Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Son Cooper to Star in New Paul Thomas Anderson Film

Cooper Alexander Hoffman is following in his late father’s footsteps. The son of Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman is now 17 and starring in a still-untitled feature written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

Cooper Hoffman will play a child actor in the coming-of-age, multiple-storyline movie set in the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s. The cast, which also includes Bradley Cooper and singer-songwriter Alana Haim, is currently filming on location. Cooper Hoffman’s debut is particularly poignant because Anderson and Philip Seymour Hoffman worked together on multiple projects, beginning with Anderson’s first film, Hard Eight. The duo continued to collaborate on critically-acclaimed films like Boogie Nights, Punk Drunk Love, Magnolia, and The Master.

In 2014, Philip Seymour Hoffman died at age 46 of a heroin overdose, leaving behind Cooper as well as daughters Tallulah and Willa with partner Mimi O’Donnell. In a 2018 essay for Vogue, O’Donnell wrote, “It’s been almost four years since Phil died, and the kids and I are still in a place where that fact is there every day. We talk about him constantly, only now we can talk about him without instantly crying. That’s the small difference, the little bit of progress that we’ve made. We can talk about him in a way that feels as though there’s a remembrance of what happened to him, but that also honors him. We talk about his bad sides and his good sides, what he did that was funny and what he did that was crazy, and what he did that was loving and tender and sweet. We open up, and it brings us together and keeps his spirit alive.”

It will be interesting to see if Cooper Hoffman inherited his father’s insane acting talent, and what kind of a path he’ll blaze for himself in Hollywood.

Cover Photo: James Devaney / Contributor

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