hey you guys welcome to what the flick
we're gonna talk about Philip Seymour
Hoffman who died over the weekend which
was just devastating to all of us and
anybody who ever saw any film that he
was in and I was sort of taken aback by
I mean it's horrible the way he died I
was taken aback by the reaction not just
from people in our world but everybody I
know had some movie they loved him in he
was so versatile he has such depth of
talent it's just I'm still so bummed
about this yeah I feel like it's
exaggerating to say that he was one of
the great American actors of this
generation I mean you look at his IMDB
page just a roster of stuff I mean you
know I think like a lot of people I sort
of meant I'm gonna learn that guy's name
when I saw Boogie Nights but then I
realized no way I'd seen him and twister
I'd seen him in and nobody's fool and
you know all these other films said of a
woman you know and just so you know
either the famous speech that we talked
about is the the uncool speech from from
almost famous and uncool is some of the
best stuff that Hoffman had to offer I
mean he was so not concerned about
looking good on screen or being nice or
being liked and called up such a sort of
emotional nakedness that anybody could
relate to because anytime that you know
you've been at your most vulnerable or
your or your worst or things that you
regret or things that you wish has gone
differently that's what he would put
into a performance and you would see it
made manifest in a way that was so brave
and so human and relevant and meaningful
and just you know I I he was one of my
favorite living actors and I'm just
devastated that we're not going to get
another 30 years of work from humanity
to the creeps and the freaks and the
outcasts people who we wouldn't want to
look at but you he made you want to know
more about you know more so than yes
true but more so than creeps and freaks
and outcasts just regular people you
ignore you know like just that they
weren't they didn't have to be freakish
it's almost easier to play freaks than
it is to play the guy who you see every
other average he he made average I
thought really interesting and and I I
listened to a
a couple of our rat excuse me a couple
interviews with directors who would work
for them a bunch and they were such
similarity in the way they described
things about how they'd have a way to
play a scene camera crow would have an
idea of how he wanted a scene played and
and and Hoffman would do something so
completely different without you know he
didn't say he just did it right and he
was always willing to take the take
direction but did it so completely
differently any and and crow would say
and you were like that didn't it wasn't
in the range of ways I thought it could
be done and it's so clearly what were
what we're going the the actor James
Urbaniak wrote a really great piece it's
online I forget where but it's easy to
Google where he talked about what he
learned from losing a role to Philip
Seymour Hoffman and it was it was
auditioning for something like one-act
play and it was like the character was
like a troll in the closet and he sorted
in a certain way and then he watched
Hoffman do it was like it I didn't even
think of doing it you know he's
extraordinary I you know it's it's
shocking to lose someone like that
because yes like we kind of knew that
he'd gone back into rehab and he was
having he had he was a pretty private
guy it hadn't been huge news and it's
you know when we do what we do like you
hear about somebody dying a celebrity
dying or an actor or someone and you
know there are certain people that take
you off guard and and like you said it's
someone that you wanted to see another
30 years of it it would be you know akin
to loot you know and God forbid this
happens you know like Paul Giamatti
right I mean I look back on what Hoffman
was doing and you kind of see what would
have happened if we hadn't lost John
because Ailey so early right I mean it's
I feel like Hoffman was doing very
similar to what Kazan II was doing in
that he would play these characters that
that other actors might make loathesome
and bring a humanity to them you know
cuz a Lee makes Fredo a real person in
The Godfather movies and it would be
easy somebody could come in and play
Fredo and and just make him like oh he's
a joke right and it's you know and
that's what Hoffman could do I think
often you know at his best would take a
lot of characters that you would be
throwaway characters and he would bring
a
humanity to them you know and I know
that that's cliche to say but it was it
was something that would improve any
movie he was in just by his presence in
the Oscar doc that's running on TCM now
there's a nice quote in the
screenwriting section from a nice sound
bite in the screenwriting section from
Clooney who says look at all you know it
starts with a screenplay if you don't
have a good screenplay you can't make a
good movie it's never happened he said
it's never there's never been a good
movie made from a bad screenplay and I
obviously I don't really disagree with
that but Hoffman seemed to pull so many
movies out of just complete at the bare
minimum ordinariness with something that
you know like a movie I didn't really
like Wallace came Polly
like a long Came Polly like pirate radio
which maybe you guys liked but I you
know I but like but you can't but he's
so good in it that you you know and then
they're movies that that made them I
among my favorite movies a year movies
like Charlie Wilson's War and there's so
many times that my memory is if Charlie
Wilson's War which I'll watch again I'm
sure in the coming weeks but where he
doesn't speak and I don't where there's
a pot like I feel like that guy got
pausing better than anybody because it
was like you know sometimes when actors
recite lines you get the sense that
they're reciting them because they were
ready for them and he seemed to be doing
what I do all the time and what so many
of us do which is wait what do I what's
the word I'm looking for what am I
trying to say and how do I say it well
and quickly like this Hunger Games
sequel right right he's in a few scenes
but the half-dozen the scenes maybe as
the game's maker and everyone talks
about oh that great moment where he's
dancing with Jennifer Lawrence and the
unexpected choices he makes there but
the scene where he tells Davos other
Linley what the game plan should be it's
in this deadpan kind of monotone and
it's chilling like it's hilarious but
also frightening at the same time so he
can give gravitas a word that I like a
lot to a movie like The Hunger Games you
know absolutely a big action movie
you know he can play like sort of oily
you know creepy guys but you can also
play kind of rich preppies you know he
put on a baseball uniform in Moneyball
and totally all of that you know
before the devil knows you're dead a
movie I love that not enough people saw
Synecdoche New York which is like one of
my favorite films about the last you
know that's 20 years I missed it man I
couldn't figure it out I was baffled by
it and made me feel stupid
right so and now I feel like I have to
see it because so many people talked
about it after he died and and I you
know and I I got I knew as I was seeing
it that I was missing it like I got like
this is not terrible it's just terrible
for someone but now in retrospect like
the intertwining of our in death and
have they're both tormenting it seems
very poignant I'm blanking on the name
what's the movie where he's the gambler
the banker that's got the gambling
problem and I don't have you we weren't
interesting to look at that isn't
amazing performance from him yeah like
just to see a guy drowning in his
addiction for this often directed Jack
goes boating which I thought was a
really strong first film you know he
took a play and opened it up in a way
that was very organic it didn't feel
forced for really strong performances
his included I would have loved to have
seen more of him behind the camera I
like I remember I dug up my review of
the DVD when it came out and I sort of
and I complained about the fact there
was no director commentary it's like
like you know I feel like I don't know
and this is totally anecdotal but my
sense is is that that you mentioned I
and I and I think there was a personal
there was a little bit of a slow reveal
reaction to his death like first it was
all this young actors very talented and
then is that and maybe honestly maybe
cuz it was the Super Bowl you know but
and as the days went on it was like oh
no wait he mattered more than we had
even acknowledged that and I you you
read about the way other actors talk
about dick to me to people stand out and
obviously I haven't there are more but
like I don't know that I've ever read
actor
as respectful of any two people as
Daniel day-lewis and Philip Seymour
often the way they talked about having
worked with him how it was like it's a
different game when they're in it and
and you know so I'm not saying they were
the two greatest but they're like that's
the it's a it's a pretty small group
that's in a that can be included in a
conversation with Daniel day-lewis when
you're talking about how other actors
respect what they did ya know David were
talking about this and we sort of took
the entity Louis a lot of the Brits out
of the conversation but as far as
American actors for me and for this
generation its Hoffman and Giamatti
they're the guys and and now we've lost
one but on Twitter it's impossible to
pick one how do you mean you know I
because I love the Nike New York so much
and I think that he runs such a gamut
and and and it has to walk such a tight
wire in it that's the movie that I've
been kind of pointing people to but yeah
you know there's there's 20 movies that
you could point to they're like these
extraordinary Hoffman work I would say
maybe the master sure it is so
frightening and commanding but again
like he's great a muggy night he's great
and again flawless like what he doesn't
flawless and takes that character out of
the cliche oh yeah doesn't deserve him
there's a lot of movies that didn't
deserve yeah and and he makes them
legitimate right and you know and and
almost miss you know there's not much
there I mean it's small but it's great
or whatever great thanks