Sam Rockwell regrets never acting alongside his “old buddy,” the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, he revealed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast Friday. “I had two opportunities, maybe three,” to appear in a film with Hoffman, he said, “and they were squandered and I regret that.” Hoffman died of a heroin overdose in February 2014. Rockwell also kept his friend’s memory alive when he dedicated his Best Supporting Actor Oscar to Hoffman in 2018. “He was an old friend of mine,” Rockwell said during his acceptance speech, “He directed me in a play for public theater. He was very close to me and an inspiration to all of my peers. People like Jeffrey Wright, Billy Crudup, Liev Schreiber, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Brolin, whoever was in my age range—Phil Hoffman was the guy,” he added, calling Hoffman “a huge, huge inspiration on me.” Rockwell elaborated on that friendship more Friday when he said, “Phil, we were very close, we were good friends and he directed me and he was just one of the guys. He was the guy.” Rockwell also named a few living actors he wished he’d taken the opportunity to work with. “There’s a couple. I could have worked with Nick Nolte, could have worked with Kurt Russell, really been kicking myself. Richard Jenkins.” He added that in their case, “They’re still out there, there’s time.”
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