紀念Philip Seymour Hoffman

一期一會

新春的第一篇文章竟然是因為Philip Seymour Hoffman過世的消息而寫
因為曾和他有一面之緣, 所以一早醒來看到臉書上所有在紐約的朋友們轉了紐約時報的訃文時, 剎那間不知所措

這麼好的演員就這樣走了, 又一個被黑暗吞噬的生命

2007年, 記憶猶新, 我不顧右手掌打著石膏, 硬是跑去演了電影Synecdoche New York, 當了三天的背景演員. 因為導演是我很喜歡的編劇Charlie Kaufman, 我飾演劇場中的工作人員. 第一天就見識到編劇導演的功力, 但真正吸引我目光, 也讓我從此景仰的是演員Philip.

第一天六點開工, 一直到中午休息時, 我才發現, 那個老人竟然是Philip. 整整一早的工作, 我都沒認出他! 接下來的拍攝我其實都在欣賞他的演技!

紐約時報在2008年時曾經在周日雜誌上有一篇他的精彩專訪
以下是一些我特別想和大家分享的片段:

“In my mid-20s, an actor told me, ‘Acting ain’t no puzzle,’ ” Hoffman said, after returning to his seat. “I thought: ‘Ain’t no puzzle?!?’ You must be bad!” He laughed. “You must be really bad, because it is a puzzle. Creating anything is hard. It’s a cliché thing to say, but every time you start a job, you just don’t know anything. I mean, I can break something down, but ultimately I don’t know anything when I start work on a new movie. You start stabbing out, and you make a mistake, and it’s not right, and then you try again and again. The key is you have to commit. And that’s hard because you have to find what it is you are committing to.”
我20多歲時, 曾有演員跟我說: "表演一點也不難." 我心想, "不難?!那你一定很糟", "你一定演的爛透了, 因為它非常難." 創造任何東西都很難. 這是老生常談了, 但每次你開始工作, 你甚麼都不知道. 我的意思是說, 當我開始工作一部新電影時, 我可以把工作列好, 但最終我甚麼都不知道. 你開始試, 然後你會犯錯, 然後你再試, 再試. 關鍵是你必須投入. 而這是很難的, 因為你必須找到你到底投入在什麼東西

“His physical form actually works to his advantage,” Meryl Streep told me. “Philip is not particularly any one way, which means he can be anybody at all. One of the most important keys to acting is curiosity. I am curious to the point of being nosy, and I think Philip is the same. What that means is you want to devour lives. You’re eager to put on their shoes and wear their clothes and have them become a part of you. All people contain mystery, and when you act, you want to plumb that mystery until everything is known to you.”
梅莉史翠普說: 他的外型其實是他的優點. Philip沒有特色, 意思是說他可以演任何人. 表演裡最重要的關鍵之一是好奇. 我太好奇了甚至問太多了. 我覺得Philip也一樣. 意思是說你應該想吞噬角色的生活. 你迫不及待的想變成那個人, 穿他的衣服, 讓他變成你的一部分. 所有人之中都有我, 當你在表演時, 你要不斷探測那些未知的, 直到你知道了所有的事情.

“I knew that it would be great, but I still took the role kicking and screaming,” Hoffman said now, as he ordered sticky pudding for dessert. “Playing Capote took a lot of concentration. I prepared for four and a half months. I read and listened to his voice and watched videos of him on TV. Sometimes being an actor is like being some kind of detective where you’re on the search for a secret that will unlock the character. With Capote, the part required me to be a little unbalanced, and that wasn’t really good for my mental health. It was also a technically difficult part. Because I was holding my body in a way it doesn’t want to be held and because I was speaking in a voice that my vocal cords did not want to do, I had to stay in character all day. Otherwise, I would give my body the chance to bail on me.”
我知道我會做得好, 但當我接到戲的時候還是又吼又叫的.  演Capote需要非常專心. 我準備了四個半月. 我看他的錄影帶, 聽他的聲音. 有時候當演員有點像是偵探 你在尋找幫助你解開角色的那個秘密. Capote這個角色需要我有點失衡, 這對我的心靈是很不健康的. 而且演這角色有很多技術性上的困難. 因為我的重心是歪的, 我說話的聲音是違反我的聲帶的, 我必須整天都待在角色裡, 不然, 我的身體就會有機會背叛我.

There are few other Academy Award-winning actors who have devoted themselves to the full-time running of a theater company. “It sounds noble, but it’s really not,” Hoffman said. “I do this because it gives me a home, a place where I can come and work. The movies are great, but they require a different kind of concentration, and then they’re over. Theater was my first love, and it’s been the biggest influence on my life. The theater is why I got into acting and why I’m still in acting.”
沒幾個奧斯卡得獎演員還投入全職的劇場工作. "聽起來很高尚, 其實沒有" Hoffman說. "我這麼做是因為它給了我一個家, 一個我可以工作的地方. 電影很棒, 但電影需要的是不同的專心. 拍完就結束了. 劇場是我的初戀, 是影響我生命最大的東西. 劇場是我一開始表演的地方, 也是我為什麼還繼續演的原因. "