Justin Long will be forever grateful for the opportunity to meet Philip Seymour Hoffman early in his career.

On Thursday, Long paid tribute to Hoffman with an emotional post on Instagram timed to the nine-year anniversary of the Capote actors death. In it, he shared a throwback photo of him and Sam Rockwell, his co-star in the 1999 film Galaxy Quest , posing with Hoffman, whod swung by the set for a visit.

Knowing what a huge fan I was, Sam wanted to introduce us and I am forever grateful that he did, Long wrote . When I was the young eager actor you see in this picture, Phil was an acting god to me my Meryl Streep or Marlon Brando. He still is.

He described Hoffmans laugh as full and bold and lacking even a hint of self-consciousness, and also cited the late actors continued influence on his own work as an actor.

Whenever Im stuck in a scene I often find myself thinking What would Phil do? - it always grounds me in the truth, he explained. He laughed the way he acted. Today Im missing both.