In Memoriam: Philip Seymour Hoffman

There are many better suited to memorialize Philip Seymour Hoffman than a random cinephile. I think that is why even when I was younger and writing regularly, I rarely wrote public In Memoriam to those we lost. Stanley Kubrick was a rare exception. I feel compelled once again to put down my feelings on "paper", more for myself than others, to celebrate Philip’s extraordinary life and work during this tragic time.  

I am sure I saw Philip Seymour Hoffman in films before, but the first time I remember seeing a performance by him was in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights. I didn’t see Hard Eightin theaters and Boogie Nights came out when I was beginning to really discover cinema. Paul Thomas Anderson’s film remains one of my favorite films about a dysfunctional “family”. The “family” in this case is not made by blood but adoption: Burt Reynolds played the fatherly figure, a director; the mother, an adult film star, played brilliantly by the vulnerable Julianne Moore; and the two children Heather Graham and Mark Wahlberg. But, even with this incredible cast, the performance that captured my attention and the movie’s intention it seemed was Philip Seymour Hoffman as Scotty J, a young production assistant who falls hard for Mark Walberg’s character at a time when it was not acceptable especially in the adult entertainment industry to be gay.

Philip Seymour Hoffman dared to show a side that many actors seem to hide. His weight flowing out over his tight tee shirt gave a realism to his character from an actor willing to embody any character truthfully with all of their embarrassment on the screen. In cinema, where actors are judged on their appearance, his willingness to go there was brave. Boogie Nights centers on a changing of the times when it seems like a more innocent period of our cultural life ends, the concept of free love, and the harshness of the next period, the consequences of free love, begins. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Scotty J embodied that. His almost puppy love that grew into a groupie obsession only to be destroyed mirrored perfectly the changing of the time. It was a revelation for a young cinephile that such a small performance could command as much weight and meaning as the leading roles.

But it was two of Philip’s theatrical performances that really impacted me.

In the summer of 2001, I lined up on the streets of New York to get a ticket to see Chekov’s The Seagull with an unforgettable cast: Streep, Kline, Walken, Goodman, Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman (among others!). It to this day, it may be the best play I have ever seen. Streep, who apparently selected the play for Mike Nichols direction, of course stole the show, but the performance that has stayed with me is Philip Seymour Hoffman as Konstantin. Perhaps it is because I am an aspiring writer myself that Konstantin’s character who is a nervous playwright trying to live up to the great theatrical members of his own family spoke so deeply to me. Philip better than anyone besides perhaps Nichols Cage as Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation perfectly embodied the anxiety that comes with wanting your work to be accepted. It was also the first time that a work so foreign to me, The Seagull by Chekov, which I had read, but not understood, became suddenly real. Streep, at times over the top, would be placed against the subtlety of the minor way Philip would alter his voice depending on which character he was talking to. He also walked with the weight of the world on his shoulders; something that many of his characters would carry as well.  

On the eve of March 18th, 2003, I picked up Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill because it was due for class the following week and I couldn’t sleep. On that particular night, I couldn’t sleep because the Iraq War was about to begin and several of my friends were about to be deployed to war. Reading Long Day’s Journey into Night was like having my soul punctured. I did something I have never done before. I bawled while reading. And I continued to bawl while reading until I was done. Never before with the exception of Faulkner’s Sound and the Fury had a work hit me so hard. I have since seen it produced twice horribly, and seen the movie where even with the great Katherine Hepburn as Mary fail to live up to the play. I did, however, get a chance to see it performed with the dream cast: Vanessa Redgrave as Mary, Brian Dennehy as James Tyrone Sr., Robert Sean Leonard as Edmund, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Jamie. Vanessa brought a humor to Mary that I didn’t know possible. Philip on the other hand took the character of Jamie, a severe alcoholic whose depression helps bring down the entire family, and made what I had seen as a caricature on stage before into a real person. His journey is the true tragedy of the family as he is so far gone that nothing can save him. I was not surprised when in 2011 on “60 Minutes” Philip Seymour Hoffman revealed his own struggle with substances…he poured all of that into his performance in Long Day’s Journey into Night. It was a brave performance that came from his soul. After seeing the play, I was unable to move until the cleaning crew in the theatre informed me that I had to leave. It will stay with me forever.

Of course, discussing two performances seems inadequate for a piece seeking to memorialize such a great actor. But, I guess what made him so special to me was that Philip Seymour Hoffman made the art he was in real. He never had a leading man’s looks. He was relegated for a time to playing smaller bit parts like in Boogie Nights where he could bring depth to characters that may not have been obvious before. But, when he broke into films with blockbuster status, Mission Impossible III, he continued to give us characters that we cared about. Even though he was the villain in MI:III, his hatred and obsession with Ethan Hunt made sense to the audience and he constantly challenged us to empathize with the “other”. Perhaps no better movie exemplifies that than his tragic turn as a pathetic man who fantasizes about a woman in the hard film Happiness. Believe me this film is not for the feint of heart.

Thank you for sharing your voice with us, Philip, and for daring us to look deeper and empathize more. You will be missed.

Here is a list of my favorite film performances by such an incredible actor:

1)   Synecdoche, New York

One of the most challenging pieces written in the last decade, entrusted to Philip to portray a man whose art and life cannot be separated.

2)   Capote

Completely becoming the Capote, the transformation Philip Seymour Hoffman undergoes is astonishing, but more importantly is the empathy he brings to such a selfish, unlikable character.

3)   Happiness

One of the most difficult films I have ever seen. Philip in this movie plays one of the most pathetic individuals brought to the screen.

4)   Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

Philip almost always plays smart characters or characters who believe that they are intelligent. Perhaps no role shows that better than Andy, whose plan to rob his parents’ jewelry store goes horribly wrong.

5)   Owning Mahowny

Not a great movie, but what a performance again about addiction, this time to gambling.

6)   Magnolia, Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, The Master

Couldn’t pick one of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films so I picked all four. Philip’s relationship with Anderson seemed one of the great director/actor relationships.

7)   Almost Famous

Philip in a great role of the mentor to the young aspiring writer, William Miller.

8)   The Talented Mr. Ripley

Plays the only character that can see through Ripley’s sociopathology.

9)   The Big Lebowski  

His best comic role as the toadie to Mr. Lebowski. It is an incredibly comic turn.

10)The Savages

Hoffman again rides that incredibly fine line between comedy and tragedy in this film as a son returning with his sister to care for their abusive father.