A Force to be Reckoned With

Idols. Everyone has them. Whether it's a singer who takes your breath away with their meaningful lyrics or a football star who makes every touchdown seem like a miracle, we all have them. I have many who have changed my life with the delivery of a simple line. One of them is Phillip Seymour Hoffman. It is extremely rare to go to a movie and an actor moves you so much you leave speechless because their performance was that awe inspiring. One of my favorite films is The Ides of March, starring Ryan Gosling, George Clooney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. It is a modern version of the story of the fall of Julius Caesar. It is a brilliant movie, but the performance that left me speechless was this amazing man. One movie I strongly suggest watching. You may not even agree with me, but this man was a force to be reckoned with. When you find someone who can play any character and make each one completely different, that is when you have found a true genius. He was so passionate about his art and shared with everyone how much acting and directing truly meant to him simply by believing what the story was he was telling and the words he was saying. Recently I also saw him in the second movie of The Hunger Games trilogy where he played Plutarch Heavensbee. I'm not sure how many people who read this have read The Hunger Games books or have even seen the movies, but when I saw the movie and saw him enter onto the screen, my heart truly skipped a beat. I respected him so much as an actor, I can only hope I am just as successful and talented as he was in my career. Any actor knows the struggle when entering into this business. It breaks your heart. You put everything into the role you are playing and make yourself extremely vulnerable to billions of people you have never met. You open yourself to endless criticism that can make one go home and cry yourself to sleep. However, what really matters at the end of the day is that what you decide to do with your life makes you truly happy. I know that thinking of doing anything else with my life would make me lose hope in myself and lose hope in life. Obviously, there were problems he was facing before his death but I choose not to think of that. I choose to think of the man who brought true emotion, passion and vulnerability to every single character he played and brought true happiness to my heart after seeing him on screen. Thank you Phillip Seymour Hoffman for being a true idol and icon for every aspiring actor out there, including myself. You will never know how much I wished I could have acted with you in my career. "The ambition, the drive, the wanting to be the center of attention, the wanting to succeed....they're all inside me somewhere." ~Phillip Seymour Hoffman