Philip Seymour Hoffman + Simon Critchley

Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman (currently to be seen in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master) talks with philosopher Simon Critchley about portraying unhappiness on stage and screen.
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About the Speakers

Philip Seymour Hoffman (currently to be seen in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master) came to public notice as the hapless stooge Scotty J. in the same director’s Boogie Nights. He has since commanded a wide range of roles in major films such as the Coen’s The Big Lebowski, Magnolia, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Almost Famous, Punch-Drunk Love, 25^th Hour, Cold Mountain, Capote (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Charlie Wilson’s War, Synecdoche, New York, Doubt, The Ides of March, and, fitting for this series, Todd Solondz’ Happiness. He directed Jack Goes Boating in 2010 and will appear next year as Plutarch Heavensbee in the next installment of The Hunger Games.
Simon Critchley is Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City. His works include the acclaimed treatment on deconstruction, Ethics-Politics-Subjectivity: Essays on Derrida, Levinas, and Contemporary French Thought (1999); an interpretation of nihilism Very Little, Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy, Literature (1997) and the bestselling The Book of Dead Philosophers (2008). His recent books include How to Stop Living and Start Worrying; Impossible Objects; The Faith and the Faithless. He runs a column in The New York Times called ‘The Stone’. He is equally adept at discussing the music of David Bowie and the soccer star Zidane, as he is Heidegger’s Being and Time. This will be his fourth appearance at the Rubin, including the on stage conversations with both Amit Chaudhuri and Fiona Shaw in the series Talk about Nothing.