Philip Seymour Hoffman's final Sundance Film Festival wasn't a happy one. Two weeks before the Oscar winner was found dead at 46 of an apparent drug overdose, Hoffman was shockingly frank about his struggles upon meeting a complete stranger, magazine publisher John Arundel. "He said, 'I'm a heroin addict,'" Arundel told the New York Post. Arundel didn't immediately recognize the disheveled-looking Catching Fire star. After Hoffman removed his hat, Arundel realized it was the famous, celebrated actor, who then informed him, "'I just got out of rehab.' Obviously, he wanted people to know he was in recovery mode," Arundel continued.
As previously reported, Hoffman's somber, slovenly appearance during Sundance was captured by photographer Victoria Will in a haunting tintype image. "He didn't look like someone who took care of himself," another Sundance eyewitness tells Us Weekly.
Promoted his film A Most Wanted Man, Hoffman declined most interviews during his stay in Park City, Utah, and even got into an altercation with a photographer on Main Street. "It got ugly," another insider recalls.
Hoffman's body was discovered (with a hypodermic needle in his arm) in his West Village NYC apartment on Sunday, Feb. 2 by his friend David Katz. Authorities recovered 65 bags of heroin inside the residence. He is survived by estranged girlfriend Mimi O'Donnell and their three kids Cooper, Tallulah and Willa.
