Philip Seymour Hoffman: Triumph of the Uncommon Man

He's been scene-stealing in character roles for more than a decade, but with Love Liza, Philip Seymour Hoffman's obscure life of crime is over.

by Jennifer M. Wood | Published February 13, 2003

Hoffman takes on his most challenging role yet, starring in Todd Louiso’s Love Liza, with a script by his brother, Gordy.

Intelligent, driven, and unaffected by his success, Philip Seymour Hoffman doesn’t look or play the part of the iconic “movie star.” In interviews, he measures his words as carefully as he would the emotions of one of his characters. To hear him tell it, he’s just another New York City artist making a living at his craft.

To discriminating cineastes, Hoffman’s versatility has made him one of the big screen’s greatest character actors. To the casual moviegoer he’s just an interesting, recognizable performer who keeps showing up in offbeat films, but whose name they can’t quite remember.

All that is about to change.

In his latest film, Love Liza, Hoffman moves center stage as Wilson Joel, a man so ravaged by his wife’s suicide that he begins huffing gasoline fumes in an attempt to escape the life he previously knew, which is crumbling around him. Already generating Oscar buzz, the film is a culmination of his past dozen years of playing supporting parts; his character is a finely polished coalescence of the “outsider” roles he has honed to perfection. Though technically not his first starring turn (Hoffman co-starred with Robert De Niro in Joel Schumacher’s Flawless and played the romantic lead in David Mamet’s ensemble comedy State and Main), Love Liza marks the first time a project’s fortunes rest almost solely on his execution.

An extremely challenging character, the role of Wilson is one that requires a particular type of visceral energy that has made Hoffman a standout in roles that would be all but forgotten once they left the frame if left to the devices of a lesser actor. (Examples include an antagonistic craps player in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Hard Eight, a bisexual porn star groupie in Boogie Nights, the nurturing but “un-cool” Lester Bangs in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous, a phone sex swindler in Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love and a high school teacher fantasizing about a student in Spike Lee’s 25th Hour).

Though extreme characters have been the hallmark of his career, off-screen there is nothing over-the-top about Philip Seymour Hoffman. The third of four children (older brother, Gordy, penned the screenplay for Love Liza), Hoffman was born in Fairport, NY, a middle-class suburb of Rochester, to a Xerox executive father and a politically motivated mother who went to law school in her late 30s and is now a family court judge. Though Hoffman’s early dramatic interests were sparked by his mother’s frequent visits to local theater productions, Hoffman was more interested in sports than line-readings.

A celebrated athlete, he played baseball and football and wrestled until a neck injury in his sophomore year forced him to quit. With time on his hands—and a young lady he wanted to impress—Hoffman tried out for his high school’s production of The Crucible.

Lust may have led him to the stage, but love has kept him there. Hoffman graduated from the prestigious drama program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1989, and became a fixture of the NYC theater community soon after.

His first big break came when he was cast in Martin Brest’s 1992 film Scent of a Woman as the obnoxious prep school classmate of Chris O’Donnell. Even today, Hoffman’s George Willis, Jr. character is one of the most memorable aspects of that film.

In the decade since Scent of a Woman, Hoffman has raised the art of scene stealing to a new level—and frequency. Seven years after Scent, Hoffman reprised his George Willis (at least as an older incarnation) when he took on the role of Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr. Ripley. With just a few minutes of screen time, Hoffman’s performance arguably outshined all others in the film—even considering the deserved Oscar nominations for co-stars Matt Damon and Jude Law.

Love Liza

In the past five years, Hoffman has released an average of three films per year, at the same time serving as co-artistic director of New York City’s LAByrinth Theater Group, an organization for which he has also begun to direct. Seemingly ubiquitous, Hoffman laughs at the assumption that he is continually in front of the camera, claiming that “the average working American spends more time in the office” than he does on a film set, and that he’s spent up to a year not working in the recent past. Still, as is the nature of the movie production cycle, it’s only a matter of months that fans will have to wait for Hoffman’s next film. With Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love and Brett Ratner’s Red Dragon just wrapping up their theatrical runs, Hoffman has another slate of films ready for release.

Currently starring in Todd Louiso’s Love Liza and Spike Lee’s 25th Hour, Hoffman also has the title role in Richard Kwietniowski’s Owning Mahowny which has its premiere at Sundance. In late 2003, Hoffman will re-team with his Ripley director, Anthony Minghella, for the eagerly awaited Cold Mountain.

In Los Angeles shooting a yet-to-be-titled romantic comedy with Ben Stiller, Hoffman spoke with MM about his star-turn in Love Liza, how much time he really spends on set and the ways in which acting can be like golf.

Jennifer Wood (MM): Did your brother write Love Liza with you in mind?

Philip Seymour Hoffman (PSH): No. He just wrote the script because he was coming from Chicago and moving to LA. He just wanted me to read it because he knew I read a lot of screenplays and could maybe give him some good advice.

MM: Were you worried about the commercial possibilities of this film when you agreed to do it, or while you were making it?

PSH: I’ve never really worried about that before, so no.

MM: When you’re considering roles, what are the criteria you use to make your decisions?

"It's easier to accept a person who looks more attractive, healthier, younger, more vibrant —that's the way the world goes. It's easier to have that person at the party. But you know, i have a really nice career and I'm not an unattractive guy..."

PSH: It has nothing to do with commercial appeal; that’s never in the repertoire or in the list of things I ask myself. And that’s not for any reason other than just the fact that it just doesn’t come to my mind; it’s not an interesting question when you’re deciding whether to do something. Acting is a very difficult thing to do—for me, at least. Other people can speak for themselves on that, but I think it’s very difficult. So when I choose to do something, I know it’s something I really want to do. Usually it has to do with the script and the part and all its colors and complexities. If it’s dealing with something we’ve seen before, it has to be in a new way. And then there’s the people attached, obviously, and all those things.

MM: This is one of your first lead roles where the film rests entirely on your performance. Did you feel the pressure of that going into the shoot?

PSH: No, it was more that I felt the pressure of trying to play the part.

MM: Knowing that you’d be included in almost every frame of the film, did you prepare for the role in a different way?

PSH: It really has nothing to do with how much time you’re on camera when you’re preparing for a role. I had to prepare for the script that Gordy had written. You think about quantity in the fact that you want to get some sleep, or that kind of thing, but not in the preparation of a role. Just knowing that you are going to be shooting every day, you want to be prepared mentally, but it has nothing to do with working on the role.

MM: We meet your character in Love Liza at the point where his wife has committed suicide. How far back do you need to go into the history of a character to find how to play him? Is it important for you to understand who the character was before this tragedy?

PSH: Yeah, but that’s all informed usually in what’s been given to you. And if it hasn’t been, I don’t spend much time thinking ‘Okay, when he was 10, he went to this grammar school.’ I don’t do that. I think the history kind of unfolds itself; it makes itself known to you by working on its present.

MM: Of all the roles you’ve played, which one is closest to you as a person?

PSH: Everything I play is close to me in its own way. But I think, character-wise, the role where I just kind of showed up to work and didn’t do much, is Magnolia. It’s more just kind of me than anything. Magnolia and Love Liza, really. They’re both parts where I didn’t do anything behaviorally or characteristically; I just kind of left myself alone.

MM: Is it easier for you to play a part where you can more naturally relate to the character?

PSH: It’s not about “relating.” I think I relate, or partly relate, to a lot of the parts I play. But for those two parts, I didn’t have to do anything technically to myself: I didn’t really change the way I dress or talk or move. I just kind of left myself alone for each of those roles.

MM: So many actors don’t want to see a film after their work on it is done. Is it difficult for you to watch your own performance?

PSH: No, because it’s my job. I know there are some actors who don’t want to watch their performances. But I think watching your performance is part of your job, to see what worked. Or to see ‘Hey, maybe I didn’t need to work so hard at that moment. Maybe I could have left that alone.’ There are things that I actually think about when I’m watching a performance. It’s not like you’re actively doing that, but it happens.

MM: Do you think that tendency could be attributed in part to your history as a stage actor, where you get the chance to constantly fine-tune a performance?

PSH: Maybe. I think it’s more to do with the fact that I’ve seen myself on film so often now, that I can consciously look at myself objectively and ask ‘Do I feel like I’m doing good work or not?’ And that’s a good thing. I can look and say ‘Hey, you didn’t do so well there!’ [laughing] And that’s an uncomfortable moment, but…

MM: Tell me about a particular film where you had those moments—one where you were able to give yourself the most constructive criticism.

PSH: I remember when I watched Patch Adams, thinking I didn’t need to do as much as I did. There have been things like that, where I could have left a character alone a little bit more. But then there are all these people who will say, “No. I liked that you it did like that.” Why I think it’s healthy [to watch your own performance] is that you’re able to form your own opinion about your work, as opposed to what other people are going to tell you. On the other side of the coin, there may be a role where you think ‘I did really well.’ Then you might pick up the paper tomorrow and somebody says you didn’t! You might have personal feelings about being written about like that, but you can at least say ‘No, my first impression, Mr. Critic, is that it went well.’ [laughs] But I’m my own worst critic, anyway.

Hoffman with Minnie Driver in the Sundance premiere, Owning Mahowny.

MM: Is there any film that you’ve watched and thought ‘I would do nothing differently,’ or are you constantly finding something?

PSH: No, there’s always a moment or two—something that other people aren’t going to care about at all—and that sort of thing. I think if you’re able to objectify yourself enough while watching yourself, you can use it. It’s kind of beneficial. Other than that, if there’s another chance to see it because there’s another premiere or a screening, I might watch it again. Besides that, I never watch it again, ever.

MM: When you’re working on a performance, who are you most concerned with satisfying—yourself, the director or the audience?

PSH: Myself.

MM: If a director tells you ‘“No, I think you should do it this way,’” will you change your performance?

PSH: Yes, unless it’s completely ludicrous. But I’ve had the pleasure of working with some really great directors.

MM: In virtually every piece ever written on you, it’s become almost a journalistic crutch to define you, first and foremost, in terms of your appearance. Is it frustrating to conduct an interview and talk about your work, then read the interview and see that it focuses on your physical appearance?

PSH: Well, there are a lot of things that are frustrating. It’s kind of the scheme of life and you try not to let it get to you too much! [laughing] It’s not really frustration, I guess. It’s knowing that people judge or criticize you, or want to talk about it. It’s easier to accept someone into the fray that looks more attractive than the other person, which is kind of the way the world goes! The healthier, younger, more vibrant you look, the easier it is to have that person at the party. That’s just kind of the way it is. There are a lot of exceptions to the rule. But you know I have a really nice career and I’m not an unattractive guy. But people want to talk about the fact that I have a little more weight on me, and these kinds of things.

MM: Has this pervasive attitude ever affected you in your work in, for example, a film like State and Main, where you’re essentially the romantic lead, a part usually reserved for “the movie star.”

PSH: The movie star… Well, that’s different. That has nothing to do with looks.

MM: It just seems like every piece that has been written on you—every interview—sounds exactly the same.

PSH: You’re absolutely right. And it would probably make a more interesting story without it, for sure. It’s easier to get a movie made with someone more well-known. David Mamet’s film wasn’t a big-budget film and he had a lot of people in it: Bill Macy, Alec Baldwin, Sarah Jessica Parker and on and on. So I think he could afford to cast me in that role.

MM: The other way in which you’re constantly defined is as a “character actor.” Do you think it’s a fair assessment of your body of work and the characters you’ve played to be pigeonholed in that way?”

Roles in Boogie Nights (1997), Happiness (1998), Flawless (1999) and Punch-Drunk Love (2002) have secured Hoffman a reputation as one of the big screen’s greatest character.

 

PSH: Well, I don’t know. I think “character actor” is a good thing. They’ve got to feel comfortable about something—whoever “they” is, whatever that is out there. Human beings are just like that. They want to understand it. If they can understand it, that means they have power over it and can talk about it comfortably. If they don’t, they either leave it alone… or they go ahead and do it anyway! [laughs]

MM: Is your career right now what you set out to achieve, or are there certain goals you’re still looking forward to achieving?

PSH: Obviously I can’t control things, as much as I wish I could. I’ve made the choices I wanted to make and stick by everything I’ve done, for sure. I’m very happy about that and proud of the work that’s been done—with me and with everyone involved. I’m very happy about all of that. It’s not just acting. I work with this theater company and I’ve toured plays with them, and I’m going to act in Long Day’s Journey this spring in New York. There’s always something else—you don’t really know what it is. Right now, I don’t have a movie plan after the one I’m shooting and I don’t know if I’m going to plan one.

MM: Red Dragon and Punch-Drunk Love just wrapped up their theater runs, and now you’ve got 25th Hour and Love Liza being released, plus Owning Mahowny at Sundance and Cold Mountain later in the year. It seems like you never stop working.

PSH: It’s really not true. It’s a real weird thing in this business that you start to get judged for working too much. It’s odd because what’s wrong with working for a living? [laughing] Also, I don’t have a lead in about 90 percent of the movies I do, so I don’t have to spend nearly as much time working as the people who play leads. Punch-Drunk Love, I think I shot that in six days, and I’m in a movie. It’s the same with Red Dragon: I worked like six days and I’m in a movie! Really, I did two films in 12 days in a year. I mean, what am I going to do? ‘Oh, I can’t do that! That will be my fourth film this year and people are going to really come down on me.’ You know, it happens and it’s too bad. Especially if you’re as lucky as I am. I’m lucky to get the chance to work with these people on these jobs.

MM: Do you look to follow up certain roles with a different sort of character? Is it a calculated choice on your part to go, for example, from Flawless to Magnolia to The Talented Mr. Ripley to State and Main? The characters in those films are so strikingly different from one another.

PSH: Yeah, I really try, as much as I can. And that’s what’s enticing about these jobs. It’s enticing to say ‘Wow, I can do that. It’s a part I’ve never played. It’s just two weeks…’ It’s kind of enticing. That happened this year, for sure. With Paul’s movie, Punch-Drunk Love, I’d never played a part like that. It’s so freeing to know that these guys are making this movie and you’re just coming in for a week or two and playing a part you haven’t had a chance to play before. It’s an opportunity to explore something you haven’t explored in a safe environment, no pressure. It’s a nice thing.

MM: You seem willing to stop at almost nothing for your craft, taking on challenging or controversial characters that other actors might shy away from. Do you have any fears as an actor?

PSH: Oh yeah, all the time. The fear of not being good! And the fear of not moving forward in your work, of not growing; you always want to keep growing.

MM: One of the themes that keeps popping up in your work is sexuality, or the dealing with sexual taboos. Do you think the fearlessness you display in your work makes you a first choice for parts like the ones you played in films like Flawless, Happiness, Boogie Nights and 25th Hour?

PSH: Well, I think that the sexual taboo aspect is really such a small part of what I’ve done. It’s maybe like four or five roles, and I think 25th Hour is really more taboo than any of them. The other ones I just think are people dealing with their own sexuality, which is a story and a character. It’s probably the biggest part of human nature… one of the biggest stories in a human being’s life.

MM: But we deny it…

PSH: And we talk about it in a much more romantic way than it usually is. It’s because of just these four or five roles that people become really interested in that [aspect of my work]. People want to talk about those roles because it’s a disturbing little place that everybody knows. There are different themes that I look to explore, and that’s just one theme. If you look at Scent of a Woman or The Talented Mr. Ripley, these are characters that are incredibly arrogant. Then there are the caretakers, like in Almost Famous or Magnolia. I like to think about things in thematic ways and cover all those things. But it is pretty much a fact that people always want to hone in on the sexual dysfunction.

MM: It’s one of our obsessions.

PSH: I think it is, and I think that’s okay. But I think it’s just another role. I’m just as drawn to those roles as I am to the other roles.

MM: What has been your biggest challenge as an actor, or the role that challenged you the most?

PSH: That’s a hard question to answer. It’s more like you have challenging days. Some days are really challenging for reasons you never thought they’d be before you got there. Some scenes are harder than you think and some scenes are easier than you think. It’s hard to grasp.

MM: Do you still get intimidated by some of the actors you’re working with?

PSH: I think that you’re intimidated at first. But once you start acting you quickly realize that they’re just actors—they’re great actors—but they’re just actors. They’re doing their work and they have the same insecurities as you; they have the same worries you do. Once you understand that, you kind of get down to it.

MM: Is it different when you’re acting opposite someone on film versus the stage, in front of a live audience, where it’s a much more visceral experience?

PSH: It’s just a different reality. In a film, it’s sort of private. You can kind of screw up and go back. In a theater piece, if you’re doing a play with Meryl Streep, you can’t screw up and go back. We have to really have a trust that ‘We’re going to see it through until the end, no matter what happens.’
In both realities, you’re trying to act well and still trying to give to that actor and trying to receive whatever they’re giving you.

MM: Is your preparation for a theater role different from a film role?

PSH: You know, I think the working part is different. Not so much because of what goes into a theater and film project, but they’re different, they just are. Because of the nature of a play, you’re going to have four or five weeks of rehearsal. You’re going to have this time to work on a role with the people you’re doing it with and the space that you’re doing it in. Then when you’re performing it, you’re preparing it the whole time because you have to redo it every night. In a film, it’s so much different. You just show up with as much preparation as possible.

MM: You’ve been directing theater for a few years now. Do you have any desire to direct a film?

“I like to think about things in thematic ways and cover all those things. But it is pretty much a fact that people always want to hone in on the sexual dysfunction.”

PSH: I’m not so sure. Maybe I will someday, but I don’t know when that will be.

MM: What is the most satisfying part of being an actor, or the one aspect that will keep you doing this for the forseeable future?

PSH: The work. Oh, that sounds so pretentious! [laughing] I was watching Daniel Day-Lewis on Charlie Rose the other night and he asked him “You only do a movie every 10 billion years. Why is that?” He talked about how one of the more pleasurable parts of acting is the exploration, the discovery—the educational part of working on a part and seeing it come together in a certain way. That is the most pleasurable part of it. Then, if you actually do bring it to some type of life and someone says “Wow, you brought this character from the page to life,” it’s satisfying knowing that you’ve done that.

MM: But, of course, Daniel Day-Lewis’ dedication is now the subject of tabloids and/or Hollywood gossip columns.

PSH: I know. He’s probably over in Ireland or wherever he is saying “Oy vay!” He’s just giving himself plenty of time to prepare for a part so that he can do the best job he can. It’s something that is not part of our world: working long, hard and preparing; taking as much time as possible. And when you get there, really getting into this person and being this person… He’s not crazy; he’s just a man doing his job.

MM: What’s the most frustrating part of being an actor?

PSH: It’s something that is never easy to do—never! It just isn’t. It’s like golf… No matter how well you thought you played yesterday, you can really suck today!

MM: I know that I’m catching you at the end of a week full of interviews. What is the one question that you’ve never been asked in an interview that you’re always hoping someone will bring up?

PSH: I don’t know… I think maybe talking about what it would be like to do something else, like “What else would you be interested in and why?”

MM: Okay, so what else would you be interested in, and why?

PSH: I’m interested in a lot of things. I’d be interested in having the time to see a lot of art that I never get to see. I live in New York City, where I have the opportunity to see great art every day, and I never get a chance to do that. I would just like to go to a different museum every day and see different pieces of art. I’d like to go to an opera. I’ve never even been to an opera. I’d like to go to an opera for the first time and, maybe if I didn’t actually like it, to go again until I do. I’d like to take a class at The New School. There’s so much stuff of so much interest. I’d love to just sit around in an artistic setting, where it’s not my art form, and talk to people who do it. I’d like to get the focus off of what I do and find out about other people. Those kinds of things are interesting to me.

There’s this thing that I read in the Times yesterday, that they’re opening a 37th Street Art Project or something like that. Dance, theater, music, design, lighting—all this stuff—and combining it into one arts center. Merce Cunningham is getting involved, and Pedro Almodovar. All these people are going to start this center, combining all these art forms. To have something like that that actually works and functions… Something like that gets me crazy excited. MM

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