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Nearly four decades after playing mother and daughter in Field of Dreams, Gaby Hoffmann reunited with Amy Madigan — this time to hand her an NYFCC award for Best Supporting Actress.
Hoffmann was just a child when she played Karin Kinsella, the curious daughter of Madigan’s Annie, in the 1989 family film. That same year, the two also worked together on Uncle Buck.
Their on-screen bond clearly left a mark, and by the time Hoffmann finished her speech, she was openly emotional after reflecting on how Madigan shaped so much of her early career.
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“I was 7 years old when I last saw Amy,” Hoffmann said in her speech. “I’ll be 44 in a couple of days, so that was 36 years now.”
Nevertheless, after all those years, she admitted Madigan had stayed with her “more so than anybody else that I met as a kid making movies.”
While remembering her time working with the 75-year-old actress on Field of Dreams, Hoffmann fondly recalled Madigan’s energy and openness.
“Your warmth, your laughter, your power, your presence, your loud, giant, beautiful heart,” she listed. “I was a little girl, and you were like the ultimate mommy.”
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Rewatching Madigan’s work decades later only brought back further memories and feelings of admiration.
“I was just so happy. I just wanted to be around you. I wanted to be in your orbit. I just wanted as much of you as I could get,” Hoffmann said.
She also shared her recent experience of revisiting Field of Dreams for the first time in 30 years. “Oh my God, it’s so good,” Hoffmann said. “I realize this isn’t a movie about baseball. It’s a movie about dreams, duh, it’s about dreaming.”
Hoffmann credited Madigan with anchoring that dream, noting that “putting Madigan at the center of your dream is a pretty damn smart movie because it seems to me that she cannot help but share her full self with us.”
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Madigan received the NYFCC award for her performance as Aunt Gladys in Weapons, a tense horror-mystery about a small town thrown into turmoil after children begin disappearing.
Last month, the veteran actress also earned her first Golden Globe nomination in 36 years for her part in Weapons. Hoffmann made sure to praise Madigan’s performance by reflecting on the complexity she brings to her roles.
“Her humanness in all of this complexity, difficulty, and beauty is there for the taking. It is a feast. It is expansive and comprehensive and just delightfully disarming,” Hoffmann highlighted. “She is as fierce as she is tender. She is as sexy as she is silly… absolutely horrifying as she is completely vulnerable.”
By the end of her speech, Hoffmann wasn’t just celebrating a remarkable performance — she was celebrating the lasting influence of a mentor, a costar, and a creative force who has left an undeniable mark on her life.
