Minnie Driver Says She’s ‘Better for Having Known’ Philip Seymour Hoffman

Minnie Driver is paying tribute to the late Philip Seymour Hoffman on what would have been the actor’s 58th birthday.

On Wednesday, July 23, Driver, 55, shared a photo of the pair posing together to her Instagram Stories and wrote fondly of working with Hoffman — who died at 46 in 2014 — on the 2003 movie Owning Mahowny.

“I wish I had more photos. I kept a journal when we worked together, it was essentially a love letter to Phil and the process he was awkwardly and completely generous in sharing with me,” Driver wrote in a caption to the photo. “I wrote one evening: ‘He got so annoyed with me for insisting he break character and tell me what he thought we were having for lunch that day. ‘ITS PROBABLY SAUSAGES FOR GOD’S SAKE.’ “

Owning Mahowny followed Hoffman as a Canadian bank employee who develops an increasingly worsening gambling addiction that sees him embezzle millions of dollars from his employer in order to place high-stakes bets at casinos. The movie is based on a real life man named Brian Molony; Driver costarred in the film as Hoffman’s character’s girlfriend, and John Hurt also featured in its cast.

“I have run out of adjectives to describe his commitment and his wonder,” Driver wrote of Hoffman in her Instagram post. “Better for having known him. Happy birthday Phil. Xo.”

Hoffman, an Academy Award-winning actor, died in February 2014 of a drug overdose, leaving behind a filmography that included Capote — the film he won his Oscar for — as well as movies like The Master, Magnolia and The Talented Mr. Ripley, among dozens of well-remembered roles.

While he and Driver only ever acted together in Owning Mahowny, working with Hoffman appeared to have a significant impact on Driver. She was one of a number of celebrities and Hollywood figures who reacted to Hoffman’s death on social media in the hours after news of his death first broke.

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“Oh boy what is HAPPENING? All these beautiful people leaving too early. What a sweet soul, Phil Hoffman was, what a sad, sad day,” she wrote on X (then known as Twitter) at the time. In a follow-up post responding to a fan who complimented Owning Mahowny, Driver added that she believed Hoffman “should have won an Oscar for” the film.

Hoffman’s final onscreen performances came in the two-part Hunger Games franchise finale Mockingjay – Part 1 and Part 2, both of which released after his death. Driver, meanwhile, most recently appeared in the 2024 movies Millers in Marriage and The Assessment. She also lent her voice to one episode of the 2024 television series Krapopolis and to three episodes of the Netflix series Arcane.