No, you probably don’t. But Hoffman’s got such a strong track record with audiences that you could see some fans turning down a day in the sun to spend an afternoon watching one of his movies–even one about a widower who, just a few days into his grieving, gets addicted to sniffing gasoline. “Love Liza” features Hoffman in yet another of the great character roles that have become his signature.
Think over his oeuvre. He’s played an awkward production assistant on a porno set in “Boogie Nights,” a masturbating phone stalker in “Happiness,” a drag queen in “Flawless,” an arrogant rich kid in “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” a gonzo rock critic in “Almost Famous” and, just this year, an unctuous newspaper columnist in “Red Dragon” and an unscrupulous phone-sex entrepreneur in “Punch-Drunk Love.”
“He’s just gotten better and better over the years,” says director Paul Thomas Anderson, who cast Hoffman as the lovesick film lacky who plants one on Mark Wahlberg’s Dirk Diggler in “Boogie Nights.” “Most actors get great and stay there, and I think Phil keeps rising.” Did Hoffman always plan to become the king of the colorful supporting role? “No,” he says, “but I was very conscious of creating characters, and I didn’t want to repeat myself. I just wanted to play different roles and to work with good scripts and good directors.”
The script for “Love Liza” came from his older brother, Gordy Hoffman, who first handed it to him in 1996. It took four years to get the financing together for the film, which begins when Hoffman’s character, Wilson Joel, finds a suicide note from his dead wife in a sealed envelope. “It’s the first two months of someone grieving, and the very distinctive path he takes toward the next phase of his life,” says the actor, whose character carries the unopened letter with him for the entire film. “It’s one of the most creative and insightful stories I’ve ever read about the topic.”
In the 35-year-old’s other upcoming movie, Hoffman again plays a man going through a life change. Spike Lee’s “25th Hour” features Edward Norton as a guy who, the day before he goes to jail for seven years, makes an effort to connect one last time with those around him. Hoffman plays Jakob Elinsky, a close friend with whom Norton’s character has lost touch–and who himself seems adrift. He’s teaching English at his old high school, where he’s tortured by both a crush on a 17-year-old student and his fears about taking on the responsibilities of adulthood. “He’s stuck in the past and not a very courageous fellow,” says Hoffman. “It’s a great thing to look at because it goes on around us all the time.”
A film about transition, “25th Hour” is also noteworthy because it’s set in a distinctly post-9-11 New York. While the characters only refer to the World Trade Center attacks a few times, it’s clear that their lives have been affected. “Spike does a very powerful thing, which reinforces the story well,” the actor says. In Hoffman’s eyes, the movie’s theme is, “If there’s a time, it’s now … and how hard it is for humans–even when something like 9-11 happens–how hard it is to change whatever needs to be changed.”
If Hoffman speaks more like a theater actor than a movie star, it’s because he was trained on the stage and always doubted he’d make it in film. He grew up in Rochester, N.Y., where he played Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman” at age 16, and then studied drama at New York University. After graduation, Hoffman moved to Los Angeles, where his first big break came with a small but striking role as a sniveling prep school student in 1992’s “Scent of a Woman.” “I was 24 years old and I’d just been kicking around, auditioning for films for a couple of years, and doing theater and stuff,” he recalls. “It was a very big part for someone like me to get.”
No longer forced to wait tables, Hoffman worked pretty steadily in film for the next few years. And ever since “Boogie Nights” came out in 1997, he’s been cast in incredibly diverse parts–though he’s been featured in a leading role only a couple of times (there was “Flawless,” now there’s “Love Liza”). “The second banana [thing] is growing a bit tired for me,” says director Anderson. “I would have to be guilty of writing supporting parts for Phil myself, but now that he has a bit of clout and an enormous amount of respect in the film business, he can take charge and create jobs for himself.”
Hoffman’s currently shooting an untitled romantic comedy with Ben Stiller in Los Angeles, and next summer he’ll star as Jamie Tyrone in a Broadway revival of “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” In the meantime, he’s hoping to find some time to get to the movies over the holidays. The actor thinks it’s going to be a great month. “I saw ‘Adaptation’ and thought it was really great. I saw ‘Far From Heaven,’ which was fantastic. I saw ‘Bowling for Columbine,’ which was brilliant,” he says. “I know there’s going to be like five to 10 movies this year that I’m probably going to say are really great. I don’t know what those people in the awards system are gonna do.” Whatever they do, they’ll certainly be doing it with Hoffman in mind.
