George Clooney discusses Philip Seymour Hoffman's 'senseless' death

Actor George Clooney attends the BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Awards in Beverly Hills, California November 9, 2013. REUTERS/Phil McCarten (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT) - RTX157GT

George Clooney paid tribute to tragic Philip Seymour Hoffman at the premiere of his own movie “The Monuments Men” on Tuesday night, according to the New York Post.

Clooney started his introduction for the film at Ziegfeld Theater remembering the actor.

“I wanted to start by saying it’s very odd to be here in New York, particularly a couple of days after a good friend of ours has passed away. It makes it difficult, and I think it’s the elephant in the room for a lot of us here. It’s senseless and it’s sad, but he will be greatly missed. Phil will be greatly missed. It’s hard to be here tonight with that . . . weighing over us, but I wanted to say that.”

Clooney had earlier told red- carpet reporters that he’s struggling to come to terms with Hoffman’s “senseless” drug-overdose death.

Clooney said, “Phil is a good friend to a lot of us in the community. And it makes it very difficult to be here 48 hours in this town after he died . . . everybody’s here kind of putting on a brave face to get through this because it’s a pretty traumatic thing. We’re going to miss him a lot and it’s senseless in a lot of ways . . . We miss him.”