'Last Chance Harvey' 's Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson

Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson are not at their best.

Despite jet lag from her transatlantic, transcontinental flight, Thompson still manages to look elegant though tired. Hoffman is under the weather; he has had some B-12-like shots today but asserts he was told, "My uvula's OK," then adds with a smirk, "I didn't even know men had uvulas."

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FOR THE RECORD:
Dustin Hoffman: In some copies of today's Envelope section, a listing of Dustin Hoffman's awards said he won an MTV movie award for "Meet the Fokkers." The movie title is "Meet the Fockers." —

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Thompson grants him the big laugh he sought and promises to pitch him that softball for their Q&A following this recent evening's industry screening of "Last Chance Harvey," their upcoming film about finding love where -- and when -- it is least expected.

"This is where we start lying and saying how much we loved working together," Hoffman cracks.

"You start," Thompson purrs, then plops down with him, or rather, on him, on the big, leather green-room couch. The two two-time Oscar winners have the easy chemistry of old friends, despite having worked together only once before, and barely at that, on 2006's "Stranger Than Fiction."

"The thing is, from time to time, you come across those with whom you have a sort of professional love affair, which is very unusual," she says. "The last time I had it was with Anthony Hopkins, who was also older than me."

"And shorter," Hoffman adds.

"When did you last have it?"

"Never."

"Oh, come on."

"Once, when I met Anthony Hopkins," he says, and Thompson emits a honking laugh. "No, never. I've never had this experience," he insists.

After "Fiction," Thompson, who had been taken by the BAFTA-winning film "Jump Tomorrow," another story about finding unexpected romance, contacted filmmaker Joel Hopkins about working together. This Hopkins, it turned out, was a fan of Thompson's first film, "The Tall Guy." So he set about writing her a movie.

"Joel created [the role of] Kate as a sort of older version of my earlier character" in "The Tall Guy," she says. "Someone who had been a nurse, very capable and straight-talking but not brilliant at personal relationships. Then along comes this American who is completely straight and very bold, actually, in a way that British men would never be, and she does something not everyone is able to do, which is she makes this leap of faith. With love it's always that. It's like joining a cult or something."