I’m Glad I Risked Humiliation to Ask Philip Seymour Hoffman About 'Along Came Polly'

Philip Seymour Hoffman would have turned 59 this week, on July 23rd. It actually makes no sense whatsoever he's now been gone for over 12 years. A lot of this probably has to do with how timeless a lot of his movies are and that a great number of them are still played on a never-ending cable loop. (From recent experience, I can almost guarantee Moneyball or The Ides of March is playing right now. Twister definitely is.)

So, I am obsessed with his performance in Along Came Polly. To the point that I used to say, if I ever got the chance to interview or meet Philip Seymour Hoffman, Along Came Polly would be my topic of conversation.

In October of 2013, I was at the Standard Hotel here in New York City for an afterparty in celebration of the New York Film Festival premiere of Spike Jonze's Her. It was crowded and unpleasant. There was a rumor that there was a sort of secret rooftop that was (a) open and (b) no one was up there. This turned out to be true.

A couple of minutes after we arrived on the rooftop, I heard a very familiar voice say, "Oh, this is much better." I turned around, only to see Philip Seymour Hoffman walk onto the rooftop by himself and immediately start taking pictures of the skyline. It's at this point that my girlfriend, Kate, reminded me this was my big chance to ask Hoffman about Along Came Polly. He was literally standing about five feet from us, not doing much of anything.

My friend David Fear, who was with us that night, wrote a bit about what happened next in Rolling Stone.

A group of friends and I were at the Standard Hotel last fall for a festival afterparty when we decided to sneak upstairs to the rooftop bar. When we got up there, standing by himself was Hoffman, apart from all the celebrities and revelers downstairs; he was just hanging out by the balcony, in jeans and a T-shirt, taking pictures of the view with his phone. My companion decided he was going to tell the actor how much he loved 'Along Came Polly,' a somewhat lesser-known Ben Stiller comedy from 2004 that Hoffman co-starred in. We begged him not to bother the guy; brazen from booze, my friend approached him and we all turned around, pretending that we had no idea what was going on.

Okay, this isn't exactly the way I remember it. I remember being egged on because, as I've mentioned many of times before, talking to famous people at a party is one of my least favorite things to do. There is no way I would have done this without encouragement. And Kate was definitely encouraging me to do this. But once I approached Hoffman, they did all turn around and pretended to not know me, that part did happen.

So, yes, I approached Hoffman, "Um ... sooooo, I have something I always swore I’d ask you about, but if you’re busy, I completely understand.”

I swear I will never forget this as long as I live. Philip Seymour Hoffman looked at me for a brief moment, with the kind of perplexed look he's used so many times in his films. I was about to speak again – to just apologize for bothering him in the first place, then leave. But before I could say anything, he said, "Walk with me."

(The Hard Pass only exists because of paying subscribers and I do need to have posts just for them. If you decide to become a paying subscriber today, there is plenty left to this story, plus a lot more like the story I was told about Tom Cruise that is now my favorite Tom Cruise story, my weird night at The Rise of Skywalker premiere party, and what it’s like to hang out with Christopher Nolan at an open bar.)