10 Philip Seymour Hoffman Performances That Prove His Acting Genius

10. Scotty J - Boogie Nights

Boogie Nights may not have been the first collaboration between Hoffman and filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson (Hoffman had a role in Anderson's debut, Hard Eight aka Sydney), but it was certainly the one that got heads turning towards the actor. Hoffman plays Scotty J, a gay boom mic handler who falls in love with Mark Wahlberg's well-endowed protagonist, Dirk Diggler. In a film full of hilarious performances, Hoffman's turn rises to the top, as perhaps evidenced no better than by a climactic scene in which he finally musters up the courage (thanks to plenty of alcohol) to make a move on Dirk and is promptly rejected, angrily shouting at himself in his car for his actions. It's a moment that's at the same time extremely funny and also pretty sad, and Hoffman captures that dichotomy perfectly. In part due to his work here, the film earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance By a Cast, and rightly so. Quote: "I'm a f***in' idiot. I'm a f***in' idiot. f***in' idiot, f***in' idiot, f***in' idiot..."