|
Philip Seymour Hoffman on The Savages
By Fred Topel | Image property of Fox Searchlight Pictures.
The Savages casts Philip Seymour Hoffman as a grown sibling dealing with an absentee father who now needs elderly care. As John Savage (Hoffman) and his sister (Laura Linney) work through their own parental and sibling relationships, John also bids farewell to a Polish girlfriend whose visa expired. With so much going on, Hoffman expects audiences to have unique reactions.
Hoffman Talks The Savages
"I don’t have a specific thing I want anyone to get out of anything I do," said Hoffman. "I think hopefully that the film is done well. There’s a lot of things that you could respond to that could push your buttons and being people, we usually all of us have different things that will affect us more than others. This film has a lot of different things that could affect you. Some are going to be affected by putting the father in the home, some are going to be affected by the estrangement, and some are going to be affected by the ultimate knowledge that he was somebody who probably abused the son, and some will be affected by the sibling rivalry that comes up. There are many multi-faceted things and I just hope they key into something."
Romantics may wish John would just marry his girlfriend to keep her in the states, but that too is a complex issue. "It’s also an extreme thing for him to marry her. That just proves my point, meaning that’s the thing that you responded to. But there are other people that would go ‘Well of course he would do that.’ He’s got to marry her in order for her to stay in the country. It’s a very extreme action to take. That’s what’s great about the part is that everything he says and does actually has a lot of logic to it and a lot of practicality to it. I didn’t disagree with him but what makes him so interesting is that it’s obviously based on the fact that affection overwhelms him. She obviously loves him very much and that really, really overwhelms him and makes him very upset. He doesn’t know what that means because anybody, and I think that’s the father, because the first 13, 14 years of his life the person who was supposed to do that to him didn’t so. That’s really a richness of the screenplay that he really without anyone saying anything literally to you about what happened here, it’s pretty clear by the end why and how he became the man he is and how she became the woman she is."
The Savages
The Savages
Known for becoming characters like Truman Capote, Hoffman's transformation into John Savage may be a tad more subtle. "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's interested in the theater so I think there are 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."
By the way, The Savages is a comedy. Don't think all this serious talk is all there is. "When I read it I didn’t necessarily think, 'Oh, it’s got humor in it, that’s a good thing.' I didn’t think that. 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.' 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."
The Savages opens
to theatres on November 28th.
For the trailer, poster and more movie info, go to The Savages Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Contact
© 2004 Minds Eye One, All Rights Reserved
The Can Magazine™ is a trademark of Minds Eye One
All movie titles, movie icons, movie stills/clips/trailers/other media... are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of stated holders
CanMag.Com banners contain movie/gaming icons that were created by individual holders
Home > Movies > Philip Seymour Hoffman on The Savages
|
|
|
Add to Heffee!
