Following Philip Seymour Hoffman's untimely death, JVL wrote that he "might have been my favorite actor of my generation." There was much such praise for the actor as one of the greatest of his generation, praise that prompted* John Podhoretz to ask, "It's last Friday. Someone asks you to name the best actor of our time. How many of you would have said Philip Seymour Hoffman. Honestly." It's a fair question, though I think it's equally fair to reply, as I did, that tragedy sharpens the mind. I also think we wouldn't be seeing the same sort of reaction if an equally famous character actor/sometimes-leading man—say, a Steve Buscemi**—died.
Anyway, the whole thing got me thinking about whether or not Hoffman is indeed the best actor of this generation. Though, as I discussed with JVL elsewhere, what, exactly, does "this generation" entail? Are we going solely by age? In other words, born within about seven or eight years of Hoffman? Or are we going by emergence on the scene? And what does that even really mean? His first big role in 1992's Scent of a Woman? 1996-97, when he starred in both Twister and Boogie Nights?
Further complicating the issue is Hoffman's penchant for sliding into leading and supporting roles with equal ease. And then we have to make the distinction between "best actor" and "best movie star." Will Smith is inarguably a bigger movie star for the time period under consideration and inarguably a less accomplished actor (though no slouch in his own right).
What I'm saying in my rambling way is, it's a weird question to ask—what do "best actor" and "generation" even mean; how do you quantify such a question; do you weight leading performances more than supporting performances; etc.—and therefore a weird question to answer. It also feels vaguely inappropriate to tackle. But I'm tired of being depressed about this.***
I think you have to exclude Tom Hanks, Daniel Day Lewis, and Denzel Washington from this list (they're all more than a decade older than Hoffman). And I'd probably keep Leonardo DiCaprio off as well (too young, though it's close and his career overlaps Hoffman's almost perfectly). But who else is in the conversation? If you were composing a short list of the generation's best actors, a few names jump out.
Russell Crowe is in the mix: He's only three years older than Hoffman, made it big in America around the same time Hoffman was breaking out, and is one of the very few actors to be nominated for best leading actor three years in a row. The most impressive aspect of that run of nominations is the different types of performances he gave: a put-upon scientist; a gladiator; and an eccentric-but-brilliant mathematician.
I think you'd have to have Christian Bale on this list. He's a chameleon of an actor, equally comfortable as a strung out, waifish junkie as he is a paunchy con artist. He does action as well as drama and can hold his own in a comedic setting. A few years younger than Hoffman, Bale was nevertheless working long before Hoffman, racking up roles as a child.
What about Benicio del Toro? He kind of perfectly fits the Philip Seymour Hoffman mold, disappearing into small roles and dominating large ones. He's also the sort of actor who, if he died tomorrow, people would be making grand pronouncements about but would be unlikely to pick off the top of their head as one of the greats. I can think of few actors who I love that had a better year than he did in 2000: Traffic, Snatch, and (the criminally underrated) The Way of the Gun. To say nothing of his turns in The Usual Suspects and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Sin City. He's been sneakily good for a long time and has the Oscar hardware to back up a claim to the throne.
I'm tempted to put Nicolas Cage on this list—people forget how good he is when he's not lapsing into self parody; there are few actors who could pull off a trifecta like Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas, and Adaptation—but his "southern" accent in Con Air is an immediate disqualification.
I'm not entirely sure who else to include. Ralph Fiennes, maybe. I could see Johnny Depp making a list like this. Forest Whitaker?
*In a followup, JPod notes that he doesn't disagree with the description exactly, he's just surprised by the prevalence of the opinion.
**Don't get me wrong: I love Steve Buscemi. He's great in roles big and small. I just don't think you'd see the same kind of reaction.
***Monday night I watched Before the Devil Knows You're Dead with the intention to write about the way it might alter how we see Hoffman. But I just couldn't. It was too raw.