Philip Seymour Hoffman

“Great art is about conflict
and pain and guilt and longing and love.”
—Lester Bangs in Almost Famous

IT BEGAN the moment the film screened at the Telluride Film Festival on Sep. 2, 2005. Oscar buzz. By the time Capote played at the Toronto International Film Festival a week later, the buzz had become a roar. Philip Seymour Hoffman burst to the forefront of a pack of worthy Oscar contenders (Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain and Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line) that, in any other year, would’ve dominated festival chatter. When the film opened on Sep. 30, reviewers proclaimed Hoffman’s nomination a “foregone conclusion” and “all but coronated” him Best Actor.

On the morning of Dec. 13, the noise reaches a new pitch. Hoffman, appearing on the Today Show, learns of his Golden Globe nomination. Asked for his on-the-spot reaction, the actor fumbles for words. “It’s…” He raises his eyebrows. “It’s…” He shuffles in his seat, chuckling. “I just heard. It’s sinking in.” Award season has begun in earnest.

A few hours later, when he sits down to talk with Paste, Hoffman appears relaxed, though his hair is a bit disheveled from the knit cap keeping the blustery weather at bay. We’re in a sterile conference room in a photography studio, but he’s near his West Village neighborhood and seems eager to discuss his craft without being constrained to the sound bites, quips and personal anecdotes that don’t come easy for him. It’s a respite from a day of national TV appearances and abrupt phone calls to answer that mandatory question: How does it feel?

“The press, the media—it’s a whole other world. It’s crazy,” he says. “It’s different than anything I’ve experienced, for sure. The further I get into it, it’s a whole other thing. You really don’t know what you’re feeling about it. … You do get a little lost.”

GETTING LOST IN HIS CHARACTERS is something the 38-year-old actor has excelled at for 15 years in more than 35 films. Until recently, he’s played mostly supporting roles, but that hasn’t stopped him from leaving indelible marks on audiences and critics. His big break came when he was pulled from his deli-counter job in 1992 to play opposite Al Pacino and Chris O’Donnell in Scent of a Woman. He’d never again have to make sandwiches to pay the bills. While he went on to play significant roles in blockbusters Twister and Patch Adams, Hoffman earned notoriety for his portrayal of wildly idiosyncratic characters—from the gauche assistant hitting on Mark Wahlberg’s Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights and the forlorn masturbating phone stalker in Happiness to the transgender singer in Flawless. In 2002, Hoffman finally stepped into his first lead role with Love Liza, and the next year he followed with the titular lead in Owning Mahowny. There’s not a lackluster performance in the lot. “He’s ridiculously fun to watch,” enthuses director Cameron Crowe, who cast Hoffman as his mentor Lester Bangs in Almost Famous. “Hoffman has a mighty instinct for what makes people live, breathe, move and, most of all, think. It’s all there in his performances, with no strings showing.”