Paul Giamatti: ‘Maybe I’ve Done the Right Thing With My Life’
Published: 04:01 PM,Jan 24,2024 | EDITED : 08:01 PM,Jan 24,2024
Paul Giamatti in New York, Nov. 28, 2023. (Sinna Nasseri/The New York Times)
For the second time now, an Alexander Payne movie has changed Paul Giamatti’s life.
The first, “Sideways” (2004), established the actor as a leading man with a distinctly compelling screen presence. The second, “The Holdovers,” released last fall, earned him his first Academy Award nomination in the best actor category, announced early Tuesday.
For Giamatti, 56, the news caps a busy awards season in which he has already received nominations from the BAFTAs and the Screen Actors Guild and won a Golden Globe. In a phone interview from his home in Brooklyn hours after it was announced, the actor shared how he was processing the news. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Q: How do you feel?
A: I don’t know! I’m not quite sure what to think. It’s a strange thing. It’s very, very nice. I’m very happy, but I’m also just sort of flabbergasted.
Q: What’s strange about it? What makes you flabbergasted?
A: I don’t know, I just never imagined this kind of thing. I just didn’t really ever imagine it. I think it’s a great movie; it’s a wonderful movie. But I didn’t imagine, for me, this being something that people would take to so much. It’s great. It’s really nice.
Q: What was your game plan this morning?
A: (Laughs) I didn’t really have one! I’m a bit of a night owl, and I thought, “I’m just going to sleep in tomorrow. Someone will tell me what happened. I just don’t even want to look.” My manager called and woke me up and told me.
Q: You were nominated almost 20 years ago for best supporting actor for your role in “Cinderella Man.” Now you’re nominated in the lead category. I think you might have a future in this town.
A: Maybe! Maybe! (Laughs) There’s a little bit of that feeling of like, “OK, maybe I’ve done the right thing with my life. Maybe I’ve done OK.” It’s an affirmation that is really kind of taking me a second to absorb.
Q: How different was this experience the last time around?
A: It was very different. I don’t remember doing anywhere near this much stuff, or the intensity of it. I remember it being much more low key-seeming last time. There’s just much more now than there used to be with all this sort of social media stuff. There’s so many places to make contact with and to be deployed for people to do publicity, I think.
Q: You’ve already won the Golden Globe. What does it mean to you to have all this happening now, at this stage of your career?
A: It’s a very interesting question. And I think it’s one of the things that’s making me sort of flabbergasted. What does this mean for my life? I don’t know. It’s super gratifying. I’m not young anymore, and there’s a certain sense of, “Oh, maybe I can take it easy a little bit.”
The other thing that gives me a thrill about it is the sense of history to it. It’s a link in a chain of this American tradition that goes back to the early days of filmmaking. As a history buff, it’s a really cool thing to be a part of. — NYT
The first, “Sideways” (2004), established the actor as a leading man with a distinctly compelling screen presence. The second, “The Holdovers,” released last fall, earned him his first Academy Award nomination in the best actor category, announced early Tuesday.
For Giamatti, 56, the news caps a busy awards season in which he has already received nominations from the BAFTAs and the Screen Actors Guild and won a Golden Globe. In a phone interview from his home in Brooklyn hours after it was announced, the actor shared how he was processing the news. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Q: How do you feel?
A: I don’t know! I’m not quite sure what to think. It’s a strange thing. It’s very, very nice. I’m very happy, but I’m also just sort of flabbergasted.
Q: What’s strange about it? What makes you flabbergasted?
A: I don’t know, I just never imagined this kind of thing. I just didn’t really ever imagine it. I think it’s a great movie; it’s a wonderful movie. But I didn’t imagine, for me, this being something that people would take to so much. It’s great. It’s really nice.
Q: What was your game plan this morning?
A: (Laughs) I didn’t really have one! I’m a bit of a night owl, and I thought, “I’m just going to sleep in tomorrow. Someone will tell me what happened. I just don’t even want to look.” My manager called and woke me up and told me.
Q: You were nominated almost 20 years ago for best supporting actor for your role in “Cinderella Man.” Now you’re nominated in the lead category. I think you might have a future in this town.
A: Maybe! Maybe! (Laughs) There’s a little bit of that feeling of like, “OK, maybe I’ve done the right thing with my life. Maybe I’ve done OK.” It’s an affirmation that is really kind of taking me a second to absorb.
Q: How different was this experience the last time around?
A: It was very different. I don’t remember doing anywhere near this much stuff, or the intensity of it. I remember it being much more low key-seeming last time. There’s just much more now than there used to be with all this sort of social media stuff. There’s so many places to make contact with and to be deployed for people to do publicity, I think.
Q: You’ve already won the Golden Globe. What does it mean to you to have all this happening now, at this stage of your career?
A: It’s a very interesting question. And I think it’s one of the things that’s making me sort of flabbergasted. What does this mean for my life? I don’t know. It’s super gratifying. I’m not young anymore, and there’s a certain sense of, “Oh, maybe I can take it easy a little bit.”
The other thing that gives me a thrill about it is the sense of history to it. It’s a link in a chain of this American tradition that goes back to the early days of filmmaking. As a history buff, it’s a really cool thing to be a part of. — NYT