Paul Giamatti has made a name for himself in the acting industry. However, in an interview, he revealed that he got his first leading role solely because of the audition date.
Who is Paul Giamatti? He started his career performing in various theater plays before he had his first appearances in films in the early 1990s – initially, these were only small roles and supporting characters.
However, gradually the actor was able to establish himself as a character actor in the industry and played his first major leading role in American Splendor (2003). This was followed by further roles in films like The Illusionist, Hangover 2, or the series Billions.
More about Paul Giamatti’s biography can be read here at our colleagues from Moviepilot.
In the Howard Stern Show on February 7, 2023, the actor talked about his role in American Splendor and about why he ultimately got it – although nobody knew him at that time.
Here you see a German trailer for American Splendor:
“I’ll never get it if I can’t audition for the role”
As Paul Giamatti mentioned, many men wanted to play the role of Harvey Pekar. Consequently, the competition during casting was fierce.
“I was definitely not high on anyone’s list for that role,” the actor continued. His agency said before the audition that he absolutely must not go to the audition because even all the famous competitors wouldn’t do that.
“What the hell. I’ll never get it if I can’t audition for the role […] because it was embarrassing or whatever when you went in and read.”
But when he went in, the director said it was hard to find the right candidate if you didn’t see who played the role well.
Paul Giamatti then replied, against his agency’s instruction, that he could audition – even though they were pretty mad at him afterward.
The audition took place on September 10, 2001, just a day before the terrorist attacks. About 2 months later, Paul Giamatti had already forgotten the audition, the film’s producers approached him and stated that they still wanted to go ahead with the project.
However, not a single one of the famous actors wanted to play the role because none of them wanted to work after the events in the USA. Giamatti concluded, “So I got the role because no one else would play it.”
For his latest film The Holdovers, Paul Giamatti is nominated for an Oscar as “Best Actor”. In it, he plays a history teacher who is sentenced to look after one of his students during the winter break of 1970.
MeinMMO author Niko Hermes recently watched the film in theaters and was thrilled. Why he found The Holdovers really good can be read here: A new Oscar candidate has moved me to tears while making me laugh out loud
