PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN MAKES CASE FOR THE DEVIL

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a character in Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead that’s destined for hell.

Philip Seymour Hoffman stars in Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead as the black sheep who’s destined for hell as he turns against his family in unforgivable and unredeemable ways.

Philip says the danger in his character is established in the opening scene where he is having violent sex with a woman played by Marisa Tomei but the audience is not quite sure what their relationship is. Philip says that scene was disturbing for even him to watch.

“Me watching it, I’m the worst audience member during that scene. I think it sets up the movie really well actually. Yeah you’re watching two people having sex in a way that you don’t know. It doesn’t seem to be about love. It seems to be a bit erotic in a heated kind of self obsessed way. It leaves all the questions. Who is this couple? I just know there’s something dangerous. But the scenes that you’re going to see I mean that makes that look like kids play. The awful, nasty things, really the true nasty things come out. I mean sex is sex.”

Philip’s character is definitely a bad seed. He robs his family’s jewelry store, shoots up heroin, snorts cocaine and ultimately self destructs in a killing spree. Philip talks about how the title of the film illustrates the story.

“Well it’s based on that Irish poem; something about you get to heaven seven minutes before the devil knows you’re dead. They all better wish that the devil doesn’t find out they’re dead until they’re already in heaven because what they’ve done in their lives would only mean they would go south. I think that’s what the title means to me. It’s really saying the actions that these people ultimately take, all of them are not redeemable in a lot of ways. They’ve dug themselves a hole that’s gonna be hard to get out of and I think that’s really what that title’s about.”

Philip will soon be seen in Charlie Wilson’s War alongside Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead opens Friday, October 26th in theaters nationwide.