By: Izumi Hasegawa November 28, 2023
One of our favorite actors, Paul Giamatti, reunited with Alexander Payne to play a “juicy” character again! He was ecstatic to play a character with a VERY familiar name!
Q: Playing the character of Paul, even though he’s carrying some burdens, was it sort of freeing? Did you find that he was a fun character to play? He says what he wants.
I actually did think he was a lot of fun to play. ‘Cause I thought he takes a certain like delicious pleasure in coming up with the most elaborate insults it can come up with. Like it was kind of a certain sort of free song for him that he could put somebody down in such an elaborate way. You know, he’s pleased with his own intelligence and playing around with his own intelligence. [laugh] So that was very fun. It was a fun character. I liked the character a lot. I feel like he’s sitting at home.
Q: There are some action scenes in the film. Could you talk about them?
It’s one of those classic things where I’m like, I didn’t think how much running I was gonna actually do. It was one of the takes — he still got the detention card in his hands too.
I want everybody to know I can actually throw a football. That was acting. Not a stunt double. That was me. Dynamic Action sequences.
Q: The film set is ‘70s. What was it like to?
It was freaky to be alive and go, “I’m making a period movie, and I was alive in this period” is weird. So I’m like, “Period movie’s supposed to be a horse and buggy,” you know what I mean? But I was like, “Not this, which I remember vividly.” So that was weird.
Q: There were no sets, and everything was organic locations. How does that help you stay in character?
It was cold which was helpful. I mean, it makes all the difference in the world to be in a real place, rather — I mean, there can be amazing sets you can be on, but nothing’s better than the actual place. You know, like that bowling alley and stuff like that, which is like 1962 in that bowling alley and, you know, but then you had amazing production design. So like, that room of mine was like so evocative and you never even see any of the specific stuff in there, but you get the feeling of it. And that place we shot in, that kind of old abandoned nunnery when we shot some stuff in there, which was just this crazy old, weird building. The convent. And it was like — so all of it makes a big difference to be in the actual place too than in Massachusetts, the actual place. And it was — the thing I loved about this is every time you see it snowing in this movie, it’s actually snowing. It’s not fake snow, which was — never happens. Almost never happens. Which is really cool. And it was cold. It was wicked cold.
Q: The film seems sort of classic Christmas movie. What do you think of that aspect?
It is kind of classic. I mean, the Scrooge thing is in there. I mean, it’s like, it’s in there. They’re all a little bit scrooge though. Like they’re all a little bit of it, you know? They’re all gotta come to this place where something’s gonna get over or they’re gonna heal something or connect about something. So that is in there. I feel like underneath all of it, there’s a little bit of that classic Christmas story thing.
The Holdovers is now playing in theaters.
Edited by Tiffany Le / Hollywood News Wire Inc.
