10 Philip Seymour Hoffman Performances That Prove His Acting Genius

5. Father Brendan Flynn - Doubt

But when talking about the theatrical movies Hoffman starred in, none fits that description better than John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, adapted from Shanley's own play, in which Hoffman plays a Priest who is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a male student. The film's central conceit, that nobody knows for sure if Father Flynn did as he was accused (and at the end of the movie, we never find out for sure), required that Hoffman needed to employ some of his most subtle work in order to sell it to audiences: he couldn't play the part too villainous or too innocent. Hoffman's brilliantly restrained performance garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and though his slighter turn fell to the background compared to Meryl Streep's volcanic performance as the nun determined to bring him to justice, he was in many respects the springboard that Streep needed, the anchor without which her work would have meant nothing. Quote: "Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty. When you are lost, you are not alone."