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There Are Characters In Movies Who I Call 'film Characters.' They Don't Exist In Real Life. They Exist To Play Out A Scenario. They Can Be In Fantastic Films, But They Are Not Real Characters; What Happens To Them Is Not Lifelike.

-Philip Seymour Hoffman

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There Are Characters In

Philip Seymour Hoffman

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There Are Characters In Movies Who I Call 'film Characters.' They Don't Exist In Real Life. They Exist To Play Out A Scenario. They Can Be In Fantastic Films, But They Are Not Real Characters; What Happens To Them Is Not Lifelike.

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My Mum's Name Is Marilyn O'connor. She's Here Tonight And I Would Like If You See Her For You To Congratulate Her Because She Brought Up Four Kids Alone And She Deserves Congratulations For That.

Congratulations

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No One Wants To Be Pretentious About What They Do Or Take It Seriously, Because That Is Just Weird.

I Like To Come To The Set With Very Strong Ideas And Strong Opinions About How To Do Things. And I Like Also Dealing With Somebody Who's Like That.

When You're Acting, You're Subjective; When You're A Director, You're More Objective.you're Kind Of Watching From The Outside And Helping Others, And Therefore I Learn My Mistakes Through Others, And Also My Assets Through Others.

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My Soul Is In Good Shape.

The Weight Comes Off, You Know? If You Stop With The Bread And The Pie, It Really Does. It Really Works.

The Film Is Made In The Editing Room. The Shooting Of The Film Is About Shopping, Almost. It's Like Going To Get All The Ingredients Together, And You've Got To Make Sure Before You Leave The Store That You Got All The Ingredients. And Then You Take Those Ingredients And You Can Make A Good Cake - Or Not.

I Think I Would Have Drank Myself To Death, Literally, If I Didn't Just Stop, Once And For All When I Did. I Am Not Ever Going To Preach To Anyone About Drugs Or Drinking. But, For Me, When They Were Around, I Had No Self Control.

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I Have A Fine Level Of Recognition In The Business And Among The Acting Community Now, So I Consider Myself One Of The Lucky Ones. If I Didn't Think That, There Would Be Something Wrong With Me. I'm Grateful And Thankful For What I've Got.

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Well, In The Theater, I Think You're Actually More Responsible For What Is Going On Onstage As A Director Than You Are In Film.

If I'm Directing Actors, I Learn About Acting That Way. If I'm Acting, I Learn About Directing That Way. Producing Is Just Something That's Come About Because There's Projects I Find Interesting That I Would Like To Help Get Done.

Sometimes I Have A Great Day Of Filming And Sometimes The Theater Strikes Me Better. It Just Depends.

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Sometimes I'm Uncomfortable With The Level Of Fame I've Got! It All Depends On The Day And What's Going On. I Don't Desire Any More Fame. I Don't Need It.

There Are A Lot Of Things Going On With My Life Right Now That Don't Just Have To Do With Career. So I Have A Hard Time Making Decisions About Work. That's Really A Luxury Problem.

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Acting's Difficult For Me Because I Think You Have To Be Passionately Involved In What You're Doing.

When You're Playing Someone Who Really Lived, You Carry A Burden, A Burden To Be Accurate. But It's One That You Have To Let Go Of Ultimately.

Playing Someone

We Really Enjoy That, Having A Relationship With Writers, Developing Material And Getting A Director, Actors, That We Have Kind Of That Family Kind Of As A Group We're Going To Do It Together Mentality In A Project. Then The Tough Part Is - So What Actually Goes Has Very Little To Do With Us Sometimes.

I Had Insecurities And Fears Like Everybody Does, And I Got Over It. But I Was Interested In The Parts Of Me That Struggled With Those Things.

Insecurity And Fear

People Actually Live With Their Id Exposed. They're Not Good At Concealing What's Going On Inside.

I Didn't Really Buy Lps Or Go To Concerts.

For Me, Acting Is Torturous, And It's Torturous Because You Know It's A Beautiful Thing. I Was Young Once, And I Said, That's Beautiful And I Want That. Wanting It Is Easy, But Trying To Be Great - Well, That's Absolutely Torturous.

The Film Is Made In The Editing Room.

My Mother's A Staunch Feminist, So I Grew Up With Very Strong Feminist Messages. As A Result, I Battled Her In My Teenage Years Because My Image Of Being A Man Was A Deformed One.

The Strange Thing Is I Never Thought I'd Do Films.

[truman Capote] Was Not Only Just Selling His Writing, But He Was Selling Himself As A Person.

I Got Into Plays In High School Then I Ended Up Going To College For It.

Plays Never Feel Like The Right Thing To Do At The Time.

My Mum Is Incredibly Intelligent.

I Think I'm Less Anonymous Than I Was.

My Ideal Weight Is 205, Actually.

If I Was A Little Bit Younger I Would Worry More. I'd Want To Do One Thing At A Time But Now I Try To Do A Bunch Of Different Things At A Time If I Can.

My Love For The Theater Has Always Been A Priority. That Hasn't Changed. I Got Into Acting That Way. The Film Work That Came Up Was Really A Surprise.

Vanity Is Something That Will Only Get In The Way Of Doing Your Best Work, And Ultimately If You're Truly Vain You Care More About Your Work Than How You Look In Your Work. I Actually Consider Myself A Pretty Vain Guy When It Comes To That.

If You Get A Chance To Act In A Room That Somebody Else Has Paid Rent For, Then You're Given A Free Chance To Practice Your Craft.

I Think You Gotta Have An Honesty And A Humility About Human Nature And That It's Not About You At The End Of The Day.

Why You Do Something Is Always Kind Of A Mystery To Me.

There Is No Pleasure That I Haven't Actually Made Myself Sick On.

When You See The Carrot At The End Of The Stick, What Do You Do To Get It? These Kinds Of Things That Come Up, That Come Up In The Story Of Capote Writing "in Cold Blood," And When You See The Movie, You'll See What I'm Talking About.

I'm Probably More Personal When I'm Acting Than At Any Other Time. More Open, More Direct. Because It Allows Me To Be Something That I Can't Always Feel Comfortable With When I'm Living My Own Life, You Know? Because It's Make-believe.

There's Things That You Don't Want To Do And They Keep Haunting You And Following You. Bennett Miller Directed This Project [capote], Who Is A Friend Of Mine Since I Was 16, And Danny Futterman Wrote It, And He's Also Been A Friend Of Mine Since I Was 16.

I Try Not To Plan That Too Much.

My Image Of Jesus Is Someone Who Is Exciting...were He Alive Today, He Would Be Causing Havoc!

Don't Let People Treat You Like A Cigarette, They Only Use You When They're Bored And Step On You When They're Done. Be Like Drugs, Let Them Die For You.

I Know I Wasn't As Handsome As Some Other Guys, But I Was Ok With That.

Something That Could Bring You Wealth And Fame Could Also Be Your End, Your Undoing.

Frankly, I Get Much More Sensitive About What's Written About Me Than How I Look In A Photo. I'm So Used To People Seeing My Image In Plays And Films That What They Think About How I Look Is None Of My Business. If They Says, "hey, He Doesn't Look Good," I'm Like, Whatever, Because I Know I Look Different From Day To Day. But If You're Up There Putting Your Heart Into Something And People Reject Your Performance, That's Very Painful. The Written Word Can Kick Your Ass.

I Think You Should Be Serious About What You Do Because This Is It. This Is The Only Life You've Got.

I Know That Obviously, That If You Want To Get The Story, If You Want To Get Close To Somebody, If You Want To Find Out What Is Really The Truth Or What's Really Interesting, You Have To Create A Trust Between These Two Things, Between The Journalist And The Subject.

Films Are Always A Fiction, Not Documentary. Even A Documentary Is A Kind Of Fiction.

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