Philip Hoffman Quotes (43 Quotes)

I have known Bennett a long time, ... I know a lot about him and he knows a lot about me, and I never doubted he would make the best film possible.

Hopefully the film answers that, ... It opens that can of worms, where people walk out and say, 'Wow, I can see why it would be hard for him to function again after that.'

Wow, I'm in a category with some great, great, great actors, fantastic actors, and I'm overwhelmed. Really overwhelmed.

I think I'm like any actor, most actors it's kind of inbred in you that you're never going to work again even if you are working a lot.

His ambition and his agenda. There was a kind of a ruthlessness, a driven-desire thing that was just exhausting for me to play. You could never kind of relax into a scene and just not care about what you wanted. He was always on point. He was driven.

That's about all I can tell, or they'll put me in jail.

He would probably be up here right next to me. I would say he would probably be critical because that was his life. And he'd probably point out all the things that were wrong, but he would also be happy that attention was being showered on him again. I think that was one of his character flaws.

I can take it When they came to my house to offer me the role I weighed 240 pounds or something. At the time, my girlfriend was pregnant and we were basically getting huge together.

If that stuff does transpire, I'm very excited. I think I would be more nerve-wracked or nervous if it was just about me as an actor, ... But it is more than that What if a ton of people saw this movie ... our first film Awards season can always help a film that way.

I'm very excited people are talking like that. I usually hide my feelings about things like the Oscars. But I believe in the film. Hell or high water, here we are, and people are actually going to see it, a lot more than we thought would, and they're responding the same way we felt about it. So I'm excited and I hope the film is still in theaters six months from now, and the Oscar buzz is only gonna help. I don't want it to go away. I want it to be in the theaters in May.

In Cold Blood. He just expired.

People thought they had me pegged because of the way I am, because of the way I talk, ... And they're always wrong.

Actors can't act alone. The only way to act well is when you know the other actor has your back. And these actors had my back and I hope they know that I had theirs.

That's what attracted me to it. I wasn't interested in doing it if it was just going to be about trying to portray Truman Capote and if I could be successful or not. It really was about the inevitability of a tragedy unfolding.

The screenplay was set up to tell a very true, simple, subtle, heart-wrenching tragedy, ... I knew that I had to be as human as possible, that it could never be clichd - it could never be mimicry. I feared all of those things. I was in terror a good week or two into the shoot.

If you have that kind of intimacy alongside ambition, ultimately it's going to leave an incredibly tragic impression on his psyche and spirit. He paid a huge price to write one of the great books of the 20th century. Capote didn't go to Kansas. Kansas reached out to New York and grabbed Capote. The minute he met Perry Smith, it was inevitable that these two men were going to die, one literally and one figuratively, because the identification they shared was too deep. The minute he got Perry to open up about his own life, and he learned they were both orphans, they were both abandoned children, he sees his muse, and that's the beginning of the end. Kansas sprung a trap on him.

I began to see that this wasn't simply an odd man, an odd writer. What he discovered writing 'In Cold Blood' embodies what a lot of people go through. He struggled with who he was.

Everything changed after that, ... He became consumed with the story, with success. He was never the same. Writing was never the same.

When I was playing him, ... I had to believe that it was worth it that he was doing what he was doing for the greater good. But maybe there were two crimes committed in this the murders and what Capote did.

To play a bad guy in an action movie is something I've never done, and I don't know if I'll ever do it again. So this is really that opportunity, and it's the perfect place to do it, perfect people to do it with.

There isn't, like, one formula, ... Everybody has their own way to go about it. Everybody is ultimately looking for that something that will spark their imagination, what will propel them forward with some passion to make the part work.

I would vouch for those two in the room with a very strong conviction. I was saying to the executives, 'If you believe in me, believe in them.' We kind of all went out on a limb together.

I thought, If we never get the money, we'll all be off the hook.

I have so much empathy for these young actors that are 19 and all of a sudden they're beautiful and famous and rich.

When I started studying him, then became semi-obsessed with him, I saw the parallels, ... In our ages, that we're both artists, in the price that's paid for going after something with complete focus, with blinders on. And the discovery that what you wish

Shooting began in November in and around Winnipeg, Canada, standing in for the farming community of Holcomb, Kan., where Perry Smith and Dick Hickok, in 1959, murdered all four members of the Clutter family. Capote ... We made this film in the context of little time, little money and an actor who was in anguish, because that's what the role calls for. The hardest thing was asking for a 16th take. And then asking for a 17th take. And then asking for an 18th take. Philip had his head in his hands, literally. The way this film was shot, the camera is unflinching in the way it scrutinizes Phillip. There was nowhere for him to hide.

You can't just work on the voice or work on how he walks or how he feels,

Miller's hesitation had to do with the sheer amount of stuff in the movie, stuff he thought would undercut what he calls its deeper aspects. ... the friendship we all had was actually very helpful, because we'd gotten past the getting-to-know-each-other period a long time ago. Sometimes it can go awfully wrong, but in this case it didn't.

These things happen from the top down, and from the top there was a sense of humor and a confidence and competence that you don't question.

It's ludicrous and I've been given enough. And I want to share this so badly with all the nominees. I can't tell you how fantastic these gentlemen are.

The film puts Hoffman under a microscope. I was drawn to the part because it shows Capote before he became a fool, ... It's a difficult line to walk. He starts the journey not knowing what is going to happen. It's a classic tragedy that has to unfold. I don't think he's aware of it. Something gets sparked and sets his imagination flying. He goes where it takes him. He needs to finish. He knows he will be a huge success. In the fourth and fifth year, he starts to want the two men dead. I didn't crucify him in my mind.

They came to my house and said here's the script, would you like to play Truman Capote

I do a play because I want to do this play. Someone once said to me, 'How can you take yourself off the market' ... I had no idea what he was talking about. This is what we do.

The guy was exhausting, ... Because every scene was different. He played every angle. He sat there, listening, but all the time thinking of what each person needed to make them open up. So there was never just one way to play each scene.

It was a daunting thing, when they came to my house and offered me the role. I weighed 240 pounds. At the time, my girlfriend was pregnant and we basically were beached whales together. And it was a long trip over time to get to a size that I could fit into these suits that he wore.

As a producer, as someone standing outside the film, we knew that the story wasn't going to shine (Capote) in the best of lights. What happens to him, and it's not pleasant, begins his downfall. This guy dies at 59, without writing another (long-form) book. So that's the story. We're just telling the tale of the events that got that ball rolling.

I don't think Capote knew exactly what he was setting himself up for. He said later if he'd known what was going to happen, he would have driven right through the town like a bat out of hell.

a self-awareness moment. All of a sudden everything he has done comes flashing into his mind, a self-criticism that is unbearable.

You know, I literally lost all control of my bowels up there. I couldn't think. I was swimming in my head. So I was lucky to get out what I got out.

Be proud, Mom, because I'm proud of you, and we're here tonight, and it's so good.

That's why the film works so well. You really have this sense that he's the one who committed the crime, and I think deep down inside, that's how he felt, too. That's something he could never come to terms with.

It was all that (drugs and alcohol), yeah. It was anything I could get my hands on ... I liked it all.

I went (to rehab), I got sober when I was 22 years old. You get panicked ... and I got panicked for my life.