Gaby Hoffmann is back for 'The Last Seder'

Gaby Hoffmann is picking up a stranger at Penn Station. Well, she's hoping he'll just hop on the Long Island Rail Road and accompany her to a Passover seder -- posing as her boyfriend, so she doesn't get all those questions from nosy relatives about why she hasn't found the right guy. This guy seems right enough. He's got a nice suit.

This is not how one might recall Hoffmann, the former child actor and co-star of '80s and '90s hit films, including "Field of Dreams," "Uncle Buck" and "Sleepless in Seattle."

This is Hoffmann 2.0, now grown and starring in "The Last Seder," an Off-Broadway dramedy by award-winning playwright and East Rockaway native Jennifer Maisel. The play, covering LIRR pickups, sibling rivalry, Alzheimer's and -- yes -- Jewish guilt, is running at Manhattan's Theatre Three, extended through Jan. 13.

Though not Jewish, Hoffmann says she has been to her share of seders. And her own extended family is raucous enough "so being at a big dinner table with screaming and plates crashing . . . that's in my bones," she says.

Hoffmann, 30, grew up with her sister and mom (cult film actress Viva, of Andy Warhol films) at the famed Chelsea Hotel. She started acting at age 5.

"I had a big crush on Ray Liotta," she admits, recalling her days tossing a baseball with guys on the "Field" set. She also has fond memories of Nora Ephron (who directed Hoffmann in "This Is My Life") and "Buck" star John Candy, who was "the most comforting, wonderful person to work with as a kid."

Less wonderful? "Kevin Costner was a nightmare [and] really mean to me," she says, then laughs it off. "I don't hold a grudge."

She did, however, have an obsession. Attending college (specifically, Bard, in the Hudson Valley). So she chucked Hollywood for dorm life, and considered being an environmental lawyer, chef, doula -- but nothing felt right.

"It's only been in the last year that I decided I wanted to keep acting," says Hoffmann, who has recently appeared onstage and on TV, including this season's premiere of "Louie."

Making the transition from child star to adult actor isn't easy, but Hoffmann's glad she took time to consider all her options."Who knows what will happen?" she says, unapologetically. "This is where I am now."