Giamatti's Soul

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'I have a middle-aged soul. When I turned 38, I said to my wife, 'Am I not 40 yet?' I feel like I've been 40 for about seven years.'" -- Paul Giamatti speaking to the Guardian's Gaby Wood. A lot of people and writers I know have described Giamatti's Miles and Thomas Hayden Church's character in Sideways as "screwed-up guys in their early 40s." Giamatti was probably 36 when he shot the film in '03.

comment #1

Mathew says ...

Church is six years older than Giamatti. I can see how Giamatti is an old soul though. Him and Church played off of each other both in the film and on the commentary like they were old friends.

comment #2

Dixon Steele says ...

Hail Giomatti, who made SIDEWAYS great and LADY sit-throughable.

comment #3

nemo says ...

I got to know Paul Giamatti through his older brother back when Paul was a 19-year-old undergraduate and I was a 30-year-old graduate student. He already seemed like he was 30 back then.

And his acting was great even back then. I must have seen him in about 15 plays over several years. Most student actors are uneven: excellent in one production, blah or even down-right bad in the next. Not Paul. He brought focus and a thoroughly lived-in quality to every character, even back when he was a snot-nosed kid. Seeing him in a student production of Mamet was like watching a 50-year-old veteran actor conjure up a sweat of middle-aged despair.

At the time I wondered what kind of career he would have. He was better at 19 than most Yale Drama School actors were at 25. But he was also, then as now, short, pudgy, shambling, bow-legged, slope-shouldered, with thinning hair, and a little bit funny looking. (Sorry, Paul, but it's true.) He's turned what would be liabilities for most actors into assets.

When I referred to Giamatti as a character actor after watching Sideways with my wife and my sister, they both said they considered him leading man material. Not only did he seem real than the pretty boys, but the gals said they would take him any day over some of the creeps that pass for leading men nowadays. (Yeah, Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell, we're talkin' about you.)

comment #4

Richard Myers says ...

I always thought middle-age began at 35. So he would technically be middle-aged already.

comment #5

Mathew says ...

35 is middle aged only if you plan on dying at 70. Today, the 'new' middle age is somewhere between 45 and 55. But whatever since age is just a state of mind anyway which is the whole point of the article.

comment #6

Liz says ...

"But the gals said they would take him any day over some of the creeps that pass for leading men nowadays. (Yeah, Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell, we're talkin' about you.)"

I'm sorry, but me thinks the gals said this to make you feel better.

Life is not King of Queens or According to Jim. Women are almost as shallow as men nowadays. Money aside, if it comes down to getting busy with Colin, Tom, or Paul -- the gals are going to pick Colin or Tom every time.

comment #7

Osama bin Laden says ...

"almost as shallow," Liz?

comment #8

Mathew says ...

"Life is not King of Queens or According to Jim. "

Actually those guys outside of being over weight could feasibly get their on-screen wives. They both look and act like ex-college football players. Stupid shows nonetheless.

I wouldn't say women are any more or less shallow than men. We don't have any control over who we're attracted to. Or to put it succinctly: Attraction isn't a choice.

I agree that I would become suspicious if an attractive female said that she would take Paul Giamatti over Brad Pitt.

comment #9

Lisa says ...

I would take Giametti over Brad Pitt. But not George Clooney.

comment #10

says ...

I would take Giamatti over Pitt or Clooney but not Crowe or Owen, (Clive Owen, not Owen Wilson-yuck).

Seriously, Paul is a terrific actor I first noticed in The Negotiator in '98. He stood out and that's saying something when the stars of that film were Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson. He also appears to be a nice guy, a "what you see is what you get" guy, I hope it's true.

comment #11

Gabriel says ...

I heard he's prone to anti-Semitic rants when he drives drunk.

comment #12

Lisa says ...

I thought he was great in the Negotiator too! He took not getting an oscar pretty well, I think. He was fantastic in Cinderella Man. And hey, if Russell Crowe likes him, that's good enough for me.

comment #13

Dixon Steele says ...

Yeah, when you can steal scenes away from two scene-stealer extraordinaires like Spacey & Jackson, and do it in a way that's not annoying like Paul G. did, that's a good actor.

Looks like his next is as a police inspector opposite Edw. Norton in the period drama THE ILLUSIONIST. Just saw the trailer, looks kinda interesting.

comment #14

NYCBusybody says ...

Oh, please. Women may say they'd rather have Giamatti over Cruise or Farrell, just to make themselves look good and decent and deep, but give me a break, women are just as shallow as men. Who are the male sex symbols that women love to look at? Sure as hell aint George Wendt.

Bill Maher said it best: ""Women cannot complain about men anymore until they start getting better taste in them."

comment #15

nemo says ...

My observation is that at least some men and women develop better taste in who they find attractive when they get past their mid-twenties, if only because by then they've had the experience of getting burned over and over by hooking up with some some good-looking creep.

Cruise and Farrell exude creepiness in spades. Some dizzy 18-year-old may not pick up on it, but most women in their late twenties onward have had enough experience to sense it a mile away on those guys.

At least for male actors, you don't have to be a sex symbol to be a believable leading man. (As always, different rules apply to actresses.) Dustin Hoffman had a pretty good run as a leading man, and he's only marginally prettier than Giamatti.

In Europe, even some not-so-beautiful actresses had fairly strong careers as romantic leads, such as Jeanne Moreau and Simone Signoret. In fact, they both looked positively middle-aged and haggard during the heights of their careers. Must have been all those Gauloises.

comment #16

Lisa says ...

You sound kinda bitter. I'm sorry if you've had some bad experiences with shallow women.

comment #17

nemo says ...

By the way, I like Paul Giamatti personally and admire him as an actor, but I am way better looking than him. In fact, I'm way better looking than most working actors. I didn't go into show biz because I didn't want to exploit the unfair advantage over other struggling actors conferred by my beauty. They'll have to pass on making the movie of my life if Clooney ain't available.

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