UPDATE: The footage has been taken down due to copyright issues, we’ll let you know if it becomes available again.
Six years after the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, previously unseen footage of the beloved actor’s last role has been released.
The footage comes in the form of an unaired pilot episode from the dark comedy series, Happyish, directed by John Cameron Mitchell.
A previously unaired pilot of Happyish has just been released, featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman in what was to be his final role.
Mitchell took to Instagram and YouTube to share the footage on Valentine’s Day, describing it as a “caustic but heartwarming Valentine’s love story”. The pilot was filmed three months before Hoffman died.
In the episode, Hoffman plays Thom Payne, a depressed middle-aged advertising executive who struggles with the increasing modernisation of his agency and his relationship with artist wife, Lee. The pilot also contains a hilariously NSFW scene where Hoffman’s character is “fraternising” with a Keebler elf. Steve Coogan ended up replacing Hoffman in the role and the show ran for one season.
Hoffman passed away from an overdose in 2014. He was a widely celebrated actor who appeared in the likes of Boogie Nights, Capote, Magnolia, The Big Lebowski, Almost Famous, and Doubt.
Hoffman was also partway through filming The Hunger Games: Mockingjay when he passed away and appeared posthumously in the film. Director Francis Lawrence didn’t want to use CGI to recreate Hoffman, so he ended up redistributing his scenes to other characters and only used footage of Hoffman that had already been filmed.
Check out Mitchell’s post about the Happyish pilot below.
Watch Bill Murray relive Groundhog Day in an amazing Superbowl ad.
