There are very few people I love more than Philip Seymour Hoffman. I just don’t get to write about him that often because he’s almost always so low-key and he really doesn’t give that many interviews when he’s promoting a movie. To me, PSH > Tom Hiddleston. To me, PSH > David Gandy and Alexander Skarsgard combined. Go ahead and yell at me if you want. So, as a PSH fan, this news is absolutely shocking. As it turns out, Philip recently completed a detox program after falling down a spiral of prescription drug abuse and then HEROIN. Good God.
Philip Seymour Hoffman just got out of detox for a drug problem that was spinning out of control … a problem he desperately wanted to nip in the bud … and he’s already back doing a movie.
Hoffman — who struggled with substance abuse in the past but kicked the habit for 23 years — fell off the wagon more than a year ago. He tells TMZ it started slowly with prescription pills, and recently escalated to snorting heroin.
Hoffman — who won a Best Actor Oscar in 2006 for “Capote” — tells us the heroin use only lasted a week or so and he quickly realized he needed help, so he checked himself into a detox facility on the East Coast.
He says he was at the facility for 10 days and checked out last Friday. Hoffman credits what he calls “a great group of friends and family” for helping him seek the treatment he needed to get better.
And at least for now, it seems it worked, because Hoffman is clean and back on a movie set in Europe.
I tend to think that if PSH announced this, it’s because some magazine or tabloid got their hands on the information and Philip wanted to get it out before someone else announced it. I guess I have praise for him for realizing he had a problem and quietly seeking treatment, although… he’s a father! He’s a father to two little girls, Willa and Tallulah. Which I guess makes this more tragic, and I guess his girls are probably one of the biggest reasons he got clean. God, I hope he doesn’t go full Charlie Sheen – I like that Philip is my quiet little crush (I’ve been in love with him for like 15 years).
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I like him too. Incredible actor. Hope that he is doing ok and wishing him a safe recovery from this problem. Very sad.
My crush!!!
@andres – I agree. Really didn’t see this coming. He has small kids so I wish all of them very well.
Wow… I never would have suspected this. Good for him for realizing he needed help. He is such a talented actor. And I totally understand the attraction – he has an understated charisma.
Best wishes to this wonderful actor.
This. He is one of the few actors today that keeps it about his incredible talent and not about his “brand”. Hoping the best for him with his recovery!
Agree. I’ve always thought he was a class act performer but now I can say he’s also a class act human being. The honesty and transparency with which he has spoken of his personal problems make me admire and respect him even more, if possible.
Happy for him that he’s on the road to recovery. I’m a huge fan.
For me, PSH is just about one of the finest actors around. So glad he got himself sorted.
+1
depending on the pills he was taking, heroin is the cheaper form. Fantastic actor, I wish him nothing but success with his recovery.
Also, I agree with the PSH > Hiddleston but NOT PSH > The Viking (although he is the better actor)
Ha ha I also have a soft spot for the Viking. But I’m sure the only guy who could come near PSH is my newborn (thanks to my understanding of the affection ladies are giving him)Cumberbatch.
So that’s the reason why he dropped out of Clooney’s movie and Hugh Bonneville replaced him.
I really hope he’s doing better now!
Sounds like he took proactive steps to prevent it becoming worse. He’s an addict, he fell off the wagon, and knew enough to get help before it got worse. This can happen with prescription meds + addictive personality. Good on him for checking in. I’m sure his girls will be fine – he was an addict before having kids, he knows, he seems to have been well for most of their lives, and he’ll probably be well again after this setback.
Yes. I heard him talking very candidly with Terry Gross a couple of years ago about his addictions so I can’t say this comes out of left field for me. I guess there’s always a chance of a relapse.
I remember her saying something like “isn’t it hard to pass up a glass of wine when someone offers it?” and he said something like “no because I would never drink just one glass, I’d want the whole bottle and then some.”
Good for him for getting help.
+1000
<3
Let’s not start comparing him to Charlie Sheen. Addicts come in many shapes and sizes. Many addicts you would never guess, kind of like PSH. Fathers and mothers can easily be an addict. Thankfully he knows about himself as he has dealt with addiction in the past and quickly recognized that this was a battle he could/would not win on his own. He had the bravery, respect and decency for himself and daughters to seek help before something terrible happened. All addicts are not bad. They don’t all look like the Lindsey and Charlies of the world
This
Yes to this. Go phillip!
Best wishes! Love PSH he is a wonderful actor. 🙂
Jesus…shooting heroin! At least he recognized he has a problem, but damn, Phillip!
Technically – not that it matters – he was snorting heroin.
Lmao
And yet weirdly, he’s great friends with none other than Justin Theroux.
Another ex-user of hard drugs. They were probably in the same group before.
OMGosh how CUTE are those girls! I LOVE PSH and even though it’s not a big role, one of my all time favorite movies he did was The Talented Mr Ripley. I LOVED his work on that. The character was so aloof yet his character’s instincts were right on to the Tom character played by Matt Damon. He nailed that role. (I have to mention Boogie Nights. That one’s just about a tie for my fave!) Anywho so glad that PSH is working through his issues.I had no IDEA he had that struggle to deal with. Hollywood does tend to beat you up HARD. He’s such a class act. Hope that he gets back to a good place. Here’s wishing all the BEST to him and his family! <3
He was a real stand-out in Ripley, and mesmerising while on screen. Very few actors have his ability to say so much so brilliantly while doing (on the surface at least) so very little. Also loved him with Laura Linney in The Savages. Low key, touching perfection.
Ripley is one of my all time favourites too, and a lot of it is because of him. Plus it was before Gwyneth Paltrow became insufferable :D.
Haha yes! I think I actually loved everyone in that film, GP included. It was just so deliciously scenic and atmospheric. 🙂
He’s such an amazingly talented guy. Big fan of his work.
Sad to hear he’s been struggling, but I give him a lot of credit for getting help, and recognizing his support system. Best wishes to him.
Man I love PSH. He always brings such a unique level of humanity and vulnerability to every character he plays. I knew about his past battle with drug addiction but I had NO idea that he had relapsed.
I’m so happy that he had the balls to stop it before things spiraled out of control. I would hate to lose such an amazing actor to a drug overdose.
As everyone has said, he is a truly fine actor. He has a talent with the subtleties of character that make me (just me – don’t beat me up) prefer to watch him on screen even more than DDL. I hope he has a healthy recovery and wish him all the best.
As is rather apparent, I find Tom Hiddleston quite attractive but if you gave me a choice of dinner companions, I might choose PSH first as well.
Ack. Painkillers are insidious. As another poster pointed out, heroin can be cheaper than some narcotic prescriptions. Not that I think PSH was worried about money. He was probably more worried about being accused of doctor shopping which is against the law in NY.
Glad to see he got help and I hope that if PSH was the target of being exposed unless he coughed up some cash etc, that the person/people/rags involved don’t see a dime. Get it? a dime? Yea, back to washing dishes 🙂
I appreciate him quietly seeking treatment and recovery instead of losing his mind publicly a la Amanda Bynes and Lohan.
10 days seems a little short for receiving treatment for heroin abuse, particularly if he has struggled with drug abuse in the past.
He may have went through the amino-acid detox thing, which is supposed to work pretty rapidly.
Ok, so that takes care of the physical side of addiction/withdrawal. But 10 days to fix the psychological issues that gave rise to this addiction? No way.
Yes. He just went to detox, not rehab. Totally different things.
You can deal with addiction without rehab. I quit booze cold turkey with no rehab, but I did go to AA. Perhaps he does NA. Back in the day, people didn’t go to rehab to get sober. A lot of us did it on our own.
Detox != rehab.
Detox is about being monitored by medical professionals so you can go through the physical withdrawal safely.
Rehab is about providing strategies for battling the addiction.
They often overlap, and the name of the centre isn’t always an accurate reflection of what it provides, but it in this case it sounds like it really was a detox-only facility.
And really, he probably doesn’t need in-patient rehab. He fell off the wagon for a short time … he’s done rehab before, so he knows all the coping strategies, he just needs a reminder/refresher. Outpatient rehab should be fine.
(Edit: bluhare beat me to the detox/rehab clarification.)
Lucrezia: I might have beat you to it, but yours was much more informative!
10 days detox for opiate addiction? That is detox only and definitely not long enough. I wish him the best but a 90 day program would do him some good.
Liz….yes, it can be. Please read above. Thx.
I’m a huge fan…but not really surprised about his vices, mind you I assumed it was booze and not pills/heroin. That’s pretty heavy. When I saw him in ‘Owning Mahoney’ (A Canadian film about the true story of a banker with a gambling addiction) I was blown away. It is sososososo good. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. He’s amazing.
If you’re an addict, you’ve got all of them. Pretty unusual for an alcoholic or drug addict not to have problems with the other. I could have had a problem with pain meds but the itching and projectile vomiting took care of that. 🙂
You think? I’ve known a few alcoholics and they don’t do heroin…that’s for sure.
Gia: I do think. I’m an alcoholic and if I did heroin or cocaine I’d probably like it too much and get addicted to that. Just because you haven’t done something doesn’t mean you won’t get addicted to it if you do. Huge problem with addiction, because addicts/alcoholics can easily rationalize that they are addicted to their poison of choice and it would be no problem to switch to another. Look it up.
Gatweway drugs.
Sme people just cannot deal with some other chemicals, or have strong opinions or preferences and they stick to a certain addiction.
One of my friends onlyndid “naturals” , but she tried and used everything, peyote, mushrooms, etc., but she usually stuck to her trusty weed.
Other people I know had bad effects and stuck to alcohol, etc. But it is easier to try more stuff and get hooked when your defenses are low (drunk or high), and because of pressure from others.
My point is that you don’t do heroin. You drink. So your vice isn’t heroin, it’s booze. His vice is pills and heroin…not booze. Get it? I’m not talking about potential, i’m talking about what he actually did.
Gia: You just don’t want to get it, do you? Addiction is all about potential. It’s all the same thing with different methods. And connotations. You want to think your acoholic friends wouldn’t get addicted to heroin or cocaine? Fine with me.
This is so shocking. One of my favorite actors. I hope he can clean himself up.
This is such a common occurrence. Start pain pills for back pain etc and then when they run out and the patient is addicted they try to get more pain pills. Usually they are successful but as a previous poster said, it can be expensive. Heroin is cheaper and may be more readily available which is psh made the switch. F’ng pain pills are the devil.
Pain pills are not necessarily a problem for everyone with an addictive personality. My husband ate strong morphine pain pills like tic tacks, until he had back surgery, and stopped the pain meds cold turkey the next day, no problem. Booze though? Problem. Thankfully that one’s currently on ice, where I pray it stays forever.
Good luck to PSH, and his family.
LOL at having a crush on PSH. He is a good actor though.
I love this actor’s ability to transform himself character wise. The “rich kid” in Scent of a Woman was spot on pretentious. His transsexual character in 1999’s Flawless with De niro was Oscar worthy in my opinion.
He seems kinda chubby to be on heroin, no? But then again, what do I know. The most I’ve ever been addicted to is wheat.
He has a 10 year old son, too. I think he’s the gingery kid at the left of the last picture.
He’s a great actor, low key guy. Hope he gets better.
One of the best actors of our time. Glad he’s focused on being well.
Best of luck to Mr. Hoffman. Glad he is self-aware enough to understand the need for early intervention.
Cute little band of kids, too (and he has three – all three are in the photo).
He is a wonderful actor, I am sorry to hear about his drugs and drinking. I just looked up his age and Wiki says he is 45 years old. He definitely looks older than his age.
He also has a son, as seen in the last photo of your post.
Sleeping pills and tranquillisers are easy to obtain and very, very addictive. And because it’s not termed a ‘hard’ drug, most people think the health consequences will be minimal and it’s easy to overdose with that mindset.
Another brillant actor, who takes his craft seriously, hope he mends and can look forward now.
not, putting him in the same category as My Gandy or Fassy though.
He is actually my favorite actor.
I know this isn’t a popular opinion, but I’m not drinking his kool-ade. Maybe he’s a nice guy and all that, but his pretentious overacting is off-putting. His Lancaster Dodd character could’ve done better without all the closed-mouth mumbling and would’ve been believable had he not gone the same route he always does. He sounded like a hackneyed old british man, which everybody and their duck can do an impression of, and it didn’t fit the character. In my opinion.
I used to like him, but after a few movies I started realizing he’s playing almost the same character every time. He needs to broaden a bit.
I want to add that I applaud his announcement and his sobriety and wish him and his health the very best.
I agree. PSH truly is above all others.
I’ve always said he’s in parenthesis above Keanu and Owen and Vincent D and Paul G and Allen Covert
He’s a given before you even make a 1-5 tops list.
I am not surprised that prescription pills got him back in a bad way. But I am impressed how quickly he took control. He’s smart enough to know himself. And to own his humanity.
Love him forever.
I was truly shocked to read about this! I’m glad he’s sought treatment for what is a really debilitating disease. Kudos to him! His little girls are so cute. I love the first photo on the red carpet of him holding his i phone…way to turn it around on the photographers! I really love his work and want him to stick around and be healthy.
Watched Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead last night for the fourth time. Strange that there’s a post on both PSH and Hawke today. Hope PSH is doing well.
Glad to hear PSH’s fighting for his sobriety. What an awful shame it would be if the world lost such an extraordinary talent.
Most great artists struggle with demons… at least he’s lucid enough to realize that his drug use was putting a lot at risk!! 10 days doesn’t seem like much, does it? I hope he’s doing okay and sticks with his recovery program… film would be a much less interesting place w/o PSH!!
He’ll have to be careful not to put down the spoon and pick up he fork. He already has a bit of a weight issue.
Funny I’ve never read so many positive comments about a female junkie.Oops I forgot you are only a junkie if you are poor and not a great actor
.If you are a heroin addict on the streets panhandling you are just a worthless pathetic junkie.FYI he was only honest after TMZ published story about him going to rehab