By Rollo Ross and Danielle Broadway
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Director Alexander Payne, known for his Academy Award-winning film “About Schmidt,” teamed up with lead actor Paul Giamatti for Payne’s latest film, distributed by Focus Features, “The Holdovers.”
The dark comedy follows a grumpy Classics teacher named Paul Hunham, played by Giamatti, who serves as a chaperone for students at Barton, a New England prep school, who remain on campus during the Christmas break because they have nowhere else to go.
The film also stars Dominic Sessa as Angus Tully, a Barton student, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb, a Barton cafeteria worker.
Giamatti discussed the formulation of the movie’s complex characters in an interview last week.
He was unable to promote the film before it’s Aug. 31. theater release because of the actors strike.
REUTERS: Did you base this character on someone?
Giamatti: When I first got the script, I immediately thought of a guy that I hadn’t really thought of very much, and I’ve asked people subsequently that I went to school [with], “Do you remember this biology teacher we had?” None of them remembered him.
He was that disliked that people didn’t even really remember him, but he came back to me very vividly when I read it, so I very much based it on this guy, but I had to kind of keep him out of my head because I didn’t want to suddenly get too caught up in trying to be like him.
REUTERS: Actors often say in interviews that it was in the screenplay, but I was wondering how fluid things were with the performances.
Giamatti: I genuinely think it was in the screenplay. I mean it really is. That is the basis of the whole thing. You get the right people together, and Alexander creates a really intimate sense on the set, and he rehearses.
REUTERS: Regarding your performance, being dislikable but also poking through likeable, how much of a challenge is that?
Giamatti: It’s in the screenplay. I think this is something Alexander has, and then actually the other two actors, everybody. I have an inclination to try to make something sad, funny and something funny, sad.
(Reporting by Rollo Ross and Danielle Broadway; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
