Backstage 5 With...
Gaby Hoffmann By Allie Volpe
As a child actor in the 1980s and ’90s, Gaby Hoffmann didn’t quite have a passion for the craft, though she enjoyed being around performers. So she took a break from acting, eventually returning in her 30s for acclaimed performances on “Transparent” and “Girls.” Her latest is Mike Mills’ “C’mon C’mon,” in which she plays the mother of young Jesse (Woody Norman), whom she entrusts to the care of her brother, played by Joaquin Phoenix.
ILLUSTRATION: NATHAN ARIZONA/PHOTO: KATHY HUTCHINS/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
You started acting when you were super young. Do you have any memories from your first days on a professional set? I have very fond moments from “Field of Dreams,” which was my first movie, mostly because I loved hanging out with the baseball players. I was majorly in love with Ray Liotta and pretty sure he was majorly in love with me. I was 6, so let’s assume he wasn’t. I really loved being on movie sets when I was a kid because I loved hanging out with adults. What’s the wildest thing you ever did to get a role? There was a movie I saw at Sundance; it blew me away and it made me want to act. It was Sebastián Silva’s movie “The Maid.” Soon thereafter, I got a call from my agents asking me if I spoke French. I had this instinct, and I knew immediately it was Sebastián. I said, “Tell him I speak French.” He knew immediately that I didn’t speak French once I was in the room, but he hired me anyway. We became friends, and he [later] called me and said, “Will you come to Chile in the next week and make an all-improvised movie called ‘Crystal Fairy [& The Magical Cactus]’?” which was a huge turning point for me, creatively.
gave a very good audition, but on top of that, I tried to correct Edward Albee’s grammar—which is so stupid. He told me so in the moment and was clearly very offended. I corrected one of our great playwrights. What performance should every actor see and why? Tilda Swinton in “I Am Love”; Sally Hawkins in “Happy-Go-Lucky”; Meryl Streep, obviously, in basically everything. I love watching Frances McDormand do anything. What advice would you give your younger self? At 39, after 34 years of acting—with a fairly large break in the middle—I feel like I’m only just now getting interested in it in a really serious way. It’s the same advice I keep giving myself: Just keep showing up and trusting that there’s something there to find if you can be present and get out of your way.
What is your worst audition horror story? I once went to an audition that I really didn’t want to go on but I thought that I should, because it was for an Edward Albee play. I don’t think I
“I decided to say yes to anything that came my way for a full year and go at it with an open heart and mind.”
backstage.com
3
12.30.21 BACKSTAGE
