Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) and two-time Oscar nominee Laura Linney team up for the dramatic film, The Savages. Hoffman and Linney play siblings forced into dealing with their father's living situation after his partner dies and he's diagnosed with dementia.
The Appeal of The Savages: Hoffman says it was all about the script. “The script had been given to me a few years ago and then it kind of went away, made it with another company, came back, Laura [Linney] was with it by that point. I just loved the script. I was always attracted to it. I always wanted to do it so I was glad it came back around.”
Hoffman revealed it usually takes more than reading just a few pages of a script before he knows whether or not he’s interested in a role. “ The scripts that you read, in the first 10 pages you go, ‘Wow that’s really good’ and then by page 50 you’re like, ‘Whoa. Wait. Nope.’ That happens. So it’s good to read the whole thing. That’s a plus. That’s a good thing to do. And then even then you might know you want to play it. But the older you get, there’s a lot of things that go into the decisions you make.”
The Subject Matter: Hoffman’s been very fortunate and thus far has not had to deal with placing an elderly relative in a rest home. “Both my parents are still alive so I haven’t had to deal with that,” explained Hoffman. “But I am, of course, dealing with aging parents and they’re dealing with aging children and we’re all aging, and isn’t that beautiful?”
Some of the scenes were filmed in working retirement homes, and the cast did get the chance to speak with residents of the facilities. “We talked to them, but not about the film. We just talked to them. I didn’t ignore them. ‘Don’t talk to the old people.’ No, of course not. We would be hanging out and they’d be sitting there. If they said hi, I’d say hi and we chatted, but we were working too.”
The Film’s Comic Undertone: While it addresses a serious subject, there are moments of levity sprinkled throughout The Savages. Hoffman says that was one of the aspects of the story that drew him in. “When I read it I didn’t necessarily think, ‘Oh, it’s got humor in it. That’s a good thing.’ I didn’t like think that, you know? I thought, ‘God, I really like this movie. I love the unique way she’s telling a story that I think we’ve kind of seen before, but in a very unique way, in a very honest way.’ And when you’re doing something like that, what you usually get is humor. Things are pretty funny. Life’s pretty funny when you’re objectively on the outside looking at it. Like, if someone was up there looking down on us right now they’d probably have laughed a few times already at our behavior, but inside it we don’t normally know that so often. This film had that opportunity, I think.”
Working with Writer/Director Tamara Jenkins: Hoffman described Jenkins as very, very passionate. “She had been working on this for a long time,” said Hoffman. “She was connected to it in a very deep way and so I knew that I was with somebody who was going to do everything that they could to make sure that it was the best film they could make. That’s what it was like working with her. I had a confidence in her, ultimately.”
Getting Into Character: Hoffman explained how his process works: “Well, when you look at roles, you're like, ‘What's similar between you and the character and what's not? What's dissimilar?’ The things that you don't understand, the things that are dissimilar, you try to use your imagination. [He was] interested in the theater so I think there's a lot of things about him that I knew I could just let be. I have siblings; I have a relationship with a father. It's all there and all stuff to call upon. There are aspects of him. He's a very intellectual guy. I think I am to a point, but not like him. Like the way he talks, there's a certain distancing quality he has, somewhat of a scholarly, kind of professorial guy but not much. There's more context, relationships, all that stuff that I had to really think [about].”
Switching Between Hollywood Movies and Independent Films: “They're all a machine,” said Hoffman. “It's all a big machine. Isn't it depressing? I'm exaggerating the point but I also mean that in a way, meaning that whether you're working in an independent film world or the big budget film world, all the same problems arise. All the same stuff happens. One you don't have as much money, as much time and just not as many frills or whatever extras. Craft service might not be as good but ultimately, you're under the gun like anything. There's something that needs to be made, needs to be made in a certain amount of time, and somebody spent a lot of money.”
Up Next – A Huge Studio Movie: Hoffman’s in another film heading to theaters before the end of 2007 – Charlie Wilson’s War. Hoffman enjoyed the experience of working on that movie and has been friends with the film’s director, Mike Nichols, for seven years. As for the film’s star, Hoffman says Tom Hanks is everything you think he is. “He's a mensch and he was also producer on the film,” said Hoffman. “He's a wonderful actor and he really created a very wonderful environment to work in. Most of my scenes are with him. We hit it off. I really can't say enough about everyone who was involved on that film. It was a really good environment.”
Asked what initially made him want to be a part of Charlie Wilson’s War, Hoffman responded, “I don't know. Mike Nichols calls you and he's like, ‘Do you want to be in my movie?’ You're like, ‘Maybe, Mike, maybe. Let me see, look at my schedule, I'll let you know…’ Like I said, I know him, he called me, he's like, ‘I really want you to do this.’ We have a relationship where I could have said no, sure, and been fine. We are friends in that way, but I knew the book. I had read that book. Somebody had mentioned that book to me when I was doing Long Day's Journey Into Night and said, ‘God, there's this part in it if they ever make a movie of it.’ So it was funny that he was calling me saying, ‘There's this part in this book.’ I thought that was a bit serendipitous. Aaron Sorkin wrote it and he's a pretty fun writer.”
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