Philip Seymour Hoffman: Idol Chatter
On becoming Capote, playing gay, and how Hollywood can make you want to get drunk and destroy stuff.
By Brantley Bardin
Photographed by Jennifer Cooper
PREMIERE: You’re considered one of our great actors, and Capote is about to reconfirm that. But, hey, is it weird to be so revered at a mere 38?
[laughs] I always wonder who’s doing the revering.
Well, with your total transformation into Truman C. circa ’64, it’ll probably be Oscar voters.
I will accept whatever comes. [laughs] That said, who knows?
As an actor who’s declared, “Acting is difficult,” was being Truman hard?
Put me through the wringer—it was just an extraordinary amount of self-criticism, playing that guy. There were tons of pitfalls, the most I’ve ever played.
And that’s coming from a guy who, in Flawless, played a drag queen opposite De Niro, folks. By the way, the gays have been awfully good to you. Are you nuts? You’re supposed to think, “I can’t do that because it’ll hurt my career.”
That doesn’t make sense to me—when I played Rusty [Flawless] or Scotty J. [Boogie Nights] or Truman, they’re all distinctly different people. I’d like to know why anyone would say that, ’cause playing gay hasn’t hurt my career.
But you’re a daredevil—from the lonely obscene phone caller in Todd Solondz’s Happiness to the saintly nurse in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, you’re always going to deep, dark places. Is that ever scary?
Yeah. No. Well . . . it’s just that when you’re exploring certain characters you have to think about certain things sometimes—you have to think about shit like, “Why would a guy make prank phone calls to strangers in a sexually aggressive fashion?” [laughs] That’s where it gets dark.
And a little kinky: Was filming the masturbation scene in Happiness dicey even for you?
That was hard. I remember I was pretty heavy, sitting in my underwear in front of all these people and having this “oh, fuck” moment of “I don’t know if I want all these people to know this much.” I said to Todd, “I’m just scared people will laugh,” and he said, “They will, but they’ll also see the pathos; they’ll understand.”
And we did. Though it sounds a little sappy, in your work you’ve given voice to a lot of people who don’t have one.
Actually, my mother said the exact same thing to me years ago, and I said that that was something I would own. Because I think it’s important. Maybe that’s why I get the label, “the weird guy,” but . . .
Yeah, your characters are forever being pegged as “perverts” or “losers.” It seems most don’t want to admit that humans are, well, freaks.
That’s what I think—people are very odd in general, but people in private when they’re alone in their own head? The places people go—you just don’t wanna know! [laughs]
Yep. So I bet loads of fans bring up your Along Came Polly poop joke gift to the lexicon: “sharting.”
Yeah, they just come up and say it: “I sharted.” I usually just smile, and I think they’re a bit disappointed ’cause I didn’t laugh out loud like they did when they first saw it. That, or shit my pants. [laughs]
Okay, listen—as Almost Famous’s Lester Bangs, you warned your protégé not to sell out and be seduced by women, glitz, and booze. You’ve brilliantly negotiated that trap by juggling blockbusters with small indie gems. But, tell us: How hard has Hollywood tried to get you drunk?
Sometimes, just being around Hollywood makes you want to get drunk. [laughs] Like, I was just flying to Italy for Mission: Impossible III, completely jet-lagged, and they took me to this angular, sterile, first-class lounge in Frankfurt to change flights. On the desk was this silver tray with the best liquor you could ever imagine. You think, “Okay, it’s 7 a.m., I’m alone in my little pristine, first-class room—why don’t I get trashed and destroy the place!” [laughs] Then you realize, this is where those stories come from—it’s the movie star guy, alone in Frankfurt, who gets trashed, gets on his flight, and there he is on Page Six the next day.
Having missed that opportunity, which of your vices would Page Six most be interested in?
Forget it—I know your work!
Just say, “I’ve told the public enough today.”
Or “deduce your own answer—whatever you come up with, you’ll probably be right.”
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