Patrick Fugit remembers ‘intimidating’ Hoffman in tribute essay

Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Almost Famous co-star Patrick Fugit has added his tribute to the tragic actor in a heartfelt essay published by the New York Post. A day after the 2000 film’s director Cameron Crowe offered up his respects in the form of a touching post on his blog, Fugit, who played young music journalist William Miller in the movie, revealed working with the acting great was an “intimidating” experience.
He recalls, “Philip was very forward with me, in a school-of-hard-knocks way. It was almost like when you go on a hike with your dad, and your dad just hikes the mountain and expects you to keep up. That’s the way Philip did the scenes. It was like he was saying, ‘All right, kid, you’re here, you’re playing the lead in Cameron’s movie’. There was a certain weight that came with him. There was sort of a darkness. That’s part of what made his acting so compelling and complete.”
Fugit reveals even the flu couldn’t stop Hoffman from giving his all: “I remember watching him in the scene in which Lester is doing the Iggy Pop dance. I was watching Philip work, and it occurred to me: This was the sort of caliber of acting that I was going to need to do from that point forward. There was something about watching Philip that opened my eyes to the potential for creating.”
Another Hoffman co-star who was paying his respects on Tuesday (04Feb14) was The Talented Mr. Ripley’s Matt Damon.
Speaking on U.S. breakfast show Good Morning America, he said, “He’s one of the best actors to ever live, without a doubt… And he was an even better person, he was a beautiful, beautiful person. It’s horrible, just horrible.”
Hoffman died of a suspected drug overdose at his home in New York on Sunday (02Feb14).