A while back, I mentioned how I had mixed up the actor who played Truman Capote in Infamous, Toby Jones, with Philip Seymour Hoffman. I thought it was PSH in Infamous, and was amazed at how the actor was able to pull off Capote’s mannerisms and affect. Moreover, I was amazed at how little he seemed physically. PSH seems to a fairly big man; in Along Came Polly he seemed a bit of a big, overweight lummox. I even wondered if they were using giant furniture and props to make him seem small. Well it turns out I wasn’t as addle-brained as I thought. Hoffman did play Capote in the other recent biopic, Capote. I came across the DVD for $5 in the grocery store the other day (In a grocery store! $5! Too freaking much! The ground over in Westwood must be quaking, as TC whirls in his grave). We watched it last night. And I have to say it is pretty amazing how PSH pulled it off. Maybe not so much the physical smallness, but he certainly did manage the character pretty well. Maybe by this point the expected behavior and appearance of TC has become an exaggeration or caricature of the real person, but it was still pretty amazing.
Dude, not being aware that there were two films about Truman Capote released in relatively close succession, both about the period when he was researching and writing In Cold Blood, doesn’t speak well about your mad obersvational skillz.
ETA: I agree that Philip Seymour Hoffman pulled off the Capote impersonation very well. You are aware that we won the Oscar for that portrayal, right?
It never occurred to me they would do that. Of course now that I think about it, they did it with Tombstone/Wyatt Earp, too.
ETA: I agree that Philip Seymour Hoffman pulled off the Capote impersonation very well. You are aware that we won the Oscar for that portrayal, right?
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Actually I don’t follow the awards too closely, so I didn’t know. But it’s always a pleasure to learn that someone’s a good actor, since it gives you something to look for when picking a movie. From Along Came Polly I thought he was just a sort of clown/best friend/sidekick supporting character type of actor, but he’s much better than that.
Yes. Philip Seymour Hoffman can act. Quite well.
They do it for a lot of stories. There’s even a separate thread currently about duplication of movies.
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A friend of mine in New York dated PSH for a while before he got famous. However, she discovered he was likely to dump her when he wouldn’t take her to any openings, etc. He did. (She’s happily married now to someone else…)
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He was around a long time before Along Came Polly…
In which case, congratulations to the both of you. 
We’d like to thank the Academy…
Oh god, hie thee to a video store and rent or buy (they’re worth it) his 1-2-3 knockout punch movies of 2007.
Charlie Wilson’s War
The Savages
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Then, hunt up these fine films:
Boogie Nights
Punch-Drunk Love
Almost Famous
Magnolia
The Talented Mr. Ripley
State and Main
There are more (many I haven’t seen myself yet), but yeah, he’s been around for a LONG time, and is one of our finest actors, and does well in both big and small roles.
He’s got a couple of good ones coming up later this year. The dramedy Synecdoche, New York is the first movie written AND directed by Charlie Kaufman, and in the drama Doubt, he stars as an abusive priest, opposite Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Right now he’s filming The Boat That Rocked which seems to be a fictional version of the story of the UK’s Radio Caroline (an illegal radio station that operated from a ship in the North Sea during the '60’s & '70’s).
You missed two of his (all too infrequent) leading roles:
Owning Mahowny and
Love Liza
Both are excellent, though downbeat, movies. Love Liza is particularly miserable.
don’t forget flawless with deNiro, and a smallish role in next stop wonderland. I think he’s one of the best actors working today
…and of course, Mission:Impossible III…
…what?
Ah, wouldn’t you know, Owning Mahowny, Love Liza, Flawless and Next Stop Wonderland are movies of his that I haven’t seen. I also haven’t seen Along Came Polly, or, come to think of it, MI III.