6. Paul Thomas Anderson And Philip Seymour Hoffman
Films Together: Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love and The Master. At this point, it's fair to say that Paul Thomas Anderson considers Philip Seymour Hoffman his muse. Hoffman has appeared in all of Anderson's movies with the exception of There Will Be Blood in a vast variety of roles, where he's played everything from a porn star to a charismatic cult leader. They've been together since the beginning, where in Anderson's debut movie, Hard Eight, Hoffman got a single scene as a craps player, but Hoffman's presence in his friend's films has continued to build until he was the titular character in last year's best film, The Master. Like the best collaborations, they have complete trust in each other, and their relationship is almost instinctive as they are the best of friends away from their professional lives as well. Hoffman is one of the greatest and most versatile actors currently working as he plays timid vulnerability as well as he plays brashly confident, which makes him the perfect tool for a director such as Anderson who's films cannot be constrained by genre. Together, they have prospered massively, Boogie Nights showcased Anderson to the world and Magnolia showed Hoffman's brilliant range, but strangely, their greatest successes have come without each other. Anderson's finest film is the masterful There Will Be Blood and Hoffman won his Academy Award for portraying Truman Capote in Bennett Miller's film. Both men are still very young (Anderson is only 42), so many more future collaborations are bound to happen, and may they be prosperous.