‘The Holdovers’: Alexander Payne Goes Back To School With Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph And Newcomer Dominic Sessa
deadline.comBack in 2004, during a press tour for Sideways — Alexander Payne’s wine-soaked buddy movie starring Paul Giamatti as a depressive divorcé — the filmmaker and the actor were in Omaha in front of an audience.
In a moment of showmanship, Payne whipped out a local phone book, declaring Giamatti so skilled, he could make even that sound interesting.
And sure enough, as Giamatti recited the listings, he brought the house down. “Thanks for rolling with that stunt,” Payne tells Giamatti now, some 20 years later, in a New York City hotel room, where they are, once again, on a press tour.
The film reuniting them is The Holdovers and Payne designed Giamatti’s role just for him. Paul Hunham is a beleaguered Classics professor at Barton Academy, a New England boarding school steeped in history and privilege.
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