Mad Men actors John Slattery and Christina Hendricks worked together on Slattery’s feature directing debut, God’s Pocket, which also features one of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final performances. The two remembered what it was like to work with the late actor, who died only weeks after the movie was screened at the Sundance International Film Festival.
Slattery appeared on CBS This Morning Monday and said that Hoffman’s death changed his “perception” of his own film. He also praised Hoffman’s performance in the film, noting that Hoffman always put a part of himself in the characters and how remarkable he was at understanding the technical side of acting in a film. “He could do anything,” Slattery said.
Slattery, Hendricks and co-star Eddie Marsan attended the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Thursday night at LACMA, where they also remembered their colleague.
“We had a lot of good laughs,” Hendricks told Variety about Hoffman when the cameras weren’t rolling. “In between all this darkness and all this emotion, we were able to sit back and have a good laugh with one another and that’s one thing I really appreciated about him.”
Slattery also told E! News that Hoffman did enjoy the final cut of God’s Pocket.
“He was very proud of it,” Slattery said. “He was very pleased with it, which to me, means everything.”
God’s Pocket stars Hendricks and Hoffman as a married couple struggling with the death of her son. John Turturro also stars in the film, which opens in theaters Friday.