Cooper Hoffman followed in his famous father’s footsteps with his acting debut in 2021.
Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son, Cooper Hoffman, wishes his late dad was still around to offer him advice about his acting.
The legendary actor – who was known for playing a wide variety of distinctive character roles and supporting roles in the likes of The Big Lebowski, Almost Famous and Boogie Nights – tragically passed away in 2014, at the age of 46, with his death ruled an accident caused by “acute mixed drug intoxication, including heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines, and amphetamine”.
His 22-year-old son followed in his father’s footsteps and made his acting debut in Paul Thomas Anderson’s coming-of-age film Licorice Pizza in 2021, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. He has since portrayed Dick Ebersol in the 2024 comedy-drama Saturday Night and made his stage debut in an Off-Broadway production of the tragedy Curse of the Starving Class.
Cooper – who has two sisters – idolised his father and would give anything to get his professional opinion on his acting, though he admits he “would be terrified”.
He told GQ of his beloved parent: “He’s my favourite actor, but he’s also my dad.
“He’s also not here. A lot of people idolise their parents because they’re great parents. It’s a different thing to idolise your parent because you love their art.”
He continued: “I get to figure this out on my own. But also, I would love his advice. And I would also just love my dad.”
One job that he would have appreciated his father’s advice on was when he made his Off-Broadway debut earlier this year.
He admitted: “I was like, I’m so ill-prepared for this.
“The only person I really wanted to talk to was my dad.”
Cooper added: “As much as I would love him to be here and talk to him about acting, I also would be terrified to have him see my stuff and judge my stuff.
“Not that he would judge it, because he was a very empathetic person, and he would probably — hopefully — hold my hand through all of it.”
Cooper’s upcoming roles include the biographical comedy drama film, Artificial, which chronicles the controversial 2023 firing and rehiring of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Andrew Garfield will star as Altman while Cooper plays OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman.
Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son Cooper wishes his dad was still around to give him acting advice
