 Hoffman occasionally changed his hair and lost or gained weight for parts , and he went to great lengths to reveal the worst in his characters . But in a 2012 interview he confessed that performing to a high standard was a challenge : " The job isn 't difficult . Doing it well is difficult . " In an earlier interview with The New York Times , he explained how deeply he loved acting but added , " that deep kind of love comes at a price : for me , acting is torturous , and it 's torturous because you know it 's a beautiful thing ... Wanting it is easy , but trying to be great – well , that 's absolutely torturous . " This struggle was confirmed by the author John le Carré , who met Hoffman during the adaptation of his novel A Most Wanted Man . While praising the actor 's intelligence and intuition , le Carré acknowledged the burden that Hoffman felt : " It was painful and exhausting work , and probably in the end his undoing . The world was too bright for him to handle . " 
