During Philip Seymour Hoffman‘s final trip to the Sundance Film Festival in January, he spoke to several reporters about what attracted to him to the “God’s Pocket” role.
In light of his death Sunday of an apparent overdose, what he said represents a man in a stage of awakening from some of the choices he had made in life.
In “God’s Pocket,” which was co-written and directed by “Mad Men” star John Slattery, Hoffman plays a detached, low-level thief in a small town whose insane stepson dies and he’s forced to face reality.
Also read: Remembering Philip Seymour Hoffman: A Fearless Artist, Taken Too Soon
“There’s something about he’s my age,” Hoffman, 46, told SuperPopAccess. “He’s dealing with issues that have to do with being middle-aged. He realizes that some choices he made along the way, you have to shift or change or you just kind of stay in the dark and go from there.”
Hoffman, who preliminary reports say died of a drug overdose on Sunday, suffered from a drug addiction early in life. He was able to beat the addiction and apparently stayed sober for 23 years, falling off the wagon with prescription pills that led to heroin use. The veteran actor checked himself in to a rehabilitation program in April 2013.
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Hoffman had at least four more projects he was working on this year: thriller “A Most Wanted Man,” the two-part “Hunger Games: Mockingjay” movies, and Showtime comedy pilot, “Happyish.”
Watch Hoffman at his final Sundance Film Festival appearance above.