Saw him first in SCENT OF A WOMAN with Al Pacino. I liked the way he played that part. Had a great cadence to his delivery that really set him apart. Played a great asshole.
Also liked him as the asshole in THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY. You really hated his character's asshole/arrogance and you wanted something bad to happen to him.
And my 3rd choice would be as the priest in DOUBT. He really wasn't playing an "asshole" here. An accused priest, a challenging role for any actor, he nailed it giving believable doubt to the truth of the character and what he may have or may not have done.
Please share your choices for favorite Philip Seymour Hoffman performances. Thanks.
The best actors are shrewd observers of human behaviour who can add some direction of their own, and this clearly applies to Hoffman. I like him as the perennial loser in Boogie Nights (and his own little bit of direction outshines anything PT Anderson has done, but that's imo of course), also as the hard-bitten CIA man in Charley Wilson's War.
Fine as the disgruntled second violin in A LATE QUARTET. The actors' fingering and bowing in that movie took some criticism, but it was good enough to fool the likes of me.
I thik he was amazing as (Truman) CAPOTE (2005). Capote himself was full of affectations in his speech and mannerisms, so it would have been "easy" to just cast an impersonator, at least on the surface. "Mike Yarwood IS Truman Capote!" Nah, Hoffman goes way beyond that. Of course it helped that the film was so good, or in other words I liked it at least.
Always liked him as an actor, good/great in most everything I've seen him in, but I would say my favourite is DOUBT, a compelling little film with some interesting ambiguity and a subtle, effective score by Howard Shore (one of my faves by him too).
Sadly, I will always remember him as well for that unintentionally hilarious scene from RED DRAGON where he's seen rolling along in flames in his wheelchair (in the background) like something out of the NAKED GUN series.
I thik he was amazing as (Truman) CAPOTE (2005). Capote himself was full of affectations in his speech and mannerisms, so it would have been "easy" to just cast an impersonator, at least on the surface. "Mike Yarwood IS Truman Capote!" Nah, Hoffman goes way beyond that. Of course it helped that the film was so good, or in other words I liked it at least.
I also greatly admired his work as Truman Capote. He physically wasn't right for the part at all, but he and the filmmaker's magic and talent made it work. Actor Toby Jones played the part in another film around that time or soon after and if you were just casting for physical resemblance, was perfect and he was quite good. Yes, that film was called INFAMOUS and it was basically the same story. I need to see it again. I always wondered if Hoffman hadn't played Capote and won an Oscar, Toby Jones' performance might have drawn more attention and accolades?
