Adam Sandler has never been afraid to give credit to those who have made him what he is as a performer, however, when he talks of Philip Seymour Hoffman, his voice goes a notch higher than admiration, nearly verging on reverence. As Sandler recounted his place of stay in Punch-Drunk Love, he gave a very intimate insight into what it was like to collaborate with an actor who he says was one of the greatest actors of his time. It is not presented as a great Hollywood story, but as a small memory of two artists, engrossed in doing their work, meeting only when the camera was on.
This is the special place of the film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson in the career of Sandler. Published at the beginning of the 2000s, Punch-Drunk Love was a turning point, as it showed that Sandler could leave the areas of broad comedy and enter the world of emotionally-sensitive material. Hoffman had already earned the respect of his intensity and versatility, and his role involved a threatening unpredictability about it. Their acting was a kind of tension that remains fresh decades later, that is why the thoughts expressed by Sandler are relevant to date.
Sandler was interviewed in the 41 st Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival and recounted those days on set implying that the experience was permanent. He said to People that he and Hoffman would go to their scenes not as collaborators who are rehearsing, but as people who are guarding their emotional space until the time to perform. We would walk, we would do the scenes, and we would have gone at it in different directions and then on the day where we shot that we sort of kept to ourselves and remained in our own worlds. Then, when Paul said action, we set at it and toe to toe and had what we had and I liked it.
It was an intentional process as explained by Sandler. Both the actors were so much devoted to the portrayal of their characters beyond superficial gratification. Rehearsals were not the ones carried out with memorization and hitting, but the ones spent on searching the emotional sub-layers until the reactions became unpremeditated instead of staged. As Sandler observed, they could replicate their roles through practice and this enabled them to understand the complexity of their roles and hence enabling them to use emotions in honesty rather than exaggerating them performance-wise. It is one way of addressing the reputation of Hoffman of being immersive and the fact that Sandler is willing to step out of his comfort zone.
It was a fact that Philip Seymour Hoffman was a quiet power figure on set. He was not a dominating presence on stage with bulk or drama and achieved it with purpose and focus. According to the recollection of Sandler, Hoffman was strong in his ability to take the moment seriously regardless of how weird and awkward it appeared. This sobriety was not solemn or solemnity, it was training. That discipline was the keystone of the authenticity of the film as emotionally charged as Punch-Drunk Love.
The plot of the movie is even misleading. Punch-Drunk Love is based on a story of a lonely novelty items salesman Barry Egan who has social anxiety and anger repressed within. He also falls in love with Lena and this relationship gives him vulnerability and hope in his life. Meanwhile, Barry gets hooked up in a phone line scam, operated by a pushy and intimidating manager who is portrayed by Hoffman. This character challenges Barry to face his fears, which makes him defend himself in a situation that he has never encountered before.
The performance of Hoffman as the extortionist manager is a turning point. He is a sort of intimidation that is too real and not overdone. Sandler makes his Barry fight not against a cartoon villain, but something real and something that is unstoppable. And it is this realism that makes the film rise above a romantic drama to a more psychologically based film. The conflict between the two characters is not only narrative conflict, it is contrasting emotional situations, vulnerability against control, fear against dominance.
In retrospect, Sandler not only admires Hoffman because of talent, but work ethic. Hoffman treated acting as an art that required patience, repetitions and emotional sincerity. It is an indication in what Sandler says that the experience of working with a person as much dedicated to it increased his standards. Admiring a fellow actor is easily done at a distance, quite another when they are in the middle of the demanding scenes that demand full trust.
It is telling that Sandler recalls Hoffman as keeping to himself preceding taking. That distance is respected unspoken, there is a mutual agreement that each actor required some distance to get ready within. That preparation paid off when at last the director called action. The shows crashed into each other creating scenes that remain alive on the screen. It does not mean competition, but equality, as Sandler puts it, when he writes that they went toe to toe. In such scenes, they were not holding back, both actors were present.
The death of Philip Seymour Hoffman left a gap in the world of cinema which many are of the view that has not been filled. His role vanishing into the characters is sympathetic or extremely disturbing, and it is a standard in acting today. Sandler reflection supports that faith, which puts Hoffman on a pedestal, but rather he was a working actor who went to work each day with a purpose. The fact that grounded memory causes the praise to be earned, but not a ceremony.
It is also subtly sad as Sandler recounts it. As he speaks he can do so with admiration and warmth but he understands that such collaborations are not common. Movies such as Punch-Drunk Love occur when there is an opportunity, skill and confidence. The fact that Hoffman is no longer part of the film world today begs questions regarding the number of additional performances that would have surfaced were he to have lived, and the number of actors who would have still emulated his footsteps.
