Philip Seymour Hoffman Talks Happiness, Meditation, Death In Animated Interview

Philip Seymour Hoffman was an incredibly gifted actor who openly discussed his struggles with addiction and difficulty enjoying life. While we lost Hoffman only a few months ago, a new animated interview from PBS Digital Studios’ Blank on Blank provides some perspective on how Hoffman had difficulty finding and appreciating real happiness, and why he enjoyed portraying dark and troubled characters.

Among the things that made him truly happy were his children:

“In my life now I have three children and I think i’m happy when I’m with them and they’re ok. When I see them enjoying each other in front of me, and then they let me enjoy them in turn, that brings a feeling, which I would say is happiness. Now, I don’t know why. I mean I do know why on the surface because they’re my children, but it is a certain thing that happens, and I’m like right now. right now. this is it.”

On vices:

“There is no pleasure that I haven’t actually made myself sick on.”

Meditation and death:

“Meditation is really coming right up to the lip of death and saying I’m here…Learning how to die is therefore learning how to live”

You can watch the full animation, from a 2012 interview Hoffman conducted with Simon Critchley at the Rubin Museum of Art in Chelsea, here: