LOS ANGELES — It has been nearly 20 years since Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti worked on the film “Sideways,” and the two are now reunited in “The Holdovers,” a story of three lonely people who are stuck at a New England boarding school over winter break in 1970.
For Giamatti, who didn’t think he would ever get the chance to work with Payne again, it was a wonderful experience to work with him on “The Holdovers.”
“It’s just a piece of cake working with him because he is the best director alive. It was a real pleasure,” Giamatti told Spectrum News.
In the film Giamatti plays Paul Hunham, an adjunct professor of ancient history who is disliked by students and faculty but gets stuck holding over at Barton Academy with kids who can’t go home for the holidays.
While Giamatti says he doesn’t know if he would be a good professor in real life, he sees himself in his character.
“I want to emphasize that I am not like this guy in a lot of ways, but I have a lot of background that informed a lot of it. I come from an academic background. I went to a school like that. There are a lot of ways that I just kind of knew what to do. In some ways, I see myself more than usual because I think I was just living a life that was familiar to me,” he said.
“The Holdovers” also stars Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb, the school’s head cook, and Dominic Sessa as Angus Tully, a Barton Academy student.
Sessa was a star in his high school’s drama department and had never performed on screen. He told Spectrum News he credits Giamatti and Randolph with helping him find success during filming.
He says he would like to keep acting in movies and theater.
“If I could do the Broadway, that would be awesome. If anything, coming off this experience, I know that this is something that I hope to do for a while,” he said.
And for the record, Sessa says, unlike his character in the film who gets plenty of detentions, he was well-behaved in school.
As the school’s head cook and longtime worker, Randolph gives a brilliant performance, one that has already garnered Oscar buzz.
“I am very grateful,” she said. “It is overwhelming, and I try not to focus on it. I am just grateful to be here. I appreciate and I am really excited people are responding so well to the performance.”
Randolph says playing Mary was a beautiful challenge to take on. She hopes that other higher-quality work where she can tell fully realized stories in which a woman can be in her feelings and unapologetic will come along for her.
“I hope it ushers in an era for me where I can raise the bar even more — in particular, telling minority stories, because we often don’t get that opportunity,” she said.
“The Holdovers” is now playing in theaters.
Click the arrow above to watch the full interview with Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa.
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