RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman

[Heksagon]

Hoffman’s toxicology report was released. Unsurprisingly, he died after mixing several different drugs. Few people die of overdoses when they’re taking just a single drug, it’s usually taking a mixture that is potentially fatal.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/28/showb ... ?hpt=hp_t3

[Big Magilla]

Hope so.

[Precious Doll]

Thanks Heksagon.

It is certainly better then it was a week ago.

[Heksagon]

Ouch. I hope your back gets better soon.

[Precious Doll]

I fell down the steps leading up to my mother's house last week, landing heavily on my back.

Thankfully I didn't break or fracture my back but experiences dreadful pain in the coccyx region of my back, likely to muscle and/or bone bruising. Over the last couple of days the pain has lifted and I am now primarily experiencing discomfort rather then pain.

I hate pain killers for several reasons and have only been taking a mild over the counter brand.

However, I am on a cocktail of sleeping pills to help me sleep.

[Heksagon]

Based on my expert googling, even hydrocodone is pretty strong. It's banned in most parts of the developed world.

EDIT: I'd better clarify what I mean. Hydrocodone is weaker than a lot of other prescription drugs out there, but it's still strong enough to be addictive.

[dws1982]

Even hydrocodone is too much for me. I had to take it recently after oral surgery and I absolutely hated it. At one point it had me quite literally vomiting out the window of a moving vehicle.

[Heksagon]

Here's an article on how opioid painkillers have entered the market during the last 15 years (from Huffingtonpost).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/2 ... inemasight

Selected quotes:

"[Purdue Pharma] sold doctors on the idea that the time-release function made OxyContin perfect for a population of patients who were suffering from chronic pain. Representatives also argued that the drug's spaced-out effects made it less likely that patients would get addicted -- which was the main factor deterring many physicians from prescribing opioids for chronic pain"

"In 2007, Purdue and three of its top executives pleaded guilty to misleading doctors, regulators and patients about OxyContin’s risk of addiction. The company agreed to pay more than $600 million in fines."

[Heksagon]

I don't think he relapsed quite so suddenly. According to Hoffman, he started using prescription drugs sometime in early-to-mid 2012. Then, in early May 2013 he relapsed into heroin. After "a week" of using heroin he went into detox and stayed there for ten days.

Was he clean even for a single day after he left detox, or if he was clean for some time after that, I don't know. Also, I don't know if he had a legitimate prescription running from 2012 to May 2013 or if he was abusing already during that time.

I think it sounds plausible. If he was using something during the twenty years he claims he was sober, he must have kept it pretty well under control, because I haven't seen anyone dispute it (yet).

Furthermore, although I doubted it at first, it does appear that people who relapse after a long time really do lose control of their habit very quickly, and that certainly happened to Hoffman. Considering the poor shape he was in for the past few months, he could not have hidden it his whole career.

[ITALIANO]

I don'y know, and maybe it's not too important - but it's a fact that when these things happen, families and friends (or, of course, the drug addict himself, if he hasnt died), always say that it was his first time with drugs, or his first time in twenty years... Typical. And often not true - though maybe in this case it is.

[Heksagon]

Well, who knows for sure what he's been taking and when, although I haven't seen anyone dispute "Hoffman's version" of the story. But his condition certainly did take a radical turn for worse during the past one or two years, so something must have changed.

[ITALIANO]

Or, more simply, it could be that the story of the twenty-years abstinence from drugs (especially if it's from ANY drugs) isn't true......

[Heksagon]

Hoffman's death came so unexpectedly to me that I've trying to figure out what happened. I don't usually follow celebrity news, so I had no idea he had recently been in rehab. I'm guessing a lot of this is stuff that people here already know, but I still feel like I should put down some of my thoughts.

Apparently Hoffman was an addict in college, then sobered up for some twenty years and recently picked up the habit again. Hoffman's career defies typical patterns, and it appears that so did his "personal problem", as there are a few things in this story that stand out.

While it's common for addicts to sober up temporarily and then lapse again after some time, it sounds strange that they could stay sober for so long and then relapse. I was also surprised to hear that he went so quickly from getting (re-)addicted to being in such bad shape (And reportedly, he had been in a really bad shape for the past few months). But apparently, this is fairly common, as it takes time to build resistance and the body is the most vulnerable soon after a relapse.

I figured that something must have happened that made him suddenly pick up the habit after such a long break. Soon, I found out that he'd split with his long-time partner, and I wondered if this was the reason why he'd gone off the wagon. But, no, Mimi O'Donnell had left him precisely because of his relapse (And they still seem to have been pretty close, they even lived only a few block from each others).

Instead, it turns out that what apparently triggered his renewed addiction was prescription painkillers. After I found this out, I was surprised that it could happen, and it just left me with more questions, but I can't find any more information.

I mean, when Hoffman was prescribed these painkillers, was he aware that they could be seriously addictive? The physician must have known, so was the physician aware of Hoffman's past drug habit?

Furthermore, why did he need such strong painkillers, anyway? To my understanding, these opioid drugs should be used for unremitting pain, so it should have been something serious. I'm pretty sure he didn't have cancer or anything like that so presumably he had something like a bad back (Although I'm not an expert on this issue, and I have heard that on occasions some less-than-capable physicians can prescribe this stuff for very minor incidents, when less potent drugs would have been more appropriate).

[Greg]

Perhaps because he always seemed older than he really was, we knew that he had a staying power and a gravitas that would continue to serve him well.

Boogie Nights was the one film for me where Hoffman came across to me somewhat younger than he was. He was 30 when it was made and he came across early-to-mid-twentyish.

[FilmFan720]

I've been unusually affected by this death. I'm not sure why. I randomly popped in "Capote" during the Christmas break and was really taken aback by just how good Hoffman is in it. At the time, I annoyed that he had "taken" Heath Ledger's Oscar. But the performance really stands up (and I'm one of the few on this Board who thinks that Catherine Keener is equally outstanding alongside him in the film).

There are so many amazing performances of his that come to mind, but the ones that are immediately zooming to the foreground for me are his supporting turn in "Boogie Nights" and his strangely prescient work in Lumet's darkly comic "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." His performance in the latter, I think, should've brought him another Oscar nod that year (in addition to his well-deserved supporting nomination for "Charlie Wilson's War."

This is probably the first truly shocking celebrity death of 2014.

Philip Seymour Hoffman (whom I just learned at 46 is the shortest-lived recipient of the Oscar for Best Actor)

If so, you have apparently not been reading everyone else's posts. Heksagon pointed this out Sunday.

Big Magilla, your bitchiness is really unnecessary in this thread.

flipp, I too have been really affected by this. I've been in a funk every since I heard two days ago.

I think the big reason why is because we knew how truly great Philip Seymour Hoffman was, and knew all that he had left to give us. So many times when an artist dies young, we are left with the what-ifs of their life. How would River Phoenix or Heath Ledger have transitioned out of their younger days? How would Amy Winehouse or Kurt Cobain mature? What could James Dean have brought us beyond the bad boy brooding that he so perfectly captured in his 3 films? With these types of artists, there is always a question of whether they could have kept giving us brilliant work. With Hoffman, though, we knew those answers. Perhaps because he always seemed older than he really was, we knew that he had a staying power and a gravitas that would continue to serve him well. It's not a question of what he would have done next, but it is knowing (as A.O. Scott put it) that we won't get to see his Lear or his Prospero. He had already begun to transition there, giving a much acclaimed Willy Loman. You can look into the future and you know that we have been deprived of some much great work ahead of him with a great certainty.

And he was certainly the greatest actor of his generation. I never liked the nicknames he got around here (I never like the sniping around here anyways) and never understood how you could miss the brilliance each time he was on screen.