But, on the upside, the two-time Oscar-winning Hollywood veteran believes we are now in a golden age of television.

"I think, right now, television is the best that it's ever been and I think that it's the worst that film has ever been – in the 50 years that I've been doing it, it's the worst," he said in an interview with The Independent.

Hoffman, 77, also lamented the breakneck pace at which modern films are made, largely due to a heavy reliance on digital techniques.

"It's hard to believe you can do good work for the little amount of money these days," he said. "We did The Graduate and that film still sustains, it had a wonderful script that they spent three years on, and an exceptional director with an exceptional cast and crew, but it was a small movie, four walls and actors, that is all, and yet it was 100 days of shooting."

Hoffman's own directorial debut came three years ago with the modestly successful Quartet, a bitter-sweet comedy about a group of retired musicians starring Billy Connolly and Maggie Smith.

Music has always been front and centre in the life of the Tootsie and Rain Man star, who confessed that he would give Hollywood away tomorrow to have a shot at being a pro jazz player.

"I love it [music] more than anything," he said. "But I can't play well enough to make a living out of it. If God tapped me on the shoulder right now and said 'no more acting, no more directing, but you can be a decent jazz pianist'... I could never read music gracefully. I don't have a good ear. I still want to do it. I would love to do it."