By all accounts, Philip Seymour Hoffman was a tough interview.
Not surprising, given the searing honesty he brought to every film role — he was not a man given to sound bytes or p.r. fluff.
But as Guardian scribe Simon Hattenstone put it, “He might have insisted he was giving me nothing of himself, but when I transcribed our meeting I realized it was just like one of his movies — he’d reluctantly grouched his way to a full and complex self-portrait.” Here are some of Hoffman’s memorable, and perhaps telling, interview moments from years past and present.
From the Daily Mail, at Sundance in January, discussing his role in the new film “A Most Wanted Man:”
“I connected to a lot of it. I think it’d be hard for anyone not to kind of connect with the loneliness. He’s a very lonely, very driven, obsessive guy, not forgiving of himself. A lot of traits I think a lot of people carry to one degree or another.”
From Lou Lumenick’s interview at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival, about his film “Love Liza” and his character’s huffing addiction:
“It’s much more common than people think — a poor man’s high that does a lot of damage to the brain if it’s done over a long period of time. I talked to people who talked to people who did it, and from what I knew of other drugs, I figured out what it would be like . . . Sniffing gas is something that kids do, and for Wilson it’s a very childlike thing, a regression to his childhood.”
From another Sundance interview this year, when asked if he preferred working on smaller independent films:
“I don’t really differentiate. An independent vibe can exist anywhere. On any given day, you’re gonna experience an independent vibe. That could be on the biggest film you’ve ever done, if there are people who care and they really want to make something well. You’re gonna have that same kind of interest.”
From Rolling Stone, in 2008, about his role in “The Big Lebowski”:
“Back then and even now, it was a really great job. I would still consider that a great job. All the characters in that movie were wonderful, down to the smallest and smallest of characters. They’re all wonderful and they all made an impact somewhere in the movie. Those are the best kinds of jobs and they’re hard to come by.”
On CBS’s “60 Minutes,” on acting onstage and his own obsessiveness:
“If you can go to the theater, and you’re in a room with a bunch of other people, and what’s happening in front of you is not happening, but you actually believe it is — if I can do that, I’ve done my job. And that’s the thing — that is a drug. That’s a drug. That’s something you get addicted to . . . If I don’t think I’m doing well, I’m unpleasant. That’s my neurosis, you know what I mean? If I don’t feel like I’m doing the job well, and I don’t know how to get there, or I’m too scared, or whatever, I’m not a happy guy and I’m not pleasant. I’m not pleasant to be around.”
And on why he initially quit drinking:
“I got sober when I was 22 years old . . . You get panicked. You get panicked. I was 22, and I got panicked for my life. It really was just that.”
From The Guardian, in 2011:
“Well, I think everyone struggles with self-love. That’s pretty much the human condition, you know, waking up and trying to live your day in a way that you can go to sleep and feel OK about yourself . . . I got to remember to not kill myself, not beat myself up, not get too worked up about it. There will be another film, there will be another relationship, or I’ll die and then I’ll be dead.”
From the Believer, in 2004, on his love of reading:
“Books . . . they’re kind of a compulsion for me. To find a great bookstore is a great thing. I like the Strand but I get lost in there. It’s frustrating for me. I end up walking out with, like, six books under my arm that I know I’m not going to be able to read anytime soon. It’s kind of that fantasy of what life will be like when I get older. All I’ll have time for is reading all the books that I’ve collected through my life.”
From Esquire, in 2012, on sharing experiences with other actors:
“What you go through with another actor in a good play or film, something that’s well-written and that means something deeply to both of you, is a very intimate thing. It’s like, I’m here for you, you’re here for me. And you’re silently pushing each other forward and up. You’ll never look at those people the same way again for the rest of your life. I can go ten years and not see Joaquin Phoenix or John Reilly [Hoffman’s co-star in the play “True West”] or Andrew Garfield [his co-star in “Death of a Salesman”], and then when I see them, the connection’s immediate — and that connection might be awkward — but it’s definitely going to be informed by the fact that we did something together that I’m not going to do with pretty much 99.99999 percent of people. Even people in my family.”
And on parenting:
“The thing I realized when I became a father is why parents stay and why they take off. The love you feel and the responsibilities you feel, I can see why some people go. They think, I’m never going to make this. Because it puts all of the heartbreaks you’ve had in your life in perspective. You’re like, Oh, I thought that was a broken heart. That’s been my experience. Now I’m sure there are some people whose relationships with kids are different. My kids are just, uh, they’re good. They’re just good kids, man.”
Thelma Adams, interviewing him at Sundance in 2002, about “Love Liza”:
“Grieving is not just sitting in the corner and crying. It’s the exact opposite. These people are actively trying to do something and what they are doing is active, human and alive, and ultimately lead to catharsis. To get there, a person has to do a lot of work.”
And on his non-normal life:
“Normal is an odd word. Living a somewhat healthy life that makes you happy at the end of the day is all right. But normal? Not Sundance, because the movie world doesn’t make you feel at ease at the end of the day.”
In Las Vegas Weekly, in 2005, on playing Truman Capote, and the subject of Capote’s homosexuality:
“What a burden. What an awful burden, you know what I mean? They’re people. I hope we’ve gotten past where we have to identify who the person is by their sexuality. That’s a good question, and I do think this movie is a typical example of, these are human beings going through a situation, a drama, and their sexuality and their leanings are a part of it, but they’re just a part of it. I would hope so, we’d be able to tell stories about gay men or straight men or gay women or whatever and focus on the person, and the fact that they’re gay is a part of who they are. You know it or you don’t, or whatever.”
From the A.V. Club, in 2010, on fame:
“Well, I do my best not to feed into any aspect of fame when it comes up. If I ever get a sense that if I say this or I do that, it could feed into that dynamic, I stay away from that. I think some people navigate the waters of being very well known very well, actually. But I actually just don’t even want to go there. And I think that has more to do with how I am as a person. I don’t like to be the center of attention; I really don’t think I’m that guy, and when I am, it’s for a reason. And I think part of it is that if you just keep attacking your day like you would no matter what, people start to get used to you. So I might be walking by a lot of people during the day, they’re like, ‘Oh! That’s Phil Hoffman!’ But if they keep seeing me walk by them all the time, they’re like, “Oh, Phil Hoffman.” It stops becoming important. So that’s why if I go to a different city, all of a sudden I’m reminded again. But in New York, or in Chicago, towns I’ve been in or mingled in enough, they see you and there you are, and hopefully you don’t run into the person from out of town. [Laughs.] Who doesn’t know you like that, and is just completely overwhelmed that they’re seeing you.”
From USA Today, last month at Sundance — where he was promoting “A Most Wanted Man” and “God’s Pocket” — on why he doesn’t always watch his movies with an audience:
“Because there are parts that come up and you’re like aw f - - k and you exude that energy in the audience. And then all of a sudden there’s something you like and you realize they didn’t like it. But yesterday, I really enjoyed the movie. I was just kind of caught up in [it]. I was like laughing, crying. I was reacting like I was just an audience member.”