Michelle Williams Visits Philip Seymour Hoffman's Family, Aaron Sorkin Hopes Actor's Death Can Save 10 Lives

Plus, Monuments Men stars Matt Damon, Bill Murray, and John Goodman remember Oscar winner

By Rebecca Macatee Feb 06, 2014 2:01 PMTags
Michelle WilliamsAKM-GSI

Michelle Williams knows firsthand what Mimi O'Donnell, the mother of Philip Seymour Hoffman's three children, is experiencing right now.

And on Wednesday, Feb. 5, the actress paid a visit to the NYC apartment of Hoffman's grieving family, presumably to offer her support and empathy in the wake of his tragic death on Feb. 2. In 2008, Heath Ledger, the father of Williams' daughter Matilda, fatally overdosed in a New York City apartment not far from where Seymour was found dead of an apparent overdose with a needle still in his arm.

Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Aaron Sorkin, a former drug addict himself, wrote a heartfelt Time piece about Hoffman's death and what can be learned from it. He recalled meeting up with the late star at the Paramount lot and commiserating about their past struggles with substance abuse. "It's not unusual to have these mini-AA meetings," he explained, "People like us are the only ones to whom tales of insanity don't sound insane."

Sorkin also wrote that Hoffman told him, "If one of us dies of an overdose, probably 10 people who were about to won't." The Oscar-winning writer explained that Hoffman "meant that our deaths would make news and maybe scare someone clean." And he hopes that in addition to the Hoffman's impressive and extensive work, part of his legacy will be " that 10 people who were about to die who won't now."

Watch: Matt Damon Remembers Philip Seymour Hoffman

Other stars, like Matt Damon, are remembering Hoffman in brighter times. "Working with him was incredibly joyous," he told E! News at the premiere of The Monuments Men. "He was brilliant. There are actors—there are a few, it's a handful—that it's like it's not even work. you're just in this other place and it's them hauling you with them. He was that guy. He was that good."

Bill Murray said it's "very difficult to rationalize that he's gone, and he ended the way he did—if he did end the way that they say he did...It's a big grief smash. It's a shock."

And another star of The Monuments Men, John Goodman, told E! News Hoffman was "one of the few actors that I'd really call an artist."