Paul Giamatti Receives Cinema Vanguard Award

Paul Giamatti is riding an irascible wave. He is perhaps best known as the cranky, difficult leading man in his two collaborations with Alexander Payne, this year’s The Holdovers and 2004’s Sideways, and seems to be most associated with those character traits. And there were a lot of roles where he played variations on irascible. But as the recipient of SBIFF’s Cinema Vanguard award on Wednesday night, we were shown that he has actually played a huge range of personalities.

Moderated by Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter, the evening ran through some highlights of Giamatti’s acting career, but also looked back at his early life. (One wishes that Feinberg spent less time listing awards and films, and spent a little more asking Giamatti questions…)

Giamatti has talked a lot lately about the similarities of the Holdovers world and his own background: he was raised in New Haven, Connecticut, as his father was a professor at Yale University. His mother was an English teacher, and he attended a boys’ prep school very much like the one in the film. He was able to model his character on his father’s colleagues as well as his own instructors, and had great fun (and some anxiety) about merging these worlds. (Fun facts about his father: he taught English Renaissance literature at Yale, served as the president of Yale, and later became the commissioner of Major League Baseball – now there’s an atypical career path.)

Giamatti began his own university studies in primate anthropology, then switch to fine art, and switched again to English. He had an interest in acting, and when his father died suddenly at the age of 51 he was compelled “to do what he loved”, as his father had always advised. He moved to Seattle to act, then returned to Yale to attend drama school.

He got some small TV roles early on, such as in NYPD Blue, with parts such as “Heckler Number 2” (not “Heckler Number One” as he pointed out). He said these small one-line or no-line scenes were often the most challenging, noting, “Those small roles like that are the hardest. Acting, all of it’s hard. And the big roles, you have a lot to carry. But those things where you have one line, or you have to come in for one scene and cry…you really get good, because you have to be.”

He showed great affection for other early (larger) parts, such as “Pig Vomit” in Howard Stern’s Private Parts, and “Limbo” in Planet of the Apes, saying it was a blast being a monkey. His first real leading role was as Harvey Pekar (another irascible character!) in American Splendor, then of course came Sideways.

When Sideways was mentioned the audience at the Arlington burst into applause – it continues to have such a strong Santa Barbara connection. Giamatti recalled first reading the pitch and thinking, “who cares about wine?” But when he read the script, he knew he was in. He and Thomas Hayden Church spent a lot of time together and became very good friends (another fun fact: he said that George Clooney and Brad Pitt both wanted the part of Jack, but it went to Church, who did a fantastic and memorable job).

When speaking of both Sideways and The Holdovers, Giamatti said that what you see in those films is exactly how it felt on set. He pointed to the wonderful Sideways scene on the porch with Virginia Madsen, and said the actual mood was exactly as it seems. (He also said Alexander Payne insisted on shooting The Holdovers in winter with real snow – his fixation on authenticity really shows.)

After his Sideways success he started getting lots of offers for leading roles (and noted wistfully that he no longer had to audition, which he said he missed). He appeared in Cinderella Man which was his first big budget “movie star” film and The Illusionist, both period films. He also did his first limited series, John Adams, in which he played the title role. He said the switch to a series was a big change, especially the length of time to shoot it (he was required for 106 out of 108 shooting days). He recalled, “I got the script and it was like two phone books…I said to them, this is nine hours of a guy who is a humongous pain in the ass…I was very wary about it. The sheer volume of it was daunting.”

Giamatti talked about his friend, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who he said he was “twinned” with, meaning they were similar types and were often up for the same roles. He had the utmost praise for Hoffman, and said he thinks about him a lot.

The chronological film clips and the discussion appropriately concluded with The Holdovers. As Giamatti says of his character, “He’s not a nice man, but he’s a good man.” He also shared that his character’s “lazy eye” received a lot of speculation that it was his real eye, even from a friend who had know Giamatti since he was 5. He shared that it was hand-painted by a very talented artist.

As someone who had lived the boys’ school life in the 1980s, going back to live in it again (but set a decade earlier) was a bit overwhelming, he said. It sometimes felt too “close.” He laughed about it being called a period film, noting that if he was alive at the time, it wasn’t “period.” He also weighed in on the debate about whether it could be considered a Christmas movie, noting, “Absolutely it’s a Christmas movie, none of this would happen if it wasn’t Christmas.”

Finally came the award presentation, by his Sideways co-star, Virginia Madsen. He had spoken so fondly of her talent, and she now returned the favor by stating, “You are known as the actor’s actor, because there’s a mastery in you, and you honor the writers, directors, and actors, because you illuminate what they’ve done, and you bring it to life.”

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts and educational organization dedicated to discovering and showcasing the best in independent and international cinema. Learn more at sbiff.org