Though the actor is almost a head taller than the late author and social figure Truman Capote, Philip Seymour Hoffman brilliantly recreates the writer for the film about his life during the creation of his literary masterpiece, "In Cold Blood"—the story of two killers who massacre a family in Kansas in 1959—which became an Oscar-nominated film of the same name in 1967.

As the Southern scribe (creator of the book, "Breakfast at Tiffany's") immersed himself in understanding the lives of two killers who slaughter the Clutters during a robbery, he became as tortured as the killers themselves. In director Bennett Miller's "Capote," Hoffman elevates the author's staory way beyond being a simple biopic and achieved a Best Actor Oscar nomination as a result.

Q: You kept your performance from simply being impersonation--what did you do to become the character?

PSH: Just concentrating on the story, probing into that story and understanding everything about it--and everything about why he might have done what he did to get what he wanted. Why was it such an obsession? If that was the core of it, what was making him tick? I knew if that weren't happening, all the technical work I was doing would be fruitless.

Q: Did you spend the whole day as Truman?

PSH: You spend the day you're working as Truman, as the actor technically, sticking close to the voice and physicality because dropping it and bringing it back on is more exhausting. You've got to stay with it. But then when you're finished you go take a rest.

Q: Was it important to give him that voice?

PSH: Of course it is; it would be impossible. I can't just go up there and say "Hi, I'm Truman Capote" and act like me. People would have been walking out in droves. Part of the story is that he is the guy who he is in Kansas in 1959 and that's part of the drama.

Q: In playing the character, how helpful were the clothes you were wearing?

PSH: They were from the period and were what he wore a lot right from the photos we had. Again, it's part of the story, and everything goes back to the story. He walks into the sheriff's office, the FBI, and there he is with the bowtie and the suit and all that. It's all part of the story that that's going to clash, and he still got past it. He still won those people over ultimately, with the help of Harper Lee.

Q: What do you think of his relationship with writer/researcher Harper Lee?

PSH: He needed her. He brought her with him down to Kansas to buffer that immediate impact that was coming his way. Ultimately, he became a taker, and she became Jack. They get cold with him and grow apart as the movie progresses.

Q: Did you like Truman Capote?

PSH: I think you ultimately have to love who you are playing. You have to have that kind of feeling, and you have to have passion for the person. So I was in constant state of trying to understand why he did what he did and kind of defending him, and getting behind him.

Q: Would you like him in real life?

PSH: I think I would, actually. Obviously it depends, because there's a lot of people who liked him a lot and he did them wrong, and they stopped liking him. So who knows, I might have been on the bad end of the stick with him at one point and it could have been bad. But ultimately if I was just a passive observer of him, and met him a little bit here and there, I would have liked him. He's pretty fascinating so no matter what he did, I would have wanted to know him.

Q: When you talk about loving the character you play…do you condone what he did because he was dishonest in his relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, in order to get what he wants out of him?

PSH: His relationship is not built on lies. Yeah, he lied to Perry in order to do what he needed to do, but their relationship I don't think is built on lies. Or else the tragedy wouldn't have unfolded, he would have coldly allowed them to die and it wouldn't have been a big deal. That's missing the point a little bit. The relationship itself was built on an extraordinarily powerful bond in identification that ultimately had to be betrayed, because of what he had to have done.

Q: Truman was attracted to Perry in some way--how would you describe their relationship?

PSH: The problem is you want to compartmentalize your life. You want to be able to say "that" doesn't have to do with "that." That was the problem, that he couldn't separate the two. He couldn't separate his obsession, attraction and need for Perry Smith, from the actual project. It was inseparable and therefore fed into the ultimate demise. He couldn't have one without the other. He couldn't say, "I love you, I am obsessed with you, I'm fascinated with you, I want the best for you…could you be executed?" [laughs]. Is that possible? That sounds so silly but you know ultimately that was the dilemma, a no-win situation. Ultimately at the end of the day, he was going to be abandoned once again, left once again. I know that sounds as self-centered as possible but that's ultimately the grief he is feeling at the end, is the self-reflection that is crushing him. He can't be left alone again.

Q: Towards the end, when Truman is back in New York, he can't wait for the Supreme Court to sentence them to death. Can you condone that?

PSH: You shouldn't condone it; you're watching the film. But me as the actor, no. You see him at the premiere scene at the bar. He's not a guy that's going, "Oh fuck man, when are these guys going to die?" He is tortured about it, because he knows that's what it's going to take and he needs that to happen. That's when you sort of see the self-destructive part of him, that diseased soul, selling of the soul, that stuff—that's when you see the price he is going to pay. That slowly creeping self-reflection that starts to creep in, that's unbearable. That's when he starts to project that all over the place. So I think all those things were happening at once. There are moments where he was known to say, "I hope they die" which I think is cold about him in certain things. After the execution he cried from the minute he got on the plane to the minute he got off.

Q: And he never finished another book.

PSH: He only wrote four chapters of "Answered Prayers"--he never finished that book. The little he did with it really did a number on him too. He never wrote another book, another novel, he never finished his great work. He was finished.

Q: Was that entirely a result of "In Cold Blood?"

PSH: Well, it's never just one thing. But he said, "If I had known what would have happened, I would have driven out of Kansas like a bat out of Hell." So our take on it is that it had a lot to do with what happened afterwards.