Paul Giamatti Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

I broke my hand during John Adams I punched the table so hard for a lot of that I have my hand behind my back for a lot of that it's easy to break your hand private parts Kenny Pig vomit rush in see he doesn't actually say the bad thing himself he says it through a character yeah well I don't do how about you go to air 3:00 a.m. this morning show us some characters okay Howard is a really lovely guy everybody said he was and then he turned out to be he was really willing to do anything and she was a great director Betty Thomas so she let us play around and rehearse a lot and get used to it and sort of improvise a little bit you didn't really need to because the script was so good well either I'll tame him or I'll make him so crazy he'll quit I felt terrible cuz I didn't know it was a real guy until Howard said to me at some point wow you really nailed this guy did you like listen to him and I was like this is a real guy I was like I feel terrible now I've made this guy look like the biggest in the world and he's going to have to go through his life now with everybody being like Oh you're the in that movie I talked to him once some he was running a radio station I had to do a interview on and they put him on the air with me and I just like hey how you doing it was terrible terrible listen up wnbc you hear that kind of lift NBC wnbc wnbc I did this ridiculous accent when I auditioned for it cuz I was just thought I'll do every stupid Southern Sound I can think of and then when I got the part I said to Betty Thomas so I'll learn a real accent she was like no do that stupid accent that you were doing I auditioned like five times she she saw a lot of people over Phil Hoffman who who was a friend of mine but I was really obsessed with having one of those big chunky college rings and I couldn't find one and I remember getting the set the first day and the prop woman came up to me and she had to watch and stuff and she said you know I felt like maybe you would want one of these and she had a college ring some reason she thought the same thing and that whole performance is that ring the ring is the whole thing with that guy way my hands move the way the guy thinks of himself is all in that ring horrible guy yeah Horrible character I hadn't done that much in a film before that was definitely the biggest thing that I'd ever done before that I saw it was like NYPD Blue Man in sleeping bag that's correct man in sleeping bag I was a witness of a crime I think my line was I didn't see anything man you guys see anything going on here last night no I didn't see nothing they bring you in for a day and you have three lines a lot of the time you've never read the script they just hand you this thing it'll change oh you have a dog now or something you're like okay or you have to be the bartender and you have an insanely elaborate thing with all these drinks and you're serving everybody and you have some lines or you have to go in and like break down in one scene you're the person who freaks out about their kid for a few lines in one scene you know you just do whatever the hell they tell you to do that's the hardest stuff to do do always and I have huge respect for people who do that cuz I had to do it and it's it's not easy sideways miles we're drinking Mero oh no if anybody orders Mero I'm leaving I am not drinking any Mero okay okay relax miles that script gave you everything over and over and over and over and over again just every time I looked at that there was more and every time we did it there was more he's such a good writer and Jim Taylor that he wrote it with it's all there you don't really have to do a whole lot of work you just got to stay out of the way and just let it happen I remember I was very specific about the beard I had I wanted a beard like Ernest Hemingways because I thought this guy thinks he's Ernest Hemingway so I had a very kind of crafted beard I was very specific about the beard like a r early beard put your glass down get some get some air into it oxygenating it opens it up it unlocks the Aromas the flavors very important all the wine stuff was very telling about the guy all the sort of stuff those people do all that life of like the smelling and all that stuff and that kind of person who's that kind of obsessive connoisseur about things tells you something about what a person's like go the glass is it inevitable that he's going to chog this bit it's coming You See It Coming the thing about that that I remember is that we only had maybe three shirts cuz it was a very specific bad polo shirt I was wearing so it had to work oh yeah we managed to do it I think and maybe two takes or something like that maybe three come off give me that bottle now that was really hairy that Hill actually they had stuntmen for a stunt doubles and the stunt doubles had a hard time doing it and Alexander was like we got to use the actual guys but it it's much more steep than it looks and it's all holes and ruts and stones and dirt so Tom and I like so it does really look like we're like you know cuz it was hard to run down that it was harrowing Saving Private Ryan Sergeant Hill is he here well I don't know maybe with a mixed unit on the other side of town uhhuh it's hard to get to the Germans plant a hole in our Center a few hours ago they cut us right in pill what's his name again Ryan I've done other sort of War things but that was you know Innovative what he was doing in that movie I don't know how many steady cam operators there were at one time operating and it was not terribly structured necessarily it was very Loosely blocked so that these guys were running around catching whatever they can almost like documentary filmmakers and so they were all falling over and banging into each other and hitting because he didn't want it coordinated it was a living scene you weren't cutting all the time and stopping and resetting then you're not worrying about hitting marks you're not worrying about where you know he wants to see the back of your head and he wants to see you know it's like you just forget about all that and you just play it like it's a play but it's even more than a play it's an immersive place cuz those sets were incredible John Adams actually had a lot of that too I mean I think I just fell cuz it was incredibly slippery and muddy everybody was falling all the time and I think from that Spielberg started developing this whole idea that the guy his leg was messed up and he had a thing in his shoe and he started just making that up so he would come over and give us the scenario and some lines I didn't really have there was no part really it was very very sketched in and so he must have had some notion he wanted somebody to fall through the wall so all those German soldiers are exposed and I guess he then just thought that's good I'll have this guy fall through the wall sort of hapless Soldier this guy who's just exhausted in appless falling over I suddenly had a character I didn't really have a character Big Fat Liar Marty wolf excuse me I need back up I really liked doing physical things I didn't play a lot of sports or anything I guess I wasn't very competitive but I liked how theater and acting could offer me a a way to do crazy physical stuff and Sean Levy who I'd known in college had seen me do a lot of stuff like that I can't do a lot of that stuff anymore cuz I'm getting old and I injured myself a [Music] lot so I've always been physically comfortable doing stuff like that in front of people I mean there's obviously an exhibitionist element to actors that you kind of don't care or think about it or you like it like love scenes are harder to do than like physical shtick like that I've Haven had to do a lot of love scenes so it's all [Music] right really like at that point with something like that he just was letting me do so much ridiculous stuff and I enjoy being big like that it's really fun you know you don't get the opportunity so much to just go over the top like that and he knew I could it just was I was having fun there was a whole sort of facial hair thing I was always trying to grow facial hair for parts I remember I did Big Mama's house and I grew a mustache with this cop and they made me shave it and I was really like why the do I have to shave this they were really anti-facial hair and I grew a beard for that Sean was like they want you to lose the beard and I was like I can't lose the beard and he really fought for me and they what he got was the Compromise of just that chin beard which was great actually cuz it's a stupid looking beard I think it needed that cuz it actually looks funnier like that with the orange hair and the costumes the more over the top and ridiculous the costumes we could get the better Planet of the Apes limbo oh the monkey the AP I was like who the hell is limbo it's like what the hell is limbo was I in a picture called [Music] Limbo whaty are you trying to put me out of business oh these are the skankiest scariest scuzziest humans I've ever seen yes limbo the ape limbo the orang Tang I was obsessed with the Planet of the Apes movies as a kid and so the notion that I could be in one of those was mindblowing to me I didn't audition for that Tim Burton came to me with that cuz I guess he was like you look like a monkey so I'll have you do this it was one of the funnest things I've ever done and working with Rick Baker was am amazing I was covered head to toe shoulders and a fat suit and my feet my agents were like don't you think you should play a human so they can see your face and I was like if you tell them I want to play a human in this I'll kill you all I was like I'm going to play an ape I don't need this aggravation sell him to me are you crazy he's wild the both wild then I'll buy them both oh no that that would be expensive I had a very fast makeup artist named Bill Corso is one of the best makeup guys special effects makeup guys in the world now and he was very fast I had the most elaborate one and he did his in about 2 and 1/ half hours most people were about 4 hours in the chair and I had these crazy giant teeth I asked them to give me some teeth to practice with cuz I wanted to be able to talk a lot of people ADR it later CU they were just you couldn't understand anybody they these giant teeth but I really wanted to learn how to talk with the teeth in and it gave man if find any kind of way of talking gives you everything I didn't want to take it off never I wanted to stay in it all the time I loved it getting to do all that monkey training and all that stuff the physical stuff talk about everything was there for me to do he made it feel not like a gigantic huge Studio production it felt very intimate and fun he was just he wanted your ideas he wanted you to just do weird stuff and he was very sympathetic to the makeup and we'd have to sit around for days sometimes and not do anything that makeup makeup he'd have his assistant bring people movies to watch you know he cared about it it was great Big Mama's House John I didn't remember that name either you just want us to sit around here picking ticks off our ass I know nobody's tried to kill you for the past couple of days the stress must be overwhelming I was like I'm going to be a cop so I'm going to grow a mustache and I wanted to kind of have like a not great mustache you know he's a guy who can't really grow a great mustache and they made me shave it I was probably unconsciously drawing on those kinds of guys in those kinds of movies you know the kind of nerdy guy the nerdy white guy without giving me a big Southern welcome come on yeah come on now whether straight man's supposed to actually be funny or not is an interesting question cuz like Abbott and costell he's not funny Abbott but like Laurel and Hardy the straight man's funny I suppose you kind of try different things you know and see just what works but I mean there was not a hell of a lot of a cap on that movie I don't know that I was grounding Martin Lawrence particularly I mean I mean I think he was going to do whatever he wanted to do but he was talk about really crazy physical stuff and he was he was amazing all the people in it were really great Octavia Spencer's in that movie she has a little part time for what this time re's going to have a baby I haven't talked about Big Mama's House that much in my life John Adams John Adams the vice president would find we agree on most matters if he could be convinced that I mean what I say so thought I failed in that task I mean he had no teeth by middle age most of those guys 30 they had no teeth we didn't go that far cuz I was like there's enough going on in this without me having no teeth at all I think that was a big part of it you know I had to talk so much this feeling of this guy that nobody was really listening to him ever and at some point as it develops After the Revolution really nobody's listening to him and it's almost like he's talking himself a lot of the time you question my loyalty sir oh no Mr Hamilton I question your sanity now either you are stuck raving mad or I am good day sir Hamilton well now he's everybody's hero but he was a more complicated figure when that thing was being made all that stuff was taken from letters and Diaries a lot of the dialogue I really rip into them I rip into a lot of people in that thing it's fun you know especially that language was really great that stuff really sticks in your head and it comes out rhythmically you know it's got music to it and you can really feel it in your body and in your mouth and it just fires off at people and those you know they talk those people talked with the end in sight and they'd hit the end you know it's really fun rhetorical language like that does a lot of the work for you American Splender Harvey pear what kind of existence is this is this all a work and stiff like you can expect you going to suffer in silence for the rest of your life I didn't really know they didn't really know what they were going to do with the animation stuff they knew they wanted to do it they just didn't really know until after they had all the film footage together I don't know if it's ahead of its time but it was doing all this kind of reality stuff right at the front of that stuff happening so if you're the kind of person looking for romance or escapism or some fantasy figure to save the day guess what you got the wrong movie that's great okay so now you got four pigs you ought to be able to patch one together from there that was tricky too because he was going to be in the movie often times you get a part like that and if people don't know what the like it doesn't matter you can do whatever you want you did kind of have to imitate him well so that was a weird task I met him right before we started filming I knew who he was and I remembered him from these Letterman appearances so I saw some of that we were the comic book version of those people so we had to be a little exaggerated it was actually really helpful to look at all the different artist representations of him in the comic books and I was like oh that's kind of cool to see the way he sits he had this funny kind of way of moving and being in the world that was very kind of animall likee the thwarted of the guy that V vocal thing the weird trap voice thing was actually a big part of it this guy who's couldn't Express all of his rage what do you mean you mean you're dumping me for what how do you think about SL how do you get into playing the explosive rage well if what starts to happen is people want you to explode with rage I don't necessarily want to explode with rage all the time I get those parts how that happens I don't really I don't know that I can say I mean I suppose in some way I'm unconsciously working myself up into it I don't know you just go for it you know you just see what happens and sometimes I think as an actor I will just blow it out as far as I can to just go as far as I can first and then bring it back although a lot of people like it when you go as far as you can rage is a really tricky thing to play billions Chuck Roads I was hoping not to go back to Boyd but now we have to I'll need your help why would you already decided before you told me the conned piece we here at rhs Airlines know you have many travel options and are grateful that you have chosen to fly with us thought the the kind of cat Mouse like collar crime thing was interesting I thought it was interesting playing this kind of like dark Crusader for justice guy and know this guy was in his mind doing the right thing but kind of going about it by any means and stuff I he was he was a bit villainous a bit and which was kind of cool but he was also a good guy this very heady intellectual sort of guy but he also has this kind of animalistic thing about him it's a lawyer you know and it's like I don't think I'd ever played a lawyer like that before I am Italian so I mean I grew up hearing Italian but I don't speak it so I did have to learn it and do it as well as I could it was some kind of weird dialect too I think the whole thing was weird dialect it was harrowing to do in the moment cuz I was like am I going to remember this is going to take forever to shoot but it was okay I mean you know that kind of burst of language is fun The Illusionist inspector o don't fool yourself that you can play in their game I've served on the edge of it for many many years and I can tell you with certainty there's no trick they haven't seen it's not worth it that was like a kind of wish fulfillment thing too like playing the Apes cuz it was a sort of Sherlock Holmes world with sort of pipes and black gloves and gasl and horses and carriages which was something that I was so excited to do and I got a German accent and I had a slou black hat and everything and I was a bit sort of villainous but not really actually the guy turns out to be a very sort of decent guy just sort of doing his job which was cool I liked that too about it being in Prague the whole thing immersive and like a whole world and that kind of mystery thing with a weird Supernatural thing I could have played that character forever the holdovers Paul hunam need I remind you that it is not my fault that you are stuck here do you think I want to be baby you well in that instance there was a lot of unconscious memories I had many many people I'd grown up with my father was an academic and my mother taught high school and all my grandparents were teachers and so I grew up around a lot of that stuff and I went to a school like that there were some specific people that I had in mind but I was familiar with the kind of bookish world the cigarette smoke the pipe smoking that kind of guy I was very familiar with it's the script man I just read it over and over again and it just keeps giving you stuff it's the similar kind of high toned language to like John Adams or something like that I mean that guy lives in another Century he doesn't live in the Contemporary world that guy Dr girtler says I don't always give consideration to my audience ah and who is Dr girtler my shrink has Dr gerler ever tried a good swift kick in the ass talk to me about the eyes I'm not I'm not at Liberty to reveal yeah I'm not at Liberty to reveal I think they want to maintain the mystery of what the eyee was it works which is really great and whatever we were doing there definitely contributed and helped with with the character that was an external thing that definitely made it work and James beam all right all right [Music] oh Presto Cherry's Jubilee people have been calling the holdovers a cozy movie that square with you squares with me I don't think it squares with Alexander I think Alexander for some reason takes exception to it being called cozy and I think he's just being a bit of a kudin I think I think he knows exactly what people are talking about I think he likes it you know I mean it's in there it's it's funny and it's heartbreaking and there is inevitably something that feels that way because of the snow and the New England thing and stuff like that and the Christmas thing there's certainly enough spikiness in it to counteract the Cozy in it but it's in there you mentioned wanting to play a bond villain if you were to build up a bond villain for yourself how would you do it wow that's an excellent question I'd want an accent of some kind I definitely want an accent it'd be nice to have an animal with me of some kind not necessarily a cat but something an animal maybe not a parrot or something you know something real I don't know an accent of some kind I'd have to have Furs would be great a guy's all in fur coats and stuff like that be great

Channel: GQ

Views: 473,261

Keywords: american splendor, big fat liar, big momma's house, billions, gq, gq iconic characters, gq magazine, gq paul giamatti, iconic, iconic characters, movies, paul giamatti, paul giamatti big fat liar, paul giamatti billions, paul giamatti film, paul giamatti films, paul giamatti gq, paul giamatti iconic characters, paul giamatti interview, paul giamatti martin lawrence, paul giamatti movie, paul giamatti movies, paul giamatti private ryan, paul giamatti sideways, sideways

Id: UzsjMwYJNgI

Length: 20min 51sec (1251 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 20 2023