by Sarah Hepola
It’s 10:48pm, and your narrator has just woken from a monster nap. Settle in, she’s got a lot to share: About possums, Austin indie film dudes, Scientology, the death of River Phoenix, but most of all, about the astonishing film canon of Philip Seymour Hoffman. The actor died of a heroin overdose in 2014, but for a variety of reasons, your narrator never really mourned his death, nor acknowledged the loss to cinema. Thus she recently began the Philip Seymour Hoffman Film Festival (for One).
We comb through Hoffman’s mighty canon: From the lovelorn schlub of Boogie Nights to the rich-boy villain of The Talented Mr. Ripley to the button-down yes-man of The Big Lebowski to the flamboyant female impersonator of Flawless. Hoffman was nearly peerless in his ability to shape-shift and inhabit a role, thanks to his everyman looks in an industry of dreamy heartthrobs and the subtle way he could act between the lines. Also discussed: The suicide of David Foster Wallace, Sam Shepard and True West, booze addiction, heroin, and your narrator’s life as a drug prude. Anyway, this somehow became longer than an actual Philip Seymour Hoffman movie.
You were warned: Longest Smoking Diary ever!
ATTENTION: There will there be an IRL Smoke ‘Em meet-up this Sunday, April 23 in NYC, starting at 6pm. Details coming soon for paid subscribers.
Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em Podcast to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
