Philip Seymour Hoffman Found Dead in NYC Apartment

[Keunert]

what a great actor he was.

about overpaid: i like overpaid acting more than overpaid sports or bankers.

[GDS_Starfury]

actually Clooney is a super laid back person.  Ive had friends work on his movies and according to them he completely lacks the attitude you might think he has.

[Staggerwing]

Supposedly he has developed pranking people around the sets into an art form.

[Grimnirsson]

Ah...this heroin shit...I mean what's the point...you sit there, knocked out with that nasty needle in your arm and one day they find you dead...wow...great. I never understood why folks find that so appealing to even think about starting with that drug. I even quit marijuana a loooong time ago and still enjoy my beer and whiskey - Bukowski knew it..."it's the thing" ;)

[mirth]

actually Clooney is a super laid back person.  Ive had friends work on his movies and according to them he completely lacks the attitude you might think he has.

I don't agree with Clooney's politics, but by all the accounts I've heard or read he is very easy going and good to the "little people" he works with. And as Stagger noted, he is a notorious prankster on set.

[bayonetbrant]

well good to hear then.  he just always comes across as a douche on other shows

[mirth]

well good to hear then.  he just always comes across as a douche on other shows

Listening to him talk about anything political makes my blood start to boil, but he's hardly the only performer I feel that way about.

[BanzaiCat]

Actors that become successful find it difficult to see the line. People pay money to see them act, not to hear the political horseshit that spills out of their mouths. When they become famous, they think people want to hear what they think. No, guys...they want to see you play a role.

SomethingAwful.com used to run a story or two from forum members that worked in the backlots with these guys. Some of them are indeed entitled douchebags while there are others you'd expect to be but are not. And then there's the really rare ones that are not only approachable but just good people in general, and if they have a different opinion than you do, they're respectful about it. One story went on for several parts, and she talked about sitting with Jim Carrey when he did Man On The Moon and what a trip it was to talk to him. One of our training managers used to work in L.A. doing power set-ups for films and he had an hour-long conversation with Jim Carrey about the Gulf War (he was a Marine before he came on board with our company, and Jim was apparently fascinated with this and asked him all kinds of questions).

Another story I heard involved Tom Hanks, who is a genuinely good guy too (I know, hard to believe). Someone I knew was an extra on one of his movies, and Hanks' assistant (maybe an assistant producer, who knows, they're all a bunch of little Hitlers for the most part), a total asshole, forbade ANYONE from making eye contact with Hanks or talking to him. Of course, everyone was righteously freaked out and scared of getting thrown off the set, so when Tom Hanks came in a little while later, he stood there quietly, looking at everybody, and when they looked up and saw he was staring at them, he said, "My assistant told you to not talk to me, right? Well, I FORBID you all to NOT talk to me." Instant tension relief.

I love reading about these kinds of stories. These actors that don't forget where they came from and where their success came from, and treat even set peons like normal human beings, get infinite more respect in my book, as well as my dollars at the movie theatre. I know they don't know me from any other dude, but treating people right goes a long, long way to making that set peon or extra feel like they're part of something, and gives them a great story to tell later.

The asshole actors, though...

[OJsDad]

Wow, he was only a year older than me.  I could have sworn he was 10+ years older.

[Gusington]

^Yeah I couldn't believe how young he was either.

[MetalDog]

Just read an article that said he was found with 50 bags of heroin and a paper cup with 20 used syringes!  My first thought was, "It's been planted!"  My second was, "Did he become a dealer?!?!!"

[BanzaiCat]

Nope, he was in some serious/major remission with his drug use. He might have been suicidal - I can't imagine ANYONE using that much and NOT expecting to die or caring if they live or not.

I knew how old he was, but when the family and I saw Catching Fire a few months back, I was shocked at how old he looked. I figured maybe they aged him for the role as Gamesmaster (or whatever it was he played), but then saw a pic of him online about that time and nope, that was him looking like a cranked-out meth user, he'd aged so much.

[mirth]

He was a talented, troubled individual, who unfortunately could not overcome his personal demons. That's hardly new in the course of human events. It doesn't give him a pass, but nor should it automatically make him a target of scorn and derision.

There but for the Grace of God, go I.

[Centurion40]

I will miss seeing him in movies.  He brought up the level of every movie he was in, or at least the ones that I saw.  Well, maybe not Mission Impossible III, but certainly everything else.

A reputable guy called into the Stern Show saying that he and his wife crossed paths with Hoffman the day before he died.  The guy said that he looked terrible, blank and totally f-ed up.  Based on what was found in his apartment, it seems clear that he didn't care if he died.

[MIGMaster]

He was a talented, troubled individual, who unfortunately could not overcome his personal demons. That's hardly new in the course of human events. It doesn't give him a pass, but nor should it automatically make him a target of scorn and derision.

There but for the Grace of God, go I.

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