The professional — and personal — legacy of Philip Seymour Hoffman
By Daniel J. Kushner @danieljkushner
The life-size sculpture of Philip Seymour Hoffman, cast in bronze and strolling toward the Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman Museum, was unveiled in May 2022. But it wasn’t until nearly a year later, on a cloudy afternoon in April, that the famous actor’s niece, Carolyn Delvecchio Hoffman, came to see the homage to her uncle for the first time.
It was a complicated visit for Delvecchio Hoffman, the incumbent Monroe County Legislator who won the Democratic primary for District 25 on June 27. She said finds it difficult to reconcile Hoffman's reality as a celebrity who valued his privacy with her increased public visibility, especially since her election last year. Delcecchio Hoffman has also found it challenging to process his death and the subsequent sculpture.
“I'm just very humanly kind of working through all of this and having a statue made of someone that you've lost is a very monumental thing,” she said.
In addition to last year’s sculpture, the beloved actor from Fairport is being honored by GEM's Dryden Theatre with a year-long film series dedicated to his work. This month features two heavy-hitting movies with Hoffman in leading roles — though the characters, their stories, and the style in which those stories are told couldn’t be more dissimilar.
On July 8, the Dryden will screen the 2007 crime thriller “Before the Devil Knows You're Dead,” legendary director Sidney Lumet’s final film which features a loaded cast; including a conniving, manipulative Hoffman and Ethan Hawke as brothers who are strapped for cash and decide to rob their parents’ jewelry store.
The surrealist, cerebral “Synecdoche New York,” which will be screened July 22, employs director-writer Charlie Kaufman’s narrative-within-a-narrative depicting Hoffman as small-town theater director Caden Cotard, who suddenly wins a MacArthur Fellowship (colloquially called a “genius grant”) and proceeds to build and direct an immersive, reality-obscuring drama based on an idealized version of his own life.
“One of the things that we love about him is he would play these characters completely human, as they were without dressing them up or jazzing them up or without polishing them,” Delvecchio Hoffman said.
Her uncle was dedicated to portraying characters who were flawed but authentic, and he should be remembered in a way similarly honest and consistent with the “raw truth and experience” of those portrayals. However, it’s rare that Delvecchio Hoffman watches one her uncle's films.
“I'm afraid it's going to change something or I'm gonna forget something, or the memory will evolve to something,” she said. “When there's a loss for me, I kind of build an altar, and then I don't touch it, and I don't move it ever again.”
One of her earliest memories of her uncle comes from when she was no more than eight years old, performing a dance to a Christmas song for her family. Her uncle Philip’s reaction was dramatic. “He was sitting on the couch, and I remember he just erupted — he was like, ‘Bravo!’ And he was clapping and he was being so obnoxious, but in a good way.”
For Delvecchio Hoffman, her uncle’s most enduring legacy will be as an important father figure in her life, and not as a famous actor known to the world. “I gravitated towards him as somebody that I felt safe with and that I could count on to be there for me," she said. "That was not the case with all of the men that were in my life when I was a kid.”
Delvecchio Hoffman wants to affirm the feeling of connection people have to her uncle, and appreciates the love and admiration the Rochester community has for him. Above all, she hopes his memory goes beyond his legacy as an actor – that the remembrance of her uncle inspires people to care for one another better, specifically those dealing with drug addiction or mental and emotional health issues.
Eastman Museum’s “A Tribute to Philip Seymour Hoffman” continues through December 2023 at the Dryden Theatre. Tickets and info here.
Daniel J. Kushner is an arts writer at CITY. He can be reached at [email protected].
It was a complicated visit for Delvecchio Hoffman, the incumbent Monroe County Legislator who won the Democratic primary for District 25 on June 27. She said finds it difficult to reconcile Hoffman's reality as a celebrity who valued his privacy with her increased public visibility, especially since her election last year. Delcecchio Hoffman has also found it challenging to process his death and the subsequent sculpture.
“I'm just very humanly kind of working through all of this and having a statue made of someone that you've lost is a very monumental thing,” she said.
In addition to last year’s sculpture, the beloved actor from Fairport is being honored by GEM's Dryden Theatre with a year-long film series dedicated to his work. This month features two heavy-hitting movies with Hoffman in leading roles — though the characters, their stories, and the style in which those stories are told couldn’t be more dissimilar.
On July 8, the Dryden will screen the 2007 crime thriller “Before the Devil Knows You're Dead,” legendary director Sidney Lumet’s final film which features a loaded cast; including a conniving, manipulative Hoffman and Ethan Hawke as brothers who are strapped for cash and decide to rob their parents’ jewelry store.
The surrealist, cerebral “Synecdoche New York,” which will be screened July 22, employs director-writer Charlie Kaufman’s narrative-within-a-narrative depicting Hoffman as small-town theater director Caden Cotard, who suddenly wins a MacArthur Fellowship (colloquially called a “genius grant”) and proceeds to build and direct an immersive, reality-obscuring drama based on an idealized version of his own life.
“One of the things that we love about him is he would play these characters completely human, as they were without dressing them up or jazzing them up or without polishing them,” Delvecchio Hoffman said.
Her uncle was dedicated to portraying characters who were flawed but authentic, and he should be remembered in a way similarly honest and consistent with the “raw truth and experience” of those portrayals. However, it’s rare that Delvecchio Hoffman watches one her uncle's films.
“I'm afraid it's going to change something or I'm gonna forget something, or the memory will evolve to something,” she said. “When there's a loss for me, I kind of build an altar, and then I don't touch it, and I don't move it ever again.”
One of her earliest memories of her uncle comes from when she was no more than eight years old, performing a dance to a Christmas song for her family. Her uncle Philip’s reaction was dramatic. “He was sitting on the couch, and I remember he just erupted — he was like, ‘Bravo!’ And he was clapping and he was being so obnoxious, but in a good way.”
For Delvecchio Hoffman, her uncle’s most enduring legacy will be as an important father figure in her life, and not as a famous actor known to the world. “I gravitated towards him as somebody that I felt safe with and that I could count on to be there for me," she said. "That was not the case with all of the men that were in my life when I was a kid.”
Delvecchio Hoffman wants to affirm the feeling of connection people have to her uncle, and appreciates the love and admiration the Rochester community has for him. Above all, she hopes his memory goes beyond his legacy as an actor – that the remembrance of her uncle inspires people to care for one another better, specifically those dealing with drug addiction or mental and emotional health issues.
Eastman Museum’s “A Tribute to Philip Seymour Hoffman” continues through December 2023 at the Dryden Theatre. Tickets and info here.
Daniel J. Kushner is an arts writer at CITY. He can be reached at [email protected].
Latest in Culture
-
House and Home
Jul 6, 2023 -
Flower City Union takes its shot at reviving pro soccer in Rochester
Jul 5, 2023 -
CHOWHOUND | July
Jul 5, 2023 - More »
