It's not always rainbows and kittens here on this blog. Nope, sometimes life happens and people die.
I was "saddened" to hear of the loss of Philip Seymour Hoffman this morning of an apparent drug over dose. He was 46. It's a sad loss for the movie world, as he really was a great actor.
I will always remember him in one of my favourite films: The Talented Mr. Ripley
In Ripley, Hoffman's character Freddy Myers not only delivered us a secondary villain to the film, he also had some of the best lines in the entire picture:
"Don't you wanna fuck every woman you see at least once?"
And
"How's the peeping Tommy? How's the peeping?"
I guess I always had a hard time dissassociating Hoffman from his Ripley character. I just always saw him as swarmy, unkept, over weight, and kind of slimy, even. I guess that's the bad side to playing a villain.
Maybe that's why I'm not too terribly saddened by his death. Does that sound terrible?!
Yes it is a loss for the film world, but I never quite understand when someone like Philip Seymour Hoffman dies and it then sends the internet into a flurry.
"So sad." "Heartbroken." "Such a loss."
Are just some of the comments going around on Facebook right now and I think, in a way, it's kind of a disgusting portrayal of humanity when we as people begin to care more about the people on the big screen than we do our own lives.
Yes, it's a tragic loss when anyone dies, but did you know Philip Seymour Hoffman? Do you really care?
I ask this because sooooo many people who have written about him today don't seem totally in sync with reality. What I mean is, I feel like you care more about an actor that just died of an apparent overdose than you do your own family, friends, and people around you.
We have become so caught up in the digital era, that we often forget that there are real people all around us who could use the same love and support that we are now wasting on a dead actor.
Sound harsh? I mean it to be.
"No I can't believe it! He's gone! One of my favourite actors!" Yet- have you called your mother today? Reached out to your best friends and family? No. These are real, tangible people in our lives yet for some reason a death of an actor strikes up more sympathy in us all.
And I don't understand it. I think we should all step away from our computers and mobile devices (I'm currently writing this on my iPhone) and go out and LIVE a little.
Breath fresh air. Have brunch with friends. Go hiking. Watch that silly sports spectacle later that I thought happened two weeks ago...
Whatever. Just quit sulking over someone who obviously didn't care enough about his own life to keep it.
Philip would want that for all of us to LIVE and quit pretending to live.
I gotta go. I'm calling my mother and people I love.
