Paul Giamatti

Interview By: Harry Kaplowitz
HarryKaplowitz@TheCinemaSource.com

'I get really tired of hearing myself talk when I play the lead in something.'

That's not exactly the kind of phrase you'd expect to hear from an Academy Award-nominee and longtime cinematic 'sidekick.'

Paul Giamatti, whose list of films reached the half-century mark of few years ago, is the kind of actor most people instantly recognize, but can never really place. A sort of John C. Reilly that's finally gotten his critical due.

The Sideways star has been acting since the early '90s, but didn't really make a household name for himself since his charmingly eccentric turn in American Splendor, the filmic adaptation of the comics of Harvey Pekar. Quickly followed by Sideways and Cinderella Man ' for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor ' Giamatti became one of Hollywood's go-to guys in only a matter of years.

His latest film is M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water, a modern fairy tale about an apartment building superintendent (Giamatti) who, upon rescuing a woman (Bryce Dallas Howard) from a pool, realizes she is from another world and the continuation of human life is dependent on her return.

First created as a bedtime story Shyamalan told his daughters, Lady in the Water presented Giamatti with a number of expectations. But he just wasn't sure how to approach the role.

'The only thing he said to me was that it was a fairy tale. I didn't really know what that meant. Does that mean I'm gonna have like an axe and a funny hat and boots' Is this a Hansel and Gretel or something'' Giamatti said casually. 'So I didn't know what to expect. And it does feel exactly like that ' it feels like a fable of some kind. I can't really say it's a horror movie, but it's sort of a fantasy film, a fable kind of thing.'

Shyamalan, one of Hollywood's most artistically intriguing directors, has been known to work with actors multiple times, including Bruce Willis (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable) Joaquin Phoenix (Signs, The Village) and Howard, who was Shyamalan's leading lady in The Village. Giamatti's first time working with Shyamalan was a pleasant one, he said ' something he'd be willing to do again.

'I mean, he's definitely got his own thing going on. He's got his own way of shooting things, which is great for actors because he doesn't shoot the hell out of things. He's got a very definite visual vocabulary for stuff like that. He's got a real control over it because he writes it, but I found the biggest difference with him is that the crew and everyone else feel relaxed all the time,' Giamatti said. 'It's like he's the host of the big party all the time. I would work with him again because he's incredibly astute about making everybody feel important and part of the process.'

But Giamatti did say that, in working with Shyamalan, he realized that, despite his steady hand, Shyamalan also had a controlling temperament about him.

'You definitely feel like there's a very strong guiding hand to the thing. And he can be dictatorial at times, but he's smart,' he said. 'He's usually dictatorial when it's the right thing to do. And he's a very canny judge of human behavior so he knows when to be dictatorial and when not to be.'

What stood out a lot for Giamatti was Shyamalan's set ' an apartment building built from scratch.

'It was really great because that set was incredible because they built that building. It really felt like a real apartment building ' it sure looked like a real apartment building,' he said. 'I forgot sometimes that it wasn't. It was an incredibly evocative set because it seemed like a real place.'

In addition to the fantastical aspect of the film, Giamatti said Shyamalan tried to instill in his cast ' which also includes Jeffrey Wright and Freddy Rodriguez ' a communal feel that helped them better interact with one another within a storyline that was dependent on community.

'I mean, it was really nice because it was basically an ensemble thing and there were fantastic actors in it. It was great to work with them and (Shyamalan) very much wanted to set up a fun, communal sense among all of us and we had a really good time together,' Giamatti said. 'But the communal thing was very important.'

The interesting thing about Lady in the Water, Giamatti said, was its intrinsic potential for comedy despite its darker nature.

'(Shyamalan) definitely wanted more comedic stuff in this movie ' it's a tricky tone to maintain in this thing. I think the change in it is fairly consistent in it; the change in everybody is fairly consistent in it,' he said. 'In the instance of this, it was a lot of him guiding when he wanted it to be funny and when he didn't because it was hard to tell sometimes.

'I mean, when I first read it, I didn't think of it being very funny. And then when I talked to him about it, he told me he was really looking for me to add some humor to it,' Giamatti continued. 'The whole actual scenario ' the whole actual story itself ' he viewed as being kind of funny, this sort of absurd situation for these people to be in. So, the whole tone, in a way, is meant to be kind of ironic.'

Irony aside, there seems to be an embedded religious subtext, something that has appeared in many of Shyamalan's movies despite insistences on his part that he is not a religiously orthodox person. Giamatti, though, was happy that the religious symbolism in Lady in the Water was not exhibited too blatantly.

According to Giamatti, Shyamalan cut an earlier ending because he didn't want the film to end on such an explicitly obvious nature, something Signs was criticized for. But the most obvious thing about Lady in the Water ' the angelic nature of Howard's character ' won't be too hard to figure out in spite of its subtlety, he said.

'It's a big stand for people believing and following their imaginations and fostering their imaginations and stuff,' he said in reference to a line on the cover of Shyamalan's filming log that read 'Defending Angels.' 'I'm glad that it was never literally said that she was an angel; I'm glad that it was kept more in this folk tale thing, which I think was kind of interesting. But certainly, that's kind of what she is.'

As he usually is, Giamatti remains busy. With six movies currently in he works ' including David Dobkin's Fred Claus and the upcoming adaptation of The Nanny Diaries ' Giamatti will once again bombard cineplexes throughout the coming year. He'll next be heard lending his voice to The Ant Bully, which hits theaters August 4th. Shortly thereafter, he'll play Chief Inspector Uhl alongside Edward Norton and Jessica Biel in The Illusionist, set to be released August 18th.