Author: Emma Loggins
Date: 2009-04-19

Interview:


One of Hollywood's greatest character actors, Philip Seymour Hoffman, 41, won a Best Actor Oscar in 2006 for his role as Truman Capote in Bennett Miller's Capote. It's only as much as he deserved for a 17-year career that has seen him work with some of US cinema's finest auteurs - from Todd Solondz (Happiness) to David Mamet (State and Main), Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous) and Spike Lee (The 25th Hour). Most notably, he has worked with Paul Thomas Anderson four times (Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love), though the Rochester-born Hoffman has been in his fair share of mainstream films - from Twister to Along Came Polly and Mission: Impossible 3.

In his latest film, John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, from Miramax Films, he plays Father Flynn, a Brooklyn priest who is accused of inappropriate behavior with a pupil by a nun (Meryl Streep) at the Catholic School where they work. The film is something of a reunion for Hoffman, who already worked with Streep on Mike Nichols' 2001 stage version of Chekhov's The Seagull. He then went on to star with Amy Adams, who plays good-hearted nun Sister James, in Nichols' 2007 film Charlie Wilson's War, for which he received the second Oscar nomination of his career. Below he discusses what it was like to reunite with old friends, and how he feels since winning an Oscar turned him into a celebrity.

You've worked on stage with Meryl Streep before, on The Seagull. Was this very different?

Philip Seymour Hoffman: It's different because you're shooting a film, but I think our enjoyment of working together was similar. I was younger then, and I just met her, so we were getting to know each other. And I've known her since then. I've worked with her again and seen her outside of that environment, so it was different because we were older, so it was more of a peer situation. Still, it's Meryl Streep. She's heading the ship. You get a lot from her. I take her lead. I bring all I bring. She's going to give me a lot, so I know that. I'm very affected by what she's doing.

You've also worked with Amy Adams before on Charlie Wilson's War. How is she?

Philip Seymour Hoffman: She opens you up. She makes you true. Amy's great. I'd work with her in a heartbeat.

Did you find out anything surprising about the priests you met in the course of your research?

Philip Seymour Hoffman: Nothing was surprising. I just went to learn about what they do. What things meant. The history in '64, the changes in the church. They're people... I didn't go into it past running mass, and sermons and what they're wearing and what they're doing. I didn't get into it past that, and the history, because there was no need to.

It shows them as quite fun-loving compared to the nuns...

Philip Seymour Hoffman: Well, for that half-hour that they're eating. People are always like, 'They're partying!' and I'm like, 'Well, they're having dinner!' They could be done in fifteen minutes and all go to bed. I don't know how much gallivanting they do, after having dinner.