Given the types of offbeat, sad-sack underdogs
he often portrays on the big screen, it seems just his luck that
Paul Giamatti would be left off the ballot for a Best Actor Oscar,
following months of critical praise for his depiction of a schlubby,
down-trodden wine connoisseur in the buddy comedy "Sideways."
Best-known for his supporting roles in "Man on the Moon,"
"Planet of the Apes" and "Private Parts,"
and for his lead roles in "Duets" and "American
Splendor," the 37-year-old character actor earned Screen
Actors Guild and Golden Globe award nominations for his portrayal
of Miles, a failed novelist on a tour through California wine
country with his best pal Jack (Thomas Haden Church). Giamatti
lost out to Jamie Foxx, the star of the Ray Charles biopic, "Ray,"
not once but twice. (However, Giamatti is sharing in the glory
of a Best Cast SAG Award and an Oscar nomination for Best Picture
for "Sideways.")
Talking to reporters in Manhattan recently, Giamatti, who lives
with his wife and son in Brooklyn Heights, explained what appeals
to him about representing the defeated and the depressed in films.
"I find it interesting to play unlikable people,"
Giamatti declared. "There are many unlikable people in the
world, and so it’s a more realistic portrait of humanity to have
a lot of unlikable people [in movies]. I find it more interesting.
I’m happy to play a likable person, too, but it’s harder sometimes
to play a likable, happy person."
Adapted by "Election" and "About Schmidt"
scribes Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor from Rex Pickett’s novel,
"Sideways" follows Miles and Jack as they bicker and
drink their way through countless wine tastings, finding companionship
with two hooch-savvy locals (Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh).
Although the film is a comedy, Jack’s constant quest for instant
gratification despite the consequences and Miles’ dark moods
could have become grating or pushed the film into drama had it
not been so deftly written and finely acted.
"It was a fine line in this thing where it could really
just become annoying and irritating," Giamatti agreed, pointing
out that he was drawn to the film in part because it seemed to
be as much about the breakdown of a friendship as it is about
two men trying to find themselves.
"It’s supposed to, in some ways, be annoying and irritating,
so it is kind of a fine line. Both of the characters are really
unlikable. Whether they’re depressed or not, they’re not particularly
likable guys and that’s the more tricky thing: to keep people
liking them somehow."
For the happily married (to wife Elizabeth Cohen) father (to
3-year-old son, Sam), playing a divorced guy, who uses his encyclopedic
knowledge of the grape to transcend his dreary life, was anything
but a grind.
"There’s something fun about it, actually," argued
the veteran of 40 films. "Perversely. Getting to pop into
something that’s so extreme, in a way, that it’s funny. What’s
sort of nice about the whole movie is that someone is so grotesque
and extreme that it’s funny. The guy’s so depressed, it’s pathetic.
It’s really kind of fun, actually, to be that depressed."
To prepare for the role, Giamatti and Church spent time visiting
vineyards and tasting wine in California’s Central Valley a couple
of weeks before shooting began. The Yale University graduate
said he was eager to get inside his character’s head, but recalled
concentrating more on how the connoisseurs talked and acted,
than trying to learn a lot about the wine itself.
"The wine knowledge, I don’t have any, and I didn’t
pick up any. Not a bit. I’m like a wall for that information.
It was all written down, so I could fake it. What was more interesting
to me was how those people are; their sort of behavior and the
whole sort of persona those people adopt, those obsessive wine
people," said Giamatti. "I really should be creating
more of a mystique about the craft of acting, but I didn’t feel
like it was that important that I know all that stuff about different
wines. I really did feel it was important to know what those
people were like."
Although wine played a major role in the film, Giamatti said
he and his fellow actors used stunt spirits most of the time.
"We had this non-alcoholic wine, which we were drinking,
which was just horrible, and it gave me and Tom headaches because
we had to be banging this stuff down at 7 o’clock in the morning,"
said Giamatti. "There were a couple of scenes where we drank
a fair amount of real wine."
Next up for Giamatti is a supporting role as manager Joe Gould
in Ron Howard’s Depression-era boxing movie "Cinderella
Man," starring Renee Zellweger and Russell Crowe. Due out
this summer, the part marks a departure for Giamatti.
"I play a fun character and a different kind of guy,"
he said. "Not a depressed guy, a very sort of optimistic
guy. It was a good time, but a long shoot – five or six months."
Asked how he is handling all this attention after years of smaller
parts, the son of actress Toni Smith and former Yale University
President and National Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti
said, surprisingly, that life hasn’t changed that much for him
recently.
"I’ve kind of had a steady thing for years. It’s just kind
of gone up, down, up, down. It’s been such a long thing. Definitely,
I get recognized by more people in an airport than I used to.
Definitely. Whether it actually affects my career, that remains
to be seen," said Giamatti. "Having a family helps.
Having to actually pay bills. I think that probably helps a lot."
"Sideways" is now playing
at the BAM Rose Cinemas (30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Place in
Fort Greene). Tickets are $10. For screening days and times,
visit the Web site at www.bam.org
or call (718) 636-4100.
