In his bio on imdb.com, there is this quote from Philip Seymour Hoffman:
“Film is a very uncomfortable medium for an actor. It’s just not conducive to doing what actors do. The first few days of shooting are like you just getting over the fact that you are there.
“These people and the camera over the shoulder and the light and the boom – you’re just going crazy trying to find some kind of center of relaxation and then you can get into a rhythm and it can be very satisfying. If you do good work and it’s on film, that’s a very satisfying thing.”
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Related article: Actors and Addiction.
Philip Seymour Hoffman admitted he used drugs and alcohol earlier in his life. A lot.
“It was all that stuff. It was anything I could get my hands on. I liked it all.”
Hoffman died Feb 2, 2014 from an apparent heroin overdose.
See links to these related articles:
What We Can Learn From Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Death, by Dr. Peggy Drexler.
Philip Seymour Hoffman Didn’t Have to Die By Maia Szalavitz, TIME
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Taking care of yourself – like managing stress and fatigue and overwhelm – is good sense for any artist, but perhaps especially for an actor or performer.
In her article “Self-Care for Creative Artists: 5 Ways to Start Today,” coach Linda Dessau notes, “Self-care is the path to creative expression.
“By paying closer attention to your self-care, you can have easier access to your creativity, to your muse and to your inner strength and resilience.”
For many gifted and talented people, including actors like Hoffman, the high sensitivity that can help fuel their outstanding performances may incite or exacerbate a shadow side: the kind of chronic arousal that can lead to stress problems.
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There can be many varieties and levels of insecurity, self-criticism, stress and anxiety that can relate to being talented and creative.
“I still have pretty much the same fears I had as a kid. I’m not sure I’d want to give them up; a lot of these insecurities fuel the movies I make.” – Steven Spielberg
From one of my related articles: Gifted and Stressed.
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