The
death of Philip Seymour Hoffman at 46 is a wrench, and pairing him with Streep
only makes it more painful. Unlike the diva who has played the hell out of
almost every famous woman in the civilized world, Hoffman was a blue-collar
actor who erased himself in performances that drew audiences in rather than
holding them at arm’s length to admire.
In
life as in art, there is often a steep price for authenticity that comes with
talent unprotected by powerful ego, and Hoffman apparently has been paying it
in a career of fifty films over a quarter of a century with prescription pills,
drugs and alcohol.
Whether
as a dim baseball manager in “Moneyball,” a compulsive gambling banker in “Owning
Mahowney” or a manic rock writer in “Almost Famous,” he was always doing so
much more than earning a paycheck.
As he
passes from the scene, I recall one of his last in a 2011 movie, “The Ides of March,” written, directed and starred in by George Clooney, playing a gross political
manager who is eventually done in by his passion for personal loyalty.
Playing
mano a mano with Paul Giametti, another actor who submerses himself in every
role, he brings life to what might have been just another cliché.
That’s
what Philip Seymour Hoffman was doing in every role he played in a brilliant and
regrettably shortened life.
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