generation we've ever had to go by actor. the stuff he had done is incredible. as a director and writer, and the theater work he did. it's a staggering loss. and i think it leaves a lot of people wondering why, how did this happen? >> yeah, i was going to say, i saw richard curtis came out tonight with an interview in britain saying, to his mind, phillip seymour hoffman was the greatest character actor of his entire generation. >> i don't think you'll get much argument about that. i mean, if you look at the stuff he did, he could play the most villainous characters, just despicable. and somehow watching him, you were sympathetic with them, you understood them. and that is something that is so hard to do as an actor, and really very rare when you see that, if you look at his body of work, it is amazing, and then you look at his action stuff, he was in mission impossible and