DON’T LET THE GRUFFNESS fool you: Philip Seymour Hoffman is a lover, not a fighter. And if he ever offers you relationship advice, you take it. “You’ve gotta say I love you a lot and touch each other a lot. That’s a big part,” he said, reclining in an armchair at the Fairmont hotel. “I cook [my partner Mimi] breakfast a lot, whatever we have in the fridge.”

Can’t say I expected to get into a conversation about love with one of the most talented actors of our time—a man who’s avoided being typecast over a 20-year film career, who’s played an obscene phone caller, drug addicts, a gambler, a terrorist, and a priest. He’s done everything but the Cary Grant, sweep-her-off-her-feet hero, and he probably never will. But that doesn’t mean he can’t play a romantic lead. In his latest movie and directorial debut, Jack Goes Boating—based on the play by Robert Glaudini—he’s Jack, a New York City limo driver who falls for a troubled blonde (Amy Ryan) working in an undertaker’s office.

“It’s a romantic comedy that forgets there’s romance and a comedy,” Hoffman said. “Somebody called it ‘a love story that almost forgot to happen.’ ” He paused, searching for a tagline, ultimately settling on: “It’s not a label movie.”

And he’s not a label guy. But he threw himself into the project once his longtime friend and costar, John Ortiz, encouraged him to direct. Ortiz was in town, too, which lent a casual air to the interview—like we were sitting around Hoffman’s living room talking about life, love, movies, and the Fleet Foxes. (Our local boys are on the soundtrack; Hoffman’s a fan.) “We love challenging each other to do things that are a bit different,” Ortiz said.

“And in the moment, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, maybe this is the time [to direct],’ ”Hoffman added. “I always thought maybe eventually, because directing was becoming a bigger and bigger part of my life in the theater… So then, I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, this is right. I’m supposed to direct this.’ ” But direct and star?

“Yeah, that wasn’t so pleasant,” he laughed. “It wasn’t. But I did it. And I figure I did okay.”