Hoffman told stranger: 'I'm an addict'

Philip Seymour Hoffman approached a complete stranger at a film festival two weeks ago and told them: "I'm a heroin addict".

The 46-year-old Oscar winner, who died from a suspected heroin overdose in his New York apartment two days ago, reportedly made the abrupt confession to a magazine publisher at the Sundance Film Festival.

The publisher, John Arundel, had failed to recognise the dishevelled-looking star of Capote and asked him what he did for a living.

The actor replied that he was a "heroin addict" and then removed his hat, at which point Arundel realised who he was talking to, the New York Post reports.

"Oh, you’re Philip Seymour Hoffman," Arundel said.

"Bingo," said Hoffman, "I just got out of rehab."

Arundel said he had the impression that the troubled actor wanted to tell people that he was in "recovery mode".

Hoffman was on a drug bender six weeks before he died and told friends he feared he would die from an overdose, it has also been revealed.

"If I don't stop I know I'm gonna die," he told one friend who asked him how bad his problem was, TMZ reports.

The actor relapsed into addiction in 2012 after staying sober for several years.

Recently the mother of his three young children, Mimi O’Donnell, reportedly told him to leave their apartment because she did not want their children exposed to his drug use.

Police are now looking for the dealer who sold Hoffman the 50 bags of heroin they seized from his apartment — along with 20 empty bags.

Source: New York Post, TMZ

Author: Erin Tennant, Approving editor: Natasha Lee