Interview conducted by Josh Horowitz
January 16, 2004
Paul Giamatti doesn’t star in very many films. This is not to say he is not present in many films. He’s just not often the guy.
Don’t get me wrong. If you need a FBI technician with a familiar face (DONNIE BRASCO) or a control room operator with a little extra something (THE TRUMAN SHOW), he’s probably on the producer’s short list. If you need a guy who can bring some life to scenes opposite Howard Stern in a role principally known as Pig Vomit, he’ll do you well. But a leading role? Put it this way, he’s usually not in the same audition pool as Matthew McConaughey.
That’s probably one of the reasons so many critics and audiences have fallen for his portrayal of underground comic book artist Harvey Pekar in AMERICAN SPLENDOR. At times hysterical and in the surprisingly poignant, SPLENDOR co-stars Hope Davis as Harvey’s wife, Joyce, and at times, Harvey himself. Employing cartoons and the real-life participants throughout an otherwise conventional narrative, SPLENDOR reads on paper like a self-indulgent indie constantly trying to impress itself. But it’s not. Bells and whistles or not, it wears its heart on its sleeve and ranks among the year’s best.
Giamatti himself is a soft-spoken guy with a sense of humor about himself and the ups and downs of his career. I talked to him over breakfast near his apartment on the Lower East Side a couple of days before Christmas. Giamatti arrived at the café immediate after making his first morning show appearance on Good Morning America to plug another new film of his, PAYCHECK. We began by commiserating for a while about the bizarre nature of live morning television. “Those things are so awkward. God I hate those,” he tells me. Inevitably I turned the topic to AMERICAN SPLENDOR.
Josh Horowitz: You getting a kick out of seeing all these top ten lists come out now with AMERICAN SPLENDOR in there?
Paul Giamatti: Yeah sure. It’s very nice. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a movie that was selected as a top ten movie.
JH: Uncharted territory you could get used to?
PG: (LAUGHS) It’s definitely uncharted. I don’t know if I could get used to it. I’m more used to being in the “worst of” lists.
JH: PLANET OF THE APES had some divergent reactions.
PG: It did. That’s exactly what it had. Very mixed.
JH: Including the reaction from you from what I heard.
PG: I wasn’t crazy about it. I mean I shouldn’t be talking trash about it now but…
JH: Well it had a high standard to live up to…
PG: Exactly and I was really a big fan of the original movie and I just felt like they could have done a lot more interesting stuff with it.
JH: Back to AMERICAN SPLENDOR. The great press about this film really got started about a year ago when it was screened at Sundance.
PG: Totally. Because before it was just a thing we shot in 24 days. It was a cable TV movie is what it was.
JH: Well it was for HBO. It wasn’t exactly a movie made for FX.
PG: (LAUGHS) Still though, it was made for the small screen. It was not anything anyone had any expectations about.
JH: Was Sundance the first time you saw it?
PG: They actually screened it for Hope [Davis] and I right before
Sundance. Hope and I were like, “that’s a nice movie but who the hell is going to be interested in this at all? Too bad it’s just going to go to Sundance now and people are going to be completely nonplussed by it.”
JH: It just goes to show that you really can’t predict what people are going to respond to I guess.
PG: You really can’t because I never would have predicted that this would be something people would go for.
JH: So have you come up with any hypotheses for why it’s resonating with audiences?
PG: No. I suppose maybe it’s the level of invention but I don’t know. I mean it’s well put together and successful in what it sets out to do but I don’t know. MAN ON THE MOON tried to do some similar things. It didn’t succeed though. I guess the story is accessible to people somehow. I’m amazed that it is. People are like, “he’s such an every-man.” Yeah, but he’s not at all really. He’s not really an ordinary guy at all. He’s actually a very extraordinary weird guy.
JH: Perhaps it’s that he’s an extraordinary guy from somewhat humble beginnings,
PG: His background is everyman-ish I guess but I don’t know.
JH: When you read the part on the page, did you know immediately it was something you wanted to do?
PG: Yeah. I knew immediately just because I liked the character a lot. I thought he was really well written and I remembered him from the Letterman stuff so I thought he'd be an interesting guy to play. Before we did it I though this could work but I also thought this could much more likely not work at all and just fall apart.
JH: How fine a line is it for a film like this to succeed or fall apart? What’s the difference?
PG: Right off the bat, juxtaposing the real people and the actors could have so not worked. And I’m not sure why it does work.
JH: Was it always part of the script that Harvey would be in it along with you?
PG: Oh yeah.
JH: And it didn’t worry you at all?
PG: Oh it worried me but it also seemed like the challenge of it and part of the fun of it. But we shot in such a way that all that documentary stuff wasn’t shot until the end so you just kind of just forgot about it.
JH: What about actually acting in a scene with him as you do in the film?
PG: That was the most uncomfortable thing to do. It made me very uncomfortable actually. It made Hope even more uncomfortable. Having him [Harvey Pekar] around wasn’t so bad because he was very relaxed about. It was harder for Hope because Joyce [Pekar] was less relaxed about it. But it’s the more the normal reaction. His reaction was abnormal.
JH: He’s an odd character. He’s extremely likable even though he might be considered something of a misanthrope.
PG: I wouldn’t call him a misanthrope because he actually really likes people. He’s a very sociable guy and a very generous and open guy. He’s a pessimist and he’s depressive and neurotic. It’s not that he’s a misanthrope. He doesn’t like himself. He loathes himself. He’s actually a very endearing guy.
JH: Which was a more difficult walk: the Harvey Pekar or the one for PLANET OF THE APES?
PG: (LAUGHS) They’re kind of similar in some ways. Actually the monkey one really started messing with my knees.
JH: I’d like to thank you for one of my favorite DVD extras of all time, the training video of you preparing [the walk] for PLANET OF THE APES.
PG: (LAUGHS) I can’t believe they filmed that. It’s hysterical.
JH: Maybe you should have been worried when you saw the cameras filming you…
PG: I really should have been but I thought they’re never going to use this. It’s remarkable the stuff they’ll foist on the public. That’s hilarious. I’ve never actually watched that stuff. I mean I have a DVD but I don’t think I’ve ever sat through a commentary. It’s really weird to do one of those. We did one for AMERICAN SPLENDOR which was really weird. That one was fun because Harvey and Joyce and Toby were there. They sort of dominated the thing which was great. I just have nothing to say.
JH: It’s funny because at first the commentaries were only on select films on laserdisc for the true film geeks. Now they’re on everything. Films like ACE VENTURA 2 will have one…
PG: That’s hilarious to me. I did this kid’s film BIG FAT LIAR and the director is like, “do you want to do the commentary with me?” (LAUGHS) I was like, “No!” What am I going to say about that?!? God no, what am I going to say?
JH: Like kids are going to ask their parents to turn on the commentary track.
PG: Yeah exactly. “Mom, how did they do that?”
JH: Are you going to show that one to your kid when he’s older?
PG: I guess. People are always like, “it’s one for the kids.” I’m like, “I don’t know if…”(LAUGHS)
JH: Maybe show them THE LITTLE MERMAID first.
PG: Yeah show something else first. People are like, “you’re doing this one for the kid.” Well, I’m doing this for other reasons first…(LAUGHS) and then I’m doing it for the kid.
JH: Speaking of which…is PAYCHECK more than just a paycheck?
PG: (LAUGH) Well, you know…I mean, I really do like [director] John Woo. I almost did that WINDTALKERS movie which I never saw.
JH: That kind of movie has to be a no-brainer to do anyway. It’s a big budget film with John Woo based on a story by Philip K. Dick.
PG: Yeah, Philip K. Dick is another reason to do it although they never do his stuff right. They turn them into these big action movies when there’s really no action in them and the heroes in them are nerdy, geeky, loser guys.
JH: So you’re saying Ben [Affleck] should have been your sidekick instead of vice versa?
PG: (LAUGHS) There you go. Exactly. It should be a guy like Steve Buscemi or somebody like that. It’s a weird guy to use as a basis for action movies.
JH: So is it fun playing the goofy sidekick?
PG: Sure it’s fine. Why not?
JH: Can you play the goofy sidekick with the best of them?
PG: I don’t know if I can. I think that there are people that are better at it. I mean I’ll do it. I’m happy to do it but there are people that are better at it than me. I’m not a very good improv comedy guy and I feel like that’s the kind of guy who should be doing it. I usually just say what’s on the page.
JH: You just finished a film for Alexander Payne. Did Hope give you any reconnaissance on working with him after ABOUT SCHMIDT?
PG: She loved working with him. I think she talked me up to him.
JH: From Jack Nicholson to you starring in his films…
PG: That was what was hilarious about it. Sure if you can’t get Nicholson, who do you go to?
JH: I love ELECTION and ABOUT SCHMIDT.
PG: ELECTION is great. I’ll be completely honest with you, I never saw ABOUT SCHMIDT. I saw CITIZEN RUTH and loved ELECTION but I never saw ABOUT SCHMIDT. I shouldn’t admit that. But Jim Taylor, his writing partner, admitted to me he never read the book [ABOUT SCHMIDT] was based on.
JH: Does it have that same sort of tone as his other films?
PG: Very much so. It’s actually a really dark movie but its funny. I still can’t believe he hired me. It’s a road movie. It’s about these two guys who go on a bachelor trip to the wine country in California and it just goes horribly awry. When I got it from my agents, they said “oh it’s this rollicking comedy.” And I read it and I was like, “it’s not terribly rollicking. It’s kind of grim.” (LAUGHS) It’ll be interesting to see how the tone of it ends up.
JH: Your father, Bart Giamatti was of course the President of Yale and baseball’s commissioner so he had a degree of fame. I’m wondering what your impression was of fame growing up?
PG: Interesting question. I never really thought of him as famous until he became baseball commissioner. You’re right though. There was a certain kind of fame. He was outspoken and a public guy. It freaked me out a bit when I was a kid. The level of it when he became commissioner was freaky.
JH: Do you ever think about that with your own career?
PG: Yeah, I do.
JH: Like this level of fame that you have right now is what you’re happy with?
PG: Totally. Absolutely. Because it freaked him out a little bit too I think. The level that it’s at for me is totally fine.
JH: One of the things I enjoy about your filmography is a lot of your early roles are credits like “FBI technician,” “Researcher,” and “Control Room Director” but the difference is that they were roles for people like Mike Newell, Woody Allen, and Peter Weir.
PG: (LAUGHS) Exactly. I know. I was doing these nothing roles for these great movies. I was like, “hey, I’m getting to do a scene with Johnny Depp” and stuff like that. If you’re going to be an FBI technician, you might as well do it in a really good movie. I did a lot of that kind of stuff. I did a lot of non-Woody Allen movies too. (LAUGHS)
JH: Looking again at the filmography here, the only thing I can think to mention about BIG MOMMA’S HOUSE is that I know everyone feels you were ripped off by Benjamin Bratt at the 2001 Blockbuster Awards.
PG: How so?
JH: He got Best Supporting Actor over you for MISS CONGENIALITY.
PG: (LAUGHS) God bless you. I’m still smarting from that. Bratt! Me and Bratt are always going head to head. Damn it! You know I didn’t realize I was nominated for a Blockbuster award until this moment. (LAUGHS) That’s astounding to me.
JH: You probably missed out on a gift basket.
PG: I’m owed something for sure! Where do they hold those? What do you get? Probably a glass objet of some kind. I’m embarrassed. A Blockbuster award? Well, fingers crossed for this year.
JH: Does the mind ever wander in the course of doing a four and a half-hour play [1999’s THE ICEMAN COMETH]?
PG: You know what’s amazing, your mind didn’t wander that much. I mean yeah it happened, but not much. That thing was so much fun to do. Kevin [Spacey] was amazing. I don’t know how he did that.
JH: And you got to work with Pacino in a play after that.
PG: Yes I did just last year. Very entertaining man. I was hoping for that to be the same type of experience and it was sort of.
JH: It’s amazing how much he still does on stage.
PG: He’s like 65 years old! He’s got an amazing level of energy. He doesn’t sleep. He’s a horrible insomniac and he never sleeps. He looks horrible but it’s so cool that he still does it.
JH: Besides the holidays, anything on tap for you? Is the whole family going to watch PAYCHECK together on Christmas day?
PG: (LAUGHS) That’d be funny. That could be my present to them. “We’re going to see PAYCHECK.” My God. Wouldn’t that be horrible? There are probably actors that do that. There’s this Ron Howard boxing movie, CINDERELLA MAN, that I may be doing with Russell Crowe.
JH: He’s supposed to be a sweetheart.
PG: (LAUGHS) Yeah. That’s what I hear.
JH: Are you the goofy sidekick or do you get to box or what?
PG: It’s kind of the goofy sidekick! It’s an upscale goofy sidekick part. I would be playing his trainer, the Burgess Meredith goofy sidekick.
JH: That’s good company to be in.
PG: Right? To be this generation’s Burgess Meredith...c’mon! He was great.
AMERICAN SPLENDOR and PAYCHECK are currently in theaters
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