A number of outlets are reporting that the NYPD has confirmed that Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead this morning in his apartment. (Here’s the New York Daily News report that alleges a possible Heroin overdose.)
It’s impossible to say how unreal it feels to write that Philip Seymour Hoffman is dead. It doesn’t seem real at all.
He was an incredibly versatile actor who could do no wrong. Every role he took on was superb. From Brandt in “The Big Lebowski” and Scotty J. in “Boogie Nights” to Lancaster Dodd in “The Master” and his Academy Award winning turn as Truman Capote, he smuggled brilliance into every movie he had a part in.
I’d met him a couple of times at Sundance and he was incredibly gracious. “Call me Phil, please,” he’d say.
When we spoke, it was really just me film-nerding out on him about the movies of his I’d loved. The films of PT Anderson in particular. “I’m sure you hear this all the time though.”
“Not as often as you’d think. Or much at all, really.”
This was obviously before his Oscar.
Later, when I was working on producing a movie I’d written, his was one of the first names I thought of for a part. We sent the script off to his agent and he was the only person to get back to us to say, “If you get the money, I’d love to do it.”
It would have been incredible.
His performances were moving and amazing. Often hilarious.
Here’s one of my favorite moments from Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch Drunk Love.”
And he was masterful as Phil Parma in the underrated masterpiece, “Magnolia.”
He was also the perfect villain in JJ Abrams’ “Mission: Impossible III”
And who forget his brilliant turn in Sidney Lumet’s last great masterpiece, “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead?”
The point is, it didn’t matter what Phil Hoffman was doing. He was incredible. The world of movies and acting has lost a giant. We’re all poorer for it.
You’ll be able to see him next, probably for the last time, in the third and fourth films in the “Hunger Games” franchise, “The Mockingjay.”