I couldn't talk like me. It wouldn't have worked 
He's long been an audience favourite for his off-kilter turns in Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Happiness and Almost Famous. But now Philip Seymour Hoffman has got the critics raving with his cannily spot-on performance as American author Truman Capote in Bennett Miller's awards-laden biopic. With a BAFTA already sitting happily on his mantelpiece, Hoffman's the best bet to swan off with the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the writer as he investigates the murders that form the source of his most revered book, In Cold Blood.
How much did the mythology of Truman Capote cloud getting to the essence of the man?
When I took the job I wasn't well read on Capote, so I didn't really know much about him actually. I knew about him when I was a kid, seeing him on talk shows and I knew what he'd written and why he was famous. So the instinct to do it wasn't anything as grand as trying to break through the mythology. It was more the issues of the story that the script brought up that fascinated me. The more I read around it, the more fascinated I became.
What aspects of the script persuaded you this was going to be more than just a standard biopic?
It was about a man before his great piece, the thing that will last and stay on long after he's gone. And then the journey he made to get there. A no win situation develops, where he wants something so badly that he'll do anything to get it, and in doing so doesn't actually get what he wants. It's that whole idea of being careful what you wish for and it's that whole Faustian bargaining thing. All of that is in there, but it happens to be a real story that really happened. It was pretty fantastic.
You've played a real person before with Lester Bangs in Almost Famous, but Capote is a whole new level. What were your concerns about portraying him?
The given of the story is the character behaves and talks in a certain way and you have to stick close to that. I couldn't just fudge it, so I had to confront it. It's talked about in the film, he actually says, "People judge me by the way I talk," so I couldn't talk like me. It wouldn't have worked. It's unique to the story how he actually sounds.
Was the voice the key to the character?
No, not at all. A lot of the external stuff is actually an obstacle to getting into a real character. What you're really doing is more internal work: thought, moment to moment logic and emotional reality. That's the stuff that's really happening; all the externals are something that has to happen along with it. It's the stuff that gets in the way. That's why you have to practise it so much, so it all becomes one. You can't have one without the other.
The core of the film is Capote's relationship with murderer Perry Smith - how did you see their relationship?
I think when he meets and sees Perry Smith, he sees his book. Before he meets Perry, I think he's just writing an article, I don't think he sees something as grand as what he ends up writing. But I think when he meets Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock he sees his protagonists and he's overwhelmed by a fascination of them. I think there is something with Perry that he identifies with, and I think that's the orphaned outsider; their upbringings were both pretty brutal and the fact that he succeeded and Perry didn't fascinated him no end. I think he falls in love with him in a way, but I don't think it's a sexual thing, but it's an incredibly intimate relationship. He comments on it afterwards that Perry was one of the best friends he had.
You followed Capote with Mission: Impossible III. Was that a choice to do something a bit more fun after such an involving role?
It was something different from anything I've ever done before. I actually had a really good time doing it. I'd never played a villain like that, and I thought this was the opportunity, as I thought the director JJ Abrams would do it well. Of course, it's a pure entertainment movie, but there's nothing wrong with that, if you feel its actually going to be entertaining and I had a feeling people were going to like this.
I take it you play a more developed bad guy rather than just a pantomime Bond-like villain?
Yes - I get to talk and stuff!
Capote is released in UK cinemas on Friday 24th February 2006.
