This past weekend, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s directorial debut “Jack Goes Boating” began its limited rollout. The film finds Hoffman doing a triple threat of acting, directing and producing but he is buoyed by an ace cast in co-stars John Ortiz, Daphne Ruben-Vega and Amy Ryan. The film follows two working class couples in New York City — one coming together, one slowly disintegrating — and follows them as they navigate their fragile relationships.
We had a chance to speak with Philip Seymour Hoffman during a very busy press day for the film. And even in our brief time with him, Hoffman gave us a very clear look into the making of the film and also confirmed this morning’s report about the stalling of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master.” Check out our five questions with actor/director/producer/Cat Power fan below.
The Playlist: How did the film and cast come together?
Philip Seymour Hoffman: Bob Glaudini, the writer, is a playwright also, on top of being a screenwriter and he’s written a lot of the plays for the LAByrinth Theater Company which John Ortiz and I were co-artistic directors of for a while. So I’ve been producing a lot of Bob’s stuff over the years. It’s been talked about as something that could be a film the whole time. John [Ortiz] and I and Daphne [Ruben-Vega] we did the play here in New York off Broadway and the talk of it being a film was still alive through Beth O’Neil who is Bob Glaudini’s producing partner. So she brought [production company] Big Beach…and Overture and they came and saw the play and they thought it would be a great thing to turn into a movie. And so that’s really what happened and I really wanted to keep the core group there as much as I could. I knew one of us would have to be replaced….and so Amy Ryan joined us. And John Ortiz suggested along the way that maybe I should direct it since I had been directing them and producing them for so many years. [And] I was excited by that idea.
Why did you decide to also act in the film? Were you looking for an additional challenge?
It was partly the challenge and partly pragmatic. When this idea of it being a film started becoming a reality, I was just going to produce it. I wasn’t even going to act in it or direct it. I’ve been involved in producing more and more and I really like that side of the business. I like creatively developing material with people. And then John made the suggestion, ‘Why don’t you direct it?’ And I took a couple weeks to think about it but I told him ‘I really don’t want to act in it, especially if I’m directing.’ I was very adamant about that. It was very difficult finding someone to take my part since I played the part before. Understandably to ask an actor to come in and play a part I played before when I’m directing it is a tricky situation. People were cautious, rightfully so. We had such a short window of time because we had to shoot in winter that it was very hard [to secure another actor]. It was September, we were going into pre-production, we didn’t have any one to play the lead guy, and my hand was forced. It was like ‘You do it or we postpone a year.’ So as the director and producer I was like ‘Do I want to make this movie….Yeah, I do, I want to make the movie so I’m gonna bite the bullet.’
What were the challenges in adapting a stage play into a feature film?
There are some things that want to be adapted. This always had a very dreamlike, visceral, physical, emotional quality to it. It had a lot to do with the weather, and New York City and working class people. We just kind of trusted that. When we started adapting it together, we really allowed these things to organically come. There are a lot of things in the film that just came out of the life that was created in the play. A lot of the scenes, moments and evolution of character and story, they were all taken to another level. And it opened itself up to a lot of really exciting things. I think it made the film version of the story quite special. A lot of people I know who’ve seen the play and the film, they really like the film. The film is giving them a whole other thing they didn’t experience in the play, and that was the goal.
The soundtrack for the film is great. Is it essentially the Philip Seymour Hoffman iPod?
[Laughs] That’s very astute of you actually. When I direct in the theater I’ve always kept the sound as something to think about once you start rehearsing because stuff will starting coming to me once I see it coming alive in front of me. I trust that will happen. And that happened here. As I was shooting it there were things that were coming to me that I heard or listened to. And sometimes it wasn’t songs, sometimes it was riffs or sounds in music that I’ll hear. And so Fleet Foxes and Goldfrapp, they started coming [to me], they were in my iPod. And so once I had a feel for music that had great depth and large scope in its emotional breadth, Sue Jacobs who was the music supervisor, I started saying ‘This what I’m hearing….’ So she started throwing at me some stuff based on that. And that’s where Grizzly Bear came in, and Cat Power — which is a band that I love — and then Evan Lurie came into it and he just kind of blew the top off everything. He composed some original music for the film, which is some of the most exciting music in it.
Is there anything you can tell us about Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master”?
I don’t have any new information on that. I really mean that, I’m not being obtuse. When Paul’s working on something…..I kind of just trust he going where he needs to go. I don’t quite know what that is at the moment, but hopefully I will and hopefully I’ll be part of something soon. It would be great to work with him again.