie’s nephew, and there was a flurry of chit chat. Dustin is short, there’s no denying it, about as tall as me (5ft 5in) but pretty hunky even though at that time he was about 74. He had no showbiz nonsense about him, he was quietly spoken, affable and very friendly. A really nice guy. He wandered around the studio as we sketched and he was complimentary about our drawings. After about an hour, Dustin’s PA told him it was time to get back to the limo but before he went, he let us take photos (these turned out pretty blurred as everyone had shaky hands). At the following week’s art class, Chrissie told us that Dustin wanted our drawings as props for the scene so Chrissie packed them off to the set and there was a whisper that we might get invited to the wrap party when filming was finished. In the end, there was no party for us and no life drawing scene in the finished film. I’m not sure if the scene was scrapped completely or if it ended up on the cutting-room floor. It didn't matter - I'd met Dustin Hoffman!