 Between April and May 1996 , Hoffman appeared at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in a Mark Wing @-@ Davey production of Caryl Churchill 's The Skriker . Following this , based on his work in Scent of a Woman , he was cast by writer – director Paul Thomas Anderson to appear in his debut feature Hard Eight ( 1996 ) . Hoffman had only a brief role in the crime thriller , playing a cocksure young craps player , but it began the most important collaboration of his career . Before cementing his creative partnership with Anderson , Hoffman appeared in one of the year 's biggest blockbusters , Twister , playing a grubby , hyperactive storm chaser alongside Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton . According to a People magazine survey of Twitter and Facebook users , Twister is the film that Hoffman is most popularly associated with . He then reunited with Anderson for the director 's second feature , Boogie Nights , about the Golden Age of Pornography . The ensemble @-@ piece starred Mark Wahlberg , Julianne Moore and Burt Reynolds ; Hoffman played a boom operator , described by David Fear of Rolling Stone as a " complete , unabashed loser " , who attempts to seduce Wahlberg 's character . Warmly received by critics , the film grew into a cult classic and it has been cited as the role in which Hoffman first showed his full ability . Fear commended the " naked emotional neediness " of the performance , adding that it made for compulsive viewing . Hoffman later expressed his appreciation for Anderson when he called the director " incomparable " . 
