Philip Seymour Hoffman’s name hasn’t been engraved on an Oscar quite yet, but given the array of accolades he’s already collected for his Academy Award-nominated performance as In Cold Blood author Truman Capote in the biopic Capote, he might just start clearing off a space on the mantle. The latest honor on the road to the big gala came at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where he was bestowed the fest’s Riviera Award, designed to honor an actor whose career has influenced American cinema and whose past achievements and continued perseverance in the field of film has enriched society as a whole.
Joining the actor on the red carpet in Santa Barbara, Hollywood.com asked Hoffman if Capote marked the beginning of a full-time career as a leading man, or if audiences were still going to see him continuing to tackle the type of juicy ensemble character work he’s flourished with throughout his career. “Yeah, it’s not going to be ‘I have to be the lead’–No, I don’t ever think I’ll be that guy,” he smiled.
Hoffman also said he really has not yet been able to gauge the effect this particular film had on him, both professionally and personally. “My life didn’t change dramatically overnight. It’s not something you can read.” One thing he did know is that he had no pet projects in play that he hoped to use a little Oscar heat to ignite. “There’re things I’d like to do, but it’s not about the Oscar helping that. I think I’m always still just thinking about what to do,” Hoffman replied. “If this helps me get that job, whatever that job is that I don’t know about yet, then that’s good, but I don’t know yet.”
Meanwhile, he’s been wowed response his performance has received from his peers in the Industry. “My friends have been great,” he explained. “People have been very supportive and very generous and nice, and I couldn’t be more grateful for that.”
Indeed, one of the actor’s closest friends and frequent collaborators, writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, also journeyed to Santa Barbara to present Hoffman with his award. “I cannot tell you the pleasure and pride when I see all that’s happened for Phil this year,” Anderson told the crowd. “He’s been so consistent and so good for so long, that alone would seem worthy of awards and attention, but what he did this year in Capote was another level for somebody who seemed to already be at the top of what they do…Phil takes acting very, very seriously, and for a while, that was lost in film acting. Maybe it was considered self righteous to be serious about acting. Actors will often feel that what they are doing isn’t a very grown up pursuit or a very honest way to go through life. But Phil has made it cool again, to be serious and committed about what we do.”
Hoffman sat down on stage with film critic and historian Leonard Maltin to discuss his thought about acting, filmmaking and Oscar, and Hollywood.com has all of the highlights:
On how he discovered theater:
“My mom took me to the theater–my mom was a huge theatergoer, a huge filmgoer too, a huge film buff. Still is–and she doesn’t live in New York, but she sees more plays in New York than people who live there. And she took me to the theatre the first time, and she took me to see All My Sons. And I remember that. I was 12, and I remember seeing All My Sons. It’s a great play. It’s a very sappy kind of corny memory, but I remember thinking I’d found something that no one knew about. I remember thinking I’d found something: this thing, theater. I just could not get over the fact that these people in front of me were getting me to believe something that wasn’t happening. I could not get over that, it was absolutely enthralling–I was 12! And I think I aged three years in that two hours. All of the sudden I had matured in that two hours, experiencing that. And I always thought that was something that I had felt was: I had discovered it.”
On what ultimately led him to performing:
“I was an athlete, an okay one. When I was in high school and a baseball player, and played a little football, I didn’t think I’d ever be an actor. I thought I’d be a professional theatergoer, really. And when I was about a freshman or sophomore in high school, I got injured pretty bad–a neck injury at wrestling. And I still just didn’t think that was something I’d ever do. I heard my mom: ‘Why don’t you go out for the play? Make up your mind!’ Then there was this girl who was a senior, who was gonna go out for the play, and I remember I was walking down the hall and I had my baseball mitt in my hand, and I think I was contemplating whether to still play baseball–that was something I thought I could still do because it wasn’t contact. And I was walking down the hallway, and she was walking the other way–and you know, back then, two years is like forever, so she was older and grander–and I said ‘Well, where are you going?’ And she said ‘I’m gonna go try out for the play.’ And I said ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ And I kept walking. I literally remember putting the glove in my locker and closing it, and walking back into the room and auditioning for the play. Because she was in there. And really, that was it. [laughs] That’s the best I can come up with. But then it obviously wasn’t about that–I got the play, and just like when I’d found sports, it was the same feeling: I thought I’d found something where I felt like I should be.”
On what he responds to in a screenplay:
“I think the reason you either take a role or that why someone would give you the role is that there’s something about what you’re reading–there’s something about the character, there’s something about their behavior that you’re getting from off the page – that starts to spark something in your imagination, or in your mind, or in your memory or something. Your mind starts to race…It isn’t always necessarily on the page, but something about what’s on the page sparks something in you. And it might be quite drastically different from how they saw it, but hopefully it’ll change their mind. And I don’t mean that you want to veer them from their path, but sometimes, once in a while, you can bring an idea and say, ‘Have you seen it like this?’ And sometimes they’ll say ‘That’s not a good idea,’ and ‘Don’t do that again.’ And you’ve gotta take the risk. It’s better to just try to do it than to act, because then they can see it.”
On working opposite powerful actors like Robert De Niro:
“One of the very important things about acting is listening, and I think he’s one of the best listeners that I’ve ever acted with. And the reason why I say this is because you just felt like you could talk to him, and he was just incredibly in the moment, like I’ve never seen before, and it helped me…I think personally your pride comes into play when you work with somebody great, and you want them to like you and you want them to respect you and all that. I’ve had a lot of moments like that in my career, working in movies like that. Yeah, you want to please them, too. And that’s okay, too–that can be a reason, too. But great artists, actors, not only are they asking it of themselves, but they are asking it of everybody, and I think that’s what makes them great, too. And they don’t actually need to say it. Just their presence right there and them starting to work, you can see it. They’re basically saying, ‘Okay, now it’s your turn. I want you to go there with me.’ And that’s why they make you better.”
On making Happiness with director Todd Solondz:
“Todd was very helpful. I auditioned five times, which I think is a record. And we didn’t have any rehearsal time, the auditions were like rehearsals. And he would give such specific, sharp notes every time I left, and I’d come back with whatever he had given me. And by the fifth audition, I had a pretty clear idea of what he wanted. And he was so completely on about this guy, that once I had the time to start working on it, I really–I had already started. I already had a path, and it was of his making. My mind and his worked very well together.”
On the possibility of stepping behind the camera himself:
“I might someday, but I really have such a respect for the ones that I’ve worked with that I think are really great, because they know everything about filmmaking. I feel like if they were left alone in a room, you know, with a camera and equipment and stuff, they could make a film. They could make a film with nobody else, they could do it. I really do feel that once the time comes, when I feel like I have that kind of control, that kind of scope of skills, in filmmaking, that maybe I will, but I don’t think I have that.”
On discovering Paul Thomas Anderson:
“I had a friend who was in a short film at Sundance called Coffee and Cigarettes and Paul was 23 or 24 at the time. It was Paul’s film, but I didn’t know Paul, and I didn’t know about him at all, and I went to Sundance to see this short, it was this great short film, my friend was so good in it, and then the director’s out in front of us–there was Paul, but I didn’t know that was Paul. And then the following year, I got a call from my manager who just said I just met this guy, Paul Thomas Anderson, he’s got this script, he wants you to do this scene in it, and I was like ‘All right, I’m not working, so yeah, show me the script, I’ll read it.’ And I was living in L.A. at the time, and I remember I was reading this script, and it was great, it was Hard Eight–[originally titled] Sydney–and I was reading it, and I got about 20 pages into it, and I knew it was the same guy who made the short film, like, ‘It’s that guy, it’s that guy! And I remember I got about halfway into it, I called and I was like ‘I’ll do it, I’ll do it, that guy’s great.’ And then we talked on the phone. The first day we met was on the first night of shooting that movie…It was one of those moments where, it was the first one of, yes, someone saying ‘I’d like to give you a role, without auditioning for it,’ but also I think this guy’s really good! Nothing gets better than that.”
On the difference between being an ensemble player and a leading man:
“In a way, you’re coming into something that’s already moving and has it’s own life force kind of thing, and you can feel like the odd guy out at school. Your parents moved, you know? A film can feel like that, yes. But when you are carrying a film, you kind of have a leg up actually, because you’re shooting every day and you do get into a rhythm, and that rhythm does allow you to keep moving forward. And when you have supporting roles, your rhythm is broken all of the time. And that’s what I would say really the difference is.”
On working on The 25th Hour with Spike Lee:
“I got the script courtside at the Knicks, that’s where the script came. He invited me to go to the Knicks game with him, first time in my life sat courtside at the Knicks, and he gave me the script at the game, you know [laughs]. But what I remember about that whole meeting though, was I ordered a hot dog and chips, and I didn’t have anywhere to put it, because I was courtside, you know. And I put it down on the ground, and I thought oh well, I’ll just have it right here. But the players were just like–so the whole game I was like [gestures wildly, protecting his food]. So literally, what I remember about the game, was John Starks slipped on my hot dog…I remember there’s a scene in the film, where Barry Pepper and I are sitting in the windowsill at his apartment that Spike’d just bought right before September 11th, and I was looking out at the empty space [where the World Trade Center stood], and we actually shot that scene there–those aren’t extras down there, those are the workers and those are the lights. That scene is shot in one take, I believe, actually one or two. There was only one cut in the whole scene. And there was something about dealing with it in this way, of two people talking about something completely different while they’re looking down on this thing. And I think there’s something about that that was truly present, because we all, as New Yorkers living there, kept living our lives with this event that had just happened. And in juxtaposing that, I think, there was an honesty to that that I think is pretty great.”
On the personal rewards of acting:
“I teach acting sometimes–not a lot, but once in a while–and what I really try to say to everybody that I know is true is if you’re doing a play or shooting a film, the way you feel after your performance that night or day at work, if you’ve done well, is the best it gets. That feeling you have when you’ve walked away from the scene that you shot for four hours, and you know you did well. Or that night, when you know you’ve had that show and you did well. You don’t need anyone to tell you anything, because you did well and that feeling–I would say it’s like when you can go home, fall asleep, and wake up well-rested, that’s as good as it gets. Because everything else is fleeting. And it’s true, it is. And that feeling it stays with you, it’s what keeps you coming back to work.”
On his feelings about awards nominations:
“Well, I don’t want to say I’m not honored. It is true, I am honored. And that’s hard to say. You want to go ‘Ah, awards, whatever.’ No big deal. Show up. But that’s tons of crap. Because ultimately, it is a lot of other people who work in the business you’re in who are appreciating what you’ve done, and that’s something to recognize. But it’s the big killer, you know what I mean? It’s a big killer to get too in that whole head about, ‘Well I must win. I must get every award, everyone else has loved me, and if they don’t, I’ll kill myself.’ If you get carried into that–everybody understands that, and I always say you have to beat that off with a bat. You have to carry a bat, going ‘Get the f**k away. I’ll be okay!’ And you do. And I think it’s the smart thing to do, to recognize any kind of appreciation. First of all to take the appreciation, to say thank you, and to be grateful for that. And in the same way, stay in your own head about the work.”
On making Capote with two of his oldest friends:
“I made it with [screenwriter] Danny [Futterman] and [director] Bennett [Miller], who I’ve known since I was 16 years old…And I think there are moments when we actually realize it together, you know. And we actually look at each other, and yeah, it’s f**king great, you know? There’s a picture of Bennett and me–we went to college together–when we were 18 years old in my office. It’s ludicrous, I see that, I look nothing like me. We look like we’re five, you know. There’s a picture of us, and I’m acting goofy and there’s a homeless guy in between us–‘We’re in New York!’ What a bunch of idiots. But here we are.”
