tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight we would revisit conversations i was privileged to have with accomplished actor philip seymour and. i was deeply saddened by his sunday. his many varied roles show his death of artistry and his of artistry- depth and his commitment to every performance. he was in everything from the hunger games to the charlie wilson's war to the devil knows you're dead. him as willy loman

in death of a salesman insists this is the performance against which all subsequent performances will be judged. he was a wonderful man who was kind and generous to all who knew him. it is with tremendous respect that we revisit past conversations with this exceptionally talented and profoundly troubled actor, philip seymour hoffman. ♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

tavis: the great joy of this program is getting to talk to remarkable people about their accomplishments, and philip seymour hoffman was someone i always look forward to having on this stage. show thersations breadth of his commitment. in 2004 he had just completed a romantic comedy with dennis for .niston called along came polly i spoke to him later about the oscar buzz for capote, which he won, and we spoke about his directorial debut with jack goes boating. we begin with an excerpt from

our 2000 four conversation about the need for diversity both behind the camera and on screen. hoffman had just started a heater company in new york. >> i had this conversation any ofber of time with people every color. all kinds of people i got the chance to talk about about what hollywood needs to do to open up the doors of opportunity for people of color in front of and behind the camera. i don't know if i have had that conversation many times with folk who happened to not be of color, so talk about what this business needs to do to open up. it is thenally think writers. i am not blaming the writers. i just know in our company we have writers writing for certain actors. they are writing for actors in the company. they can be writing for all different types of people. hopefully the company is not

going to be made up of the typical actor, just good-looking people or whatever you would see in a hollywood movie or however you perceive that comment, and to really capture and right for actors that give you an essence of the people you actually see in your lives, walking through your travels, the supermarket, the bank, whatever, people who coexist in a city or a community, so those writers are actually writing for those people. the characters are going to come out of that, and the stories are they to come out of that. are going to come from that context. ableve found we have been to write from a vibrant place based on that theory. together, soo be what comes out of it is something that is incredibly alive and incredibly fresh and incredibly funny and anything you would want from the theater. people are coming.

see goodcoming to theater. the theater they are seeing is made up for all different kinds of people. >> with regards to the writers, it would need not just to have writers write things for people of company but to have people of color actually doing the writing. >> that is what i mean. it doesn't have to be that way. tavis: it should be both. >> those people are encouraged to see who they are coexisting with. look at the world you are in. you will read the paper, and you will see it is not just made up of your inner circle of whoever you are hanging out with, but the world is made up -- especially america. that's what we are, i'm melting pot. it encourages them to write the truth about that. it's the truth of our country and should be written about. tavis: tell me the types of roles these days that challenge you. you mentioned along came polly, which is a stretch for you.

what kinds of roles would stretch you? done just about everything. >> i want to do things. it's hard to act. difficult, for me at least. tavis: what makes it tough for you? >> you need to be 100% -- i think that is why anthony will commit to 10 months in romania to shoot a film, because i think you have to be passionately involved in what you are doing. you have to really want to do it, because if you don't, investing yourself personally, your thoughts, your emotions, your self into a partisan thing you are not going to want to do as much. that is what i am looking for each time, some thing i can connect with on that level. are a renaissance kind of guy in that you do everything. is that what makes it so difficult in that you direct and right and all that?

>> if i am directing i learn about acting. i am acting i learned about directing. producing something i find interesting because i would like to get it done. it all puts perspective on me, so i get to learn. when you are an actor you are subjective. when you are a director, you are objective, so i learn my mistake through others. exacerbate the problem, and then we heighten or intensify. >> i know what exacerbate means. there's not a word or a sentence or a concept you can eliminate for me. there is one reason i keep coming here. november 14, 1959, three years ago. froms all i want to hear

you. >> take feedback. it's easy for everyone to say you're definitely going to get the nomination. there is so much oscar buzz around that. you really did want to do this. you tried to get out of doing this, but it came your way. things youe these don't want to do, and they keep haunting you. miller directed this, and danny futterman wrote it. >> it hurts to tell your friends know. what kind of friend are you? >> danny was the factor behind all this because he gave it to bennett, and he basically hounded been it for a while. they came and got me on board with a certain kind of coercion, but even then we didn't have money or any backing. discuss thei would

denial we were in about it would never happen. bebe it won't, and that will a good thing. we were pretty scared of it. we finally got someone to take the risk, and oh no, we have got to do it. i was pretty scared. tavis: what were you struggling with? >> it wasn't the obvious things i think about. the technicality of playing him. i think that challenge was there. i know i am bigger than him. i knew i could trim down. i knew i could work on those things and hopefully get there, but it was really the way he was and what made him take. there was an intensity of watching him over and over again that individually i was intimidated by it. i think he intimidated me. his confidence, his boldness. the way he was able to say things i would be afraid to say because they would hurt somebody's feelings or cross the line. that withe to do

confidence and intelligence and wit that i was intimidated by. i knew i would have to capture that somehow to play him successfully. in retrospect, you mention confidence, wit, style. what do you think his enduring legacy was about? gets a movie made about him. why? >> good question. i think danny futterman answered it well. he said, do you want to take -- to make a biopic about this man's life? this is a lot of chapters that are pretty interesting. he wanted to look at something that was all about not just capote but different themes brought up, which is really celebrity,alism, ambition. when you see the carrot at the end of this take, what do you do to get it? these things, up in the story.

when you see the movie you will see what i am talking about. what he had to do to get this written, this ambition that took over. when he realized this could be great, what happened to him? when he realized the acclaim could be and what happened to him, and also looking at the intimacy created between a journalist and the subject and how that is something that might betrayed and these kinds of issues. in looking at these things you are able to uncover who capote is. i set myself up, but let me ask anyway. it is hard to have a conversation about capote without good night and good luck coming up in the same conversation. i think it has to do with the journalism thing. is there something happening in journalism that makes it a proficient time for journalism?

>> i think there is something there. there is something there. >> how i think about it. this might be an empty answer, but both films are dealing with the time in our country when there was the beginnings of something that is reverberating quite loudly in our culture. when you think about it, is what he did explicative of a person's life for these murders? you look at the liberty and how , andys out in our culture capote is one of the great pr man. he almost was inventing that onlyin that he was not selling his writing but selling himself as a person. now iese things that think are everyday events. something like it night and good

luck are obvious it is getting to the importance of how it is playing out today. are the journalist doing their job? are they being the checks and balances in our country? that time really does reverberate to us now in a way that is specific. tavis: in terms of other things i want to talk about, is there something you learn about this obama we have, that you learned from -- this dilemma we have, that you learned from playing capote? >> i can only talk about it in personal terms because i'm not a journalist, and it would be hard whate to openly criticize anybody is particularly doing right now, because i don't really know what they have to do or what goes into it in a way. i really look at it pertaining

to the story. if you want to get the story, if you want to get close to somebody, if you want to find out what is really the truth on what is interesting, you have to create a trust between the journalist and the subject, i trust that is deep and profound, , thatally in this case ultimately you are going to send out. you are going to take their lives and send it out for possibly their benefit -- your benefit and maybe not theirs. i think there is a betrayal that happens. happens something that that i think it's something that might be a certain faustian type of thing. are goinge that you to pay a price. is there a price to be paid for this type of relationship? i find that fascinating. i think for capote he paid a huge price for that relationship

and possibly today journalist's could identify. had thead he not relationship he couldn't have gotten the story. >> we wouldn't have had this great book if he didn't do what he did, but ultimately if you look into the story or watch the film or read about it, you see it is more than just that. he was genuinely attracted toward this man. he said he was probably closer to this man than he had been anyone in his life, so you think about that, and you think, eventually he had to let him go and die and almost get out of the way of the process and almost deep down be willing at himself for the benefit of having this book come out. that is a tricky area. it has to do with that elationship. >> i am glad you are better.

>> almost. getting there. >> may be a little good night kiss. >> may be. >> ok. >> good night. >> good night. tavis: for those who have not seen the play, give me the story line. >> it's a very simple story. it's about the very good friends. there are two relationships. two guys. that is john who plays clyde, and i played jack. john is married to daphne's character, lucy. daphne works at this job at the

funeral home, and there is a woman who works with her, connie. simple premise. while there is a parallel tale of a married couple who has put these two together and is helping them try to get together. you begin to see the cracks in it's a veryonship. simple tale, but it's about a very big thing. in order for something to be born, something has to died. that's how i think about it sometimes. there is something about this i find to be true. it's a natural thing. this movie plays around that. tavis: how does it feel to direct something where it is a wonderful love story, and yet there are lessons, things we can wrestle with, things that might

cause us to re-examine the assumptions we hold, things that might expand our inventory of ideas, yet you do it in this story without being preachy. >> that's a really great conversation. withnk good art deals micro to explain the macro. is something in the small minutiae of life that tells us about the big picture we see so i think the more specific and creative and micro the you are in more powerful the macro will be. is, is the tale which need you. ou need me, and that's hard. you know what i mean? that is part of all issues. you have these two middle-aged

working-class people. they need each other, and that's hard. that's not an easy thing. it's such a simple thing, but it explains a lot. that's why i like this. kind ofer has that mentality as a writer. he's a wonderfully talented man. screenplayss and have a sense of something bigger, even though you are looking at something very small. yous: notwithstanding that chose this one to be your directorial debut, your production company has done two things. capote -- not a bad way to start . >> downhill. capote and now this. what is your process for figuring out what works for you as producer? to develop material

and be creative in the growth of a project. that's something i think we get the most satisfaction out of. the hard part is what is going to go. what is the thing some of the is going to pay us? these have in the two pictures we have been involved in that has happened. now we are getting closer to more things. we spend a lot of time working with writers. we really enjoy having the relationship it requires, developing material, getting a director, actors. mentality weily are going to do it as a project, and the tough art is what actually goes has very little to do with that. tortured a process is that in today's hollywood? >> tortured. changing in a lot

of places, but in that business, people aren't going to throw the type of money at certain projects i think they used to, to put it monthly. throw then't going to money at certain people they used to. the offers that come in, whether they are and offered to an actor to producemething or a film are not what they were. struggle, because it happened quite quickly in the past few years. it has happened slowly, but in the past few years something drastic has happened. processtorturous because it is a lot of fear and anxiety of committing to an art filmat is with anything less than a lobe budget. i think everyone wants

to do it. i do feel like all the people i meet, all the people i am in discussions with, i sense the same energy that everyone is suffering the same predicament. nobody doesn't want to make something. to wear bothve hats. it is frustrating for a producer or director to be tortured in that way by the process. how is an artist navigating that journey? that is why artists drive everyone crazy. artist don't take about that stuff. that's why you hear me talk about it, and it is hard for me to get at it. you know what i am saying, but as an artist myself, you don't think about that stuff. you see what you want to do, and why aren't they helping me? you know what i mean? >> yes. they have that kind of -- it

would be more of a torturous thing for them that way i feel, because they are the ones that might -- we don't want this to happen, but they are the ones who might throw in the towel. you don't want the artist going in the towel, but they want what they need to make what they have to make the cuts the desire to have to make it is so strong, because that is the kind of art -- artist they are obsessed with actually putting their creation out to the world, and they want some help doing that. a lot of friends have a lot of great projects, and it is a great project and great people involved, and they can't make it. these are people who 10 years ago could have made it. it's not that they won't get there, but it's a lot harder. tavis: i am listening to you

intently. figure out -- you are making me schizophrenic. you suggested earlier in the conversation you were hopeful we are going to come out of this in the business will start to reflect some of the values and choices you have been promulgating in this conversation, but at the same time you have friends, and you know the struggle your self in getting this stuff done. i am trying to juxtapose those eggs. i guess the ultimate question given the tension here is what makes you so hopeful. saying there is no struggle, but i feel like the need to want to make something is stronger than th difficulties we are going through. that's all i am saying. either it's going to come out in a different way, or it's going to come out on the different side and we will see other times. i don't think people will start making movies -- stop making movies. >> you can see from those

conversations his optimism and his self-doubt. perhaps that i can't be contributed to his brilliance as an actor. those who knew him only from his performances will miss him. those who knew him personally will miss his humanity and his generosity. he leaves behind three young children and the legacy of superb performances and sadly the message yet again that drug addiction is a terrible illness that continues to claim too many productive lives. that's our show for tonight. thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for two conversations. first, what should happen to edwards noted now.

that's next time. we will see you then. ♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs.

>> hello, welcome to "this is us." i'm becca king reid on top of mount hamilton at the observatory. we're going to take you inside and give you a look at a telescope built here in the 19th everyone isry. of course, a von is hers are still up here studying the heavens and we'll show you the newer telescopes as well and you will meet the founder of word press, who turned down a fortune to save an idea and dr. jill tarter, founder of seti, the search for extra terrestrial intelligence and greg chin, a star who has risen, faded and is back on track. it all