How Paul Giamatti’s upbringing influenced his role in ‘The Holdovers’
Please, Paul , it’s not over
Paul Giamatti. Oscar-nominated for his professorial role in “The Holdovers”:
“As a kid, I’d dress up as the Mummy or Wolf Man characters I’d see in a movie. I wanted to act. From college I moved to Seattle. My girlfriend ran a little theater so I made a small living acting. Later I went to drama school.
“I remember the audition process for my first ever part. A slasher movie. I hate to admit that I was playing a stablehand who was a product of incest. Can’t believe I’m telling you this. At one point I thought I’d become a dentist.
“ ‘The Holdovers’ is about kids with no family place to go on holidays. My father was president of Yale University so I knew them. Some were snotty kids from screwed up fancy families who didn’t care or had no time for kids to come home.
“I thought about teachers. I’ve played teachers. A simple wordless scene in this film was my favorite. I take the kid skating and it’s just us starting to like each other. You see both coming together in an unexpected nice way.”
What happens after an actor’s nominated?
“Offers come in, your price goes up. Being not very smart, I can only focus on one thing at a time. Not falsely modest but right now it’s only that crazy award. I did not anticipate this stuff.
“You get a script. Read it over and over. Feel the words which do lots to get your imagination going. Starts there. Sometimes I say them to the mirror. Or walk around saying the words. Let them get into my body and they’ll change how I move. Change everything. Starts with the words.
“When I heard I was nominated, I was asleep. Didn’t want to watch or hear it. I was too nervous. Too anxious to watch or listen. My manager called and told me.
“My other awards were in a closet. I didn’t know where to put them so I wouldn’t be a showoff so I just stuck them on a bookshelf, but now they’re out.”
Paint these towns red — or not
If dumped Valentine’s Day — try again next year. Travel website TheDiscoverer.com picked USA’s most romantic small towns:
Friday Harbor, Wash. (wherever that is). To marry rich and get in on the glitz, Aspen, Colo.
Beaufort, NC; St. Simons Island, Ga.; Amelia Island, Fla.; Bar Harbor, Maine, all made the cut as did Skaneateles, NY, where Jennifer Lawrence frolicked naked last year in some comedy “No Hard Feelings.” Or Montauk, LI, if you’re OK with the smell of day-old fish — their take on classic small-town charm.
High strung
No snooze with booze. Can’t serve it to underage or after certain hours. However, cannabis stays in a pickle.
The feds’ Controlled Substances Act has not addressed the legality of THC, the psychoactive compound responsible for a marijuana “high.”
It remains in a legal haze. Stores are thus stuck in a bind.
Our city is great. Kill people on subways. Kill people on the street.
Pay high taxes for illegal immigrants. Go hungry because cannot afford food. Sleep on streets because can’t afford rent.
Need a policeman, there’s a three-week waiting list. We knock off legal cops.
We sell illegal weed, the preferred choice over liquor or prescription drugs.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.
