10 Philip Seymour Hoffman Performances That Prove His Acting Genius

3. Caden Cotard - Synecdoche, New York

Charlie Kaufman's immensely ambitious project may not be for everyone, but there's little denying how fervently Hoffman threw himself into the role of protagonist Caden Cotard, a terminally ill theater director who takes it upon himself to stage the most elaborate theatrical production in human history as his personal life crumbles around him. The film was a box office flop and the thoroughly bleak tone turned off some critics, but Hoffman's performance was almost universally singled out as truly the work of a master artist. Watching Caden slowly follow his fate to its untimely end is a mixture of dark amusement and sadness, a combination of emotions wrought through the actor's layered, nuanced performance, helping to anchor Kaufman's divisive vision. Quote: "My father died. They said his body was riddled with cancer and that he didn't know, he went in because his finger hurt. They said he suffered horribly, and that he called out for me before he died. They said that he said he regretted his life. They said he said a lot of things, too many to recount, and they said it was the longest and the saddest deathbed speech any of them had ever heard."