Oscar Time For Hoffman?

(CBS)  Philip Seymour Hoffman is widely regarded as one of today's great character actors, and now he has found a truly great character to play. He's already favored for an Oscar nomination for his amazing portrayal of celebrated writer Truman Capote in the film "Capote."

He dropped by The Early Show to talk to co-anchor Harry Smith about the movie and his career.

Smith began by asking Hoffman, "Somebody comes to you and says, 'Let's do this movie.' I'm old enough to remember watching (Capote) when he was a caricature of himself on the talk shows. It would scare the hell out of any actor to even say, 'I'm going to even try that.'"

And Hoffman admitted, "Yeah, it was scary… I remember he's the guy that wrote that spooky book ('In Cold Blood'). That was my thought at that time, when I was 7, 8 years old. That's what I thought. Am I the right guy to do that? So it was really the story. I think that's what's really captivating about the film."

In November 1959, Capote, the author of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and a favorite figure in what is soon to be known as the jet set, read an article on a back page of The New York Times. It tells of the murders of four members of a farm family, the Clutters, in Holcomb, Kan.

Similar stories appear in newspapers almost every day, but something about this one catches Capote's eye. It presents an opportunity, he believes, to test his long-held theory that, in the hands of the right writer, non-fiction can be compelling as fiction. What impact have the murders had on that tiny town on the wind-swept plains? With that as his subject, he convinces The New Yorker magazine to give him an assignment and he sets out for Kansas.

"He goes there," Smith said, "and becomes completely obsessed with the story, the character."

Interjected Hoffman, "There is one character in particular (Perry Smith, one of the killers). These two men responsible for shotgunning a family of four to death for apparently no cause whatsoever. And it was because they thought there was $10,000. And there was only $40 or something. And it was just an atrocious thing."

Caught in Las Vegas, the killers, Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Dick Hickock (Mark Pellegrino), are returned to Kansas, where they are tried, convicted and sentenced to die. Capote visits them in jail. As he gets to know them, he realizes that what he had thought would be a magazine article has grown into a book. His subject would be the collision of two Americas: the safe, protected country the Clutters knew and the rootless, amoral country inhabited by their killers.

Capote himself managed to get his story by becoming part of the Midwest society in Kansas.

"That's the thing about the caricature part, which is true," said Hoffman. "Most people remember him that way. If you really go back and look at him, he is quite an odd fellow. There's no doubt about it. But he's incredibly intelligent, insightful and witty and all these other things, and he's astute. So he would really win people over. And he was a great storyteller. He was very entertaining that way. He had a way of winning people over."

Accompanying Capote to Kansas was a friend from his Alabama childhood: Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), who within a few months would win a Pulitzer Prize and achieve fame of her own as the author of "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Fast Facts About Philip Seymour Hoffman

Born: Fairport, N.Y., on July 23, 1967

Education: Attended Tisch School of the Arts, New York University in New York, New York. Majored in theater (BFA 1989). Attended Circle in the Square Professional Theatre School in New York.

Some of his films: "Scent of a Woman" (1992), "Twister" (1996), "Boogie Nights" (1997), "The Big Lebowski," "Next Stop Wonderland," and "Happiness" (all in 1998); "Flawless," "Magnolia," and "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (all in 1999); "Almost Famous" (2000), "Red Dragon" (2002), "Cold Mountain" (2003), and "Along Came Polly" (2004).

Hoffman was recently seen in HBO's film "Empire Falls" with Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward and Robin Wright Penn. He is currently filming "Mission Impossible III," with Tom Cruise.