Bennett Miller Capote Quotations

Philip insisted it would be wrong for him to break down and be so emotional. But, of course, when we rolled camera, he proceeded to do exactly what he'd argued against. It's what makes his performance feel so real. When he entered a scene, he was no longer thinking like an actor. He was thinking like Truman Capote would think.

Capote is one of those people who represents something larger than himself. I think that his ambition, his kind of success, and the downfall that followed are very contemporary.

Capote was an enormously and dangerously ambitious, talented, conflicted guy who really concealed himself from the public. He was at once a very public figure and a very private figure. And this is a movie that sort of peels back the public mask and gets into the heart of darkness.

It was the perfect gift for Perry, who saw himself, like Thoreau, as an outsider persecuted by society. It made him feel good about himself, which is just what Capote wanted.

It's very hard now that the film is done and you can look at it to appreciate the magnitude of the risk he took and the possibility of horrible, embarrassing failure. Think about this character. Think about who Capote was. And think about Phil Hoffman, who's basically like a big guy with a baseball cap with a deep voice.