WIN WIN: An Interview with Paul Giamatti! And Amy Ryan!

Amy Ryan: What initially attracted me was Tom telling me he's writing a script with me in mind. [laughs] Flattery…it's like, "Yeah, no thanks." And then the way Tom writes, is he writes and includes you. You know, maybe two months later you get an email showing you something else, asking "What do you think?" “That's great! Keep it going.” But I don't know how really I'm going to improve on Tom's writing. So then ultimately it’s just playing a really good, strong mother, a happily married woman, a woman who means what she says and says what she means, and kind of no-nonsense. And that's all really fun stuff to do. And then of course I heard Paul was going to be in it, and Bobby, and so it just becomes, oh, this is a great ensemble now. This is going to be a great group of people to work with.

Paul, could you describe the psychology of your character?

Paul Giamatti: Well I suppose he’s obviously under a lot of pressure, and he's not a guy who's ever done anything that deviates from the norm. And so he takes this slight step to the side...I think, I find an interesting thing throughout the movie, I don't think it's such an overt thing, but I see it all the time. And when I saw it in the script, too, there's a lot of stuff about masculinity in it, threatened masculinity and being a man. And Bobby's character is this guy who is going through his own shit, but it's all about being kind of a shark and sort of hitting things hard and taking your chance and things like that. And the whole sports thing. He's not a great coach, this guy, he doesn't have that drive actually, and that's okay, it's just not who he is. And he's trying to be...he's desperate, so he's trying to be something he's just not.

You think that's why he didn't tell his wife about the financial troubles?

PG: Yeah. He's not a guy who does this and then doesn't give a shit at all—he does. And then he's worried about not telling her because, yeah, he knows he's done something wrong. And he knows it's not him, but he did it anyway. So by the end of the movie it's nice, and I think he's kind of okay with not being that guy, in some ways. And I feel like in some ways the movie's about being okay with who you are.

Amy, one of the great things about this film is that it is about ordinary people. Do you make a conscious effort to not lead an out-of-touch Hollywood life so that you can still play these ordinary characters?

AR: I do. But I'm very ordinary, you know. I think it's just living in New York, knowing that you can't maintain that other lifestyle, you'd be silly to try...

PG: It's tough isn't it...the drugs. It's true, it's tempting, isn't it?

AR: Hanging with Diddy…

PG: Hanging with Sheen…

AR: No, that was never, that was never something I was into anyway. That never enticed me anyway, so when I had access to see what it really was, it still didn't entice me. But yeah, I think New York is great for that too, you're just in and among people who do many different things and you're reminded that you're just a small element to it all.

Amy, how do you really feel about Jon Bon Jovi? [Ed. Note: her character in the film has a Bon Jovi tattoo]

AR: [laughs] He's…he's pretty hot.

PG: Yeah!

AR: My sister was a huge Jon Bon Jovi fan growing up, so we had his posters on our shared bedroom wall. But yeah...I like him. I don't know if I'd get a tattoo. But yeah, he's pretty badass.

Can you talk a little bit about working with Alex. Was he a quick learner? Were there things that he had problems with?

PG: The only thing it ever felt to me early on that he didn't know was technical stuff, like hitting his mark, and stuff like that.

AR: Yeah, continuity, you know, “keep the bag in your left hand.”

PG: Right. That stuff. Just technical stuff which was obviously not a problem for the kid, to learn that.

AR: It seems, Alex, and I suppose it's his talent as a great athlete, he enters something, can suss out a situation, see what's required of him and pounce. And pounce! And he came in with no baggage or judgment. And just like, okay, this will be cool.

PG: He wasn't cocky about it or anything. He just was, yeah, watchful about it and went with it. I never had that sense of, oh my god, I'm working with some kid who has no idea what he's doing, or something like that. Never. He was there, he was present, he was open in direction, he was having a good time. He was having fun, which was nice to be around too. Somebody having fun!

AR: Why do you look at me when you say that! [laughs]

PG: I didn't mean to look at you! But he wasn't jaded in any way or anything.

Speaking of having fun, those scenes with you and Bobby and Jeffrey Tambor.

AR: Oh my god! Priceless.

PG: I kind of wish Tambor was here, frankly. He's really a piece of work, that guy. It was really an amazing combination of three. First of all there's three distinctly different looking guys, it's really funny. And they're so clearly defined, those three characters, and they fit together in such a funny way. And the stuff Bobby and Jeff were doing was sort of in the script, but they were filling out a lot this weird rivalry between the two of them. Now, that stuff was really fun to do. The wrestling stuff, those days were just a piece of cake. Because I mean all those people around and the kids. And Tambor, who is...

AR: He's just funny!

PG: Yeah. I mean...it was hard for me because I'm not a guy who cracks up a lot, and I think I started irritating him. Because anything he said made me laugh. And I would laugh on camera which I never do, and I hate doing that, and I hate being that guy. But I couldn't stop laughing, at anything he did! And the more serious he got, the funnier he was. It was just like the more pissed off he got at me, too, the funnier he was. He's a trip, yeah.

Paul, in the past you've talked about losing yourself in a character. Was it more of a challenge for you to play somebody that seems to be like yourself in real life?

PG: Yeah, I don't think I've ever played a character where I just went like, "Oh, this guy feels like me." [Amy,] have you ever done that? Where you feel like, "This is me..."

AR: No. And if they are, I deny it.

PG: I found this character was tricky. And I don't know whether he's like me or not; how much of it, I don't really know. But it was different for me to do. I mean for a long time at least some of the more sort of central roles I've done in movies and stuff, I've played guys who have much more complicated places they go. Not that this guy's not a complicated man. But he doesn't dwell in these places, and he doesn't live in those places, and he doesn't go take refuge in those places, which was tricky for me because part of it is I’ve gotten used to doing that, and part of it is just my interest in acting anyways. To always flip over the rock and look at the crawly, ugly things underneath it. But this guy doesn’t really have that. Tom was constantly having to say to me, “This guy doesn’t go to that place. He doesn’t go there. He can’t go there. That guy just doesn’t.” Again, it’s not that he’s vapid, or not a complex, rich guy. He just doesn’t have those places. So it was hard, actually, in a lot of ways, this part for me. Harder to feel like I constantly had to walk that line because he is conflicted. He’s done something wrong and it’s always gnawing away at him. But that sense of how much he reveals or how much he takes it in and how much he compartmentalizes. It’s a different thing from what I was used to doing. So it was a challenge in a way.

Paul, could you talk a little bit about taking direction from Tom? Is there any difference between being directed by an actor versus just a director?

PG: Really good directors who aren’t actors I’ve found can give a lot of the same feeling that they understand. He’s a really good actor. He’s a great actor. He has a kind of compassion for it. In my particular instance, he’s known me for a long time and he knows my acting. He knows my tricks, which is probably only an actor who knows another actor would be able to do and be able to identify. But there’s even simple things. There would be times when I had to have some kind of prop or something and he would know it was going to be a problem. Being an actor, he’d be like, “Oh that fuckin’ thing’s gonna be a pain in the ass to get out of the car.” That was always the most wonderful part of it. I’m like “This guy gets it.” That you can’t just throw something at an actor—“You’re going to have a typewriter in this scene that you didn’t know you were going to have!” and it’s like “Jesus Christ!” That happens a lot. I think part of Tom’s being an actor was a real compassion, knowing that you can’t do that kind of shit.

AR: He did this thing one day. I think you were held up with hair and makeup or something where...

PG: Yeah, I always am.

AR: [laughs] Exactly. He always takes forever coming out of that trailer [laughs]. But I was on set promptly, as usual. Tom wanted to just go through the blocking and he walked your scene for you, and he was deeply embarrassed afterwards. As if he had taken something, like he was cheating. And then he was embarrassed, he was like “I can’t do this as good as Paul,” and he walked away. He just wanted to see the timing for the camera.

PG: He would have an actual feel for what I would do. He did the little girl one day when she had to go. He did her off camera. And he was dead fucking serious in the way he was doing the little girl. He was howling out the window. He was on his knees and he was like sitting there. Then it’s like, “He’s dead fucking serious! He’s not fucking around!” It was really interesting.

So Amy, if Jackie and Holly Flax were to meet, how do you think it would go?

AR: I think they’d get on really well. I think they’d have a good laugh.

PG: Yeah [laughs].

AR: Although I think Jackie might lose a little bit of patience with Holly’s goofiness. But I think ultimately those two would mix well at a party.

You have a chance to get barbecue?

PG: No, but I just said to somebody, "I hope I get some barbecue!" So yeah, I better.