# Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 25, 2003, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-as-truman-capote/221035 "2003-12-25T19:26:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2003, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-as-truman-capote/221035/1 "2003-12-25T19:26:02Z")
[Evidently](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0379725/) . Even more surprising: the writer of the piece is JUDGING AMY/BIRDCAGE/WILL&GRACE actor [Dan Futterman](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0001246/) . He’s a good actor and all, but I’d have gone with David Hyde Pierce (who could play the role until middle age with limited make-up, then don a fat suit) or Leonardo DiCaprio/Elijah Wood as the young Tru and then Bruce Vilanche or a mincing Danny DeVito as the older one. Ah well. If well done, it could be a good movie regardless of who plays him. I’d cast Jude Law (in black hair dye and tanned) as a bitchy young Gore Vidal (who will sue no matter who plays him), Winona Ryder & Bijou Philips as two of the Swans (take your pick), Harvey Feirstein as Truman’s mom (I wonder if he can do a southern accent?) and Jean Paul Belmondo as Andre Gide (whom Capote swore he boffed). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-as-truman-capote/221035/2 "2003-12-26T01:59:15Z")
I think Hoffman would be terrific in the part. Far better than your suggestions which, I hope and trust, were merely jokes. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-as-truman-capote/221035/3 "2003-12-26T03:05:57Z")
I think Hoffman is very underrated. He can definitely play the effeminate characteristics needed for a Capote. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-as-truman-capote/221035/4 "2003-12-26T04:01:01Z")
This is good news. Hoffman has had a lot of small parts in movies, and I’d always wanted to see him play a leading role. He lived up to my expectations in 2002’s _Love Liza_, and I think he’ll live up to them again playing one of my favorite authors of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-as-truman-capote/221035/5 "2003-12-26T04:28:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Exapno Mapcase \* > \*\*Far better than your suggestions which, I hope and trust, were merely jokes. \*\* Mostly they were, except for David Hyde Pierce and Elijah Wood. Pierce bares a striking resemblance to the transitional Capote (i.e. between twink and charicature) while Wood resembles the younger Tru. Much of Capote’s neurosis was that for the first half of his life (or more) [he](http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/1297/plimpton/jpgs/capote.photo2.jpg) [was](http://www.artstomp.com/echo/capote.html) [very](http://webs.demasiado.com/capote/alley.jpg) [attractive](http://www.louisiana-books.com/images/Capote.jpg) (albeit only if you like waifish young men) but fairly quickly morphed [into](http://contact.wlu.edu/images/capote.jpg) [the](http://www.minimumfax.it/foto/2001/12/capotes.jpg) [gay bulldog](http://www.jimmccrary.com/pages/page7/images/05capote.jpg) figure for which he’s better remembered. Hoffman’s a talented actor and “flaming queen” isn’t that difficult a performance, but I wonder if he can get the “former beauty” and truly brilliant even if coked up, silly and tormented qualities that made him such a complex man. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-as-truman-capote/221035/6 "2003-12-26T04:34:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Exapno Mapcase \* > \*\*Far better than your suggestions which, I hope and trust, were merely jokes. \*\* Mostly they were, except for David Hyde Pierce, Elijah Wood and Jude Law. Pierce bares a striking resemblance to the transitional Capote (i.e. between twink and charicature) while Wood resembles the younger Tru and Jude could be made into the .[young Vidal](http://www.pridevisiontv.com/column/21/vidal_l.jpg) fairly easily. Much of Capote’s neurosis was that for the first half of his life (or more) [he](http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/1297/plimpton/jpgs/capote.photo2.jpg) [was](http://www.artstomp.com/echo/capote.html) [very](http://webs.demasiado.com/capote/alley.jpg) [attractive](http://www.louisiana-books.com/images/Capote.jpg) (albeit only if you like waifish young men) but fairly quickly morphed [into](http://contact.wlu.edu/images/capote.jpg) [the](http://www.minimumfax.it/foto/2001/12/capotes.jpg) [gay bulldog](http://www.jimmccrary.com/pages/page7/images/05capote.jpg) figure for which he’s better remembered. Hoffman’s a talented actor and “flaming queen” isn’t that difficult a performance, but Tru is one helluva complex character- a “former beauty” gone to seed with great depth beneath great silliness and true brilliance even if drugs and bitterness and a long series of romantic disasters have withered him. Hoffman’s never been beautiful and doesn’t have the seepage of brilliance that a sober Capote had when he wasn’t “fagging it up” (his phrase) for the TONIGHT SHOW audience. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-as-truman-capote/221035/7 "2003-12-26T04:36:27Z")
Sorry for the double post- I meant to edit after previewing and accidentally posted. ---
**Author:** ![Rainbowthief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4bbf92/32.png) [@Rainbowthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rainbowthief)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-as-truman-capote/221035/8 "2003-12-26T07:28:46Z")
Hoffman already played an effeminate gay character in _Boogie Nights_ and he handled it well. He’s played very diverse characters in movies like _Owning Mahoney_ and _Punch-Drunk Love_ as well, so I feel he’s up to playing Capote. He’s a great actor who hasn’t had many leading roles yet because, as Sampiro pointed out, he’s “never been beautiful,” but the right people are catching on to the fact that he’s one of the ten, maybe five, best actors working today. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-as-truman-capote/221035/9 "2003-12-26T17:46:23Z")
The pictures you posted look a lot more like the younger Leo DiCaprio than Elijah Woods, but I just can’t imagine him as the older Capote. (I may just be prejudiced against Woods because of the visceral hatred I have of him from LotR, in which he plays Frodo as a 14-year-old boy instead of the 50-year-old that Frodo is in the book because Tolkien himself was that age at the time of writing.) There is no actor alive who could be both the young and old Capote. But Hoffman may be the best possible choice for the latter.