The Holdovers Interview: Director Alexander Payne on Paul Giamatti’s Incredible Performance
31For his second feature with the Toronto International Film Festival, filmmaker Alexander Payne (Election) joined Collider’s Steve Weintraub in our studio at the Cinema Center by MARBL to talk all about bringing The Holdovers to the big screen. Starring Paul Giamatti, this holiday comedy reunites the director and Giamatti after their Oscar-winning team-up in Payne’s 2004 film, Sideways.
In The Holdovers, Giamatti plays the curmudgeonly Ancient Civilizations professor, Paul Hunham, of an elite boarding school in the early 1970s. He’s the uptight, pompous teacher who’s impossible to impress because, frankly, he just doesn’t like anyone. With no family to spend his Christmas with, Professor Hunham is tasked with watching the holdover students during the holiday break, and he’s determined to ensure they have as miserable of a time as he does. A few days into the break, only one student, 15-year-old Angus (played by newcomer Dominic Sessa), and the cafeteria manager, Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), remain at the school, stranded together as the New England snow begins to fall. Despite their differences and reservations, the trio’s wacky Christmas with their newly found-family proves that no one can be held to first impressions.
During their sit-down, Payne discusses how the idea for The Holdovers landed in his lap, achieving an authentic ‘70s feel, reuniting with Paul Giamatti in a role written with him in mind, and finding Sessa on the campus they filmed at, calling him “a born pro” in his first-ever onscreen debut. They also talk Election with Reese Witherspoon and if those Election sequel rumors are true, which of his films changed the most in the edit, if he's gotten resuals for all the Pinor Noir he helped sell in Sideways, and Payne shares some ideas for the Western he hopes to tackle in the future.
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