“Different from anything I’ve ever done before”: when Philip Seymour Hoffman took a left turn and stole the show
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(Credit: Alamy)
Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of the greats – a truly versatile, thoughtful and electric performer who is the literal definition of a scene stealer. No matter what project he is in, you can guarantee that even his small moments will make you feel something bigger than anything else that came before it; you hear one line of dialogue from him and forget that you were watching a movie with other actors. It suddenly becomes his film. Whether it be his larger-than-life capturing of the legendary but slightly sad music critic Lester Bangs, or his portrayal of Eddie Adams, a weedy and endearingly pathetic porn star or the role of Caden, a withering playwright committed to directing his best and final piece of work, forever stuck in a cycle of procrastination and fear of obsoletion that prevents him from ever fulfilling his dream.
All this is to say, Hoffman is an actor you can’t predict, constantly swinging from polar opposites and never letting the audience grow comfortable in their perception of him as a performer. And for someone famous for supporting roles in independent projects, it was all the more surprising when he took on the role of the villain in Mission Impossible 3, something that was also surprising to Hoffman himself.
To set the scene on why Hoffman’s work on this film was such a left-field choice, it would be the equivalent of someone like Franz Rogowski working on a Top Gun movie. However, the third instalment of Mission Impossible was directed by JJ Abrams, which Hoffman said was a huge part of the appeal of working on such a project. After creating a huge name for himself through his work on Star Wars and Star Trek, it’s not surprising that an actor would be drawn towards the iconicity of the types of projects that Abrams was working on.
Hoffman stated: “It was something different from anything I’ve ever done before. I actually had a really good time doing it. I’d never played a villain like that, and I thought this was the opportunity, as I thought the director JJ Abrams would do it well. Of course, it’s a pure entertainment movie, but there’s nothing wrong with that, if you feel its actually going to be entertaining and I had a feeling people were going to like this.”
Hoffman’s work on Mission Impossible is perhaps what added a new dimension to his carefully honed career, as being a part of an established canon within mainstream cinema made him more well-known among wider audience members who might not have been well-versed in the goings-on of independent cinema.
While movie lovers, critics and cinephiles are very aware of his effortless and seamless performances in the work of Paul Thomas Anderson and Charlie Kaufman, the decision to work on what is ultimately a blockbuster film is an interesting choice that adds the final piece to the puzzle – a filmography of scene-stealing moments that ranges from action movies to coming-of-age pieces, existentialist and surrealist horrors to deadpan dramedies.
Perhaps this decision is what elevates a good actor to being one of the greats. To be unpredictable and surprising, to never be labelled or stuck in a box, and to constantly redefine your body of work so that your creativity can touch all corners of cinema.
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