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• Interview with Mr. Giamatti
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Tavis: Paul Giamatti is an awfully talented actor whose movie resume includes "Saving Private Ryan," "Big Mama's House," "Private Parts," and last year's "American Splendor." His latest film is "Sideways," which has been receiving rave reviews and could very well end up a best picture nominee for 2004. The film is now in theaters across the country. Here, now, a scene from "Sideways."

Miles: Stick your nose in it. Don't be shy. Really get your nose right in there. Really. Citrus. Maybe some strawberry. Passion fruit. And--oh, there is just like the faintest smell of like asparagus and there is just a flutter of like a nutty Edam cheese.

Man: Wow.

Tavis: Mr. Giamatti, nice to see you, sir.

Paul Giamatti: Very nice to see you.

Tavis: How drunk did you stay in this picture?

Giamatti: I was drunk the whole time, man. Drunk, drunk, drunk right now. I'm hammered 24/7, man. I'm working it all the time.

Tavis: All right.

Giamatti: Whew.

Tavis: So tell me.

Giamatti: Yes, sir.

Tavis: I'll let you set up the premise of the film.

Giamatti: Well, I play a guy named Miles Raymond, who's a failed novelist and a drunk, and I'm taking my friend, who is a failed actor on his bachelor trip for a week in the wine country north of L.A., and that's basically it and we're just drunk and getting laid the whole time.

Tavis: You spent a lot of time up in what, Santa Ynez?

Giamatti: Santa Ynez. Yeah.

Tavis: But you're a New Yorker, though.

Giamatti: I am a New Yorker.

Tavis: How'd you find that experience?

Giamatti: Well, it's weird there. It's like cowboy country. Cows. I don't see a lot of cows in New York. It was very nice. I had no idea it was there, you know, the wine country and all that stuff. Nice people.

Tavis: I say this respectfully.

Giamatti: Yes, sir.

Tavis: When I saw the name on our board that we had--we were--my staff said to me "We think we should invite Paul Giamatti on the show," I thought, "I would love to invite Paul Giamatti on. Who the heck is Paul Giamatti?" Because the name didn't ring a bell. The minute they held up a picture, I fell out laughing, not because you're funny looking or anything but I was like, I love you. I love your work.

Giamatti: I love you.

Tavis: Well, thank you. It's a love fest.

Giamatti: It really is. But that's the way it is with me a lot. People don't know my name.

Tavis: Do you get that all the time?

Giamatti: All the time. People don't know--

Tavis: Do you like that, though? There is a certain anonymity, I would think, to that.

Giamatti: Oh, yeah, I prefer that to people knowing my...-if anybody knows my name on the street, it's confusing to me because I think I must know them and I've just forgotten because I'm drunk.

Tavis: But they've got to know this face, though. This face is everywhere now.

Giamatti: They do know the face. Oh, yeah, memorable face.

Tavis: The other thing--you're funny, man.

Giamatti: Thanks, sir.

Tavis: The other thing I didn't realize, and I felt stupid about this. I felt stupid, first of all, for not putting your name with your face, because you killed in "Private Parts." That was a great role.

Giamatti: That was a great role.

Tavis: All the brothers love you from "Big Mama's House." On behalf of the brothers and sisters, I wanted you to know that.

Giamatti: Well, I appreciate that. Thank you.

Tavis: But I felt also stupid because I did not connect Paul Giamatti with Bart Giamatti. Your dad was the baseball commissioner.

Giamatti: That's right, and it surprises me because it's an unusual name.

Tavis: I'm stupid. I know.

Giamatti: No, I'm not saying you're stupid on national television.

Tavis: Yeah, you are. Yeah, you are. You just called me stupid on my own show.

Giamatti: God bless you. Yes, he was indeed my father, as far as I know.

Tavis: Here is what I loved about your dad. There is nothing cooler than a white guy who rocks a goatee. Bart Giamatti had a full, thick goatee.

Giamatti: From at least 1960 on he had that thing. But he was about as uncool as anybody could have been. But he sported the thick--

Tavis: He looked it, though. He looked cool.

Giamatti: He was cool, but I mean--you know, he worked that goatee to the end.

Tavis: Your dad's now deceased.

Giamatti: Yes, sir.

Tavis: But I read somewhere when I found out this was your dad, I said now I've really got to prepare for this. Your dad was, I am told, as are you, I'm told, a huge Boston Red Sox fan. How much would your dad loved to have seen this?

Giamatti: It would have been amazing. Heartbreaking that he wasn't around. The whole thing is weird, though, that they won. I mean, I lost at least 80% of my daily conversation now. I've lost 80% of my life. What the hell am I supposed to do now, you know? I've got to be like a Brewers fan or something now. I really don't know what to do. But, I mean, he would have loved it. Sure. Yeah. Sad.

Tavis: How oxymoronic is it for you that you have got Paul Giamatti playing a romantic lead? I mean, you pull this thing off.

Giamatti: I do?

Tavis: Yeah. You pull it off.

Giamatti: Thank you, sir.

Tavis: Were you surprised when they sent you a script and said, "Hey, we want you to play a romantic lead?"

Giamatti: Absolutely. No. It's an odd romantic lead. The guy is not real comfortable being the romantic lead, so it was OK, because I could just play with the guy's discomfort, my own discomfort, but it was very unusual but it does work. I mean, I'm not used as a sight gag in it the way I usually am. You know, I'm just presented as a normal-looking guy, or whatever, and it's just portrayed as a kind of mature romance between these people, so it's nice.

Tavis: Now, a few minutes ago you called me stupid on my own show.

Giamatti: No, sir. No, sir.

Tavis: Yeah, you did. You called me stupid when you said that, but I really feel stupid sitting next to you because you're, like, Yale educated.

Giamatti: Yeah.

Tavis: I'm trying to figure out how you have all these degrees and this education--not that actors can't be smart. I don't want to get anybody mad at me.

Giamatti: It doesn't really help, though. I think it just gets in your way.

Tavis: How'd you end up being an actor? First of all, tell me why you said that. Why you think it gets in your way.

Giamatti: I just think you can overthink things sometimes. I certainly do. I overintellectualize things. I don't just respond emotionally sometimes, which is what an actor should do. Like you say, it doesn't hurt, but I just kind of fell into it.

Tavis: How did that happen?

Giamatti: I did it in college. There is a lot that goes on in college. I wanted to be other things. I wanted to be an animator, I thought about going into academia like my dad, but I'm a lazy guy, so I became an actor. I'm a lazy scrub, and I became an actor.

Tavis: You know better than that. I just did a cameo on something the other day. I had like six lines.

Giamatti: I would think you would be great.

Tavis: I was great, thank you.

Giamatti: Stupid, though.

Tavis: You call me stupid one more time. You've got one more time to call me stupid. All right. Yeah, one more time, Paul Giamatti. I know better than that, because this cameo that I did with six lines took me a whole day to shoot.

Giamatti: Oh.

Tavis: Acting--you're making jokes here, but acting is not easy. It's a lot of hard work.

Giamatti: It is. It's tiring, because you have to hit this energy level all the time, you have to kind of be contained all the time, and even six lines, that's a lot to do and it will take all day. So it is weirdly tiring. It's a lot of mental energy being expended.

Tavis: OK, so since you found your way from Yale into this business because you're lazy and didn't want to do anything else--

Giamatti: Don't call me lazy.

Tavis: I'm not gonna call you lazy. Don't call me stupid.

Giamatti: All right. Agreed. Yes. What do I like?

Tavis: What do you like about this business? About this acting thing?

Giamatti: Well, it's great. It's a great way to make a living. I get paid to act like a lunatic in front of a camera. I mean, clearly, there is something I like about trying to be other people. I don't know what exactly it is, but I like to sort of inhabit other people's mannerisms and everything. I don't know what it is, but it's an instinctive thing I have done all my life to just sort of mimic people and stuff.

Tavis: What do you make of all the buzz around this film? Because it is, I think, one of the best--probably the best reviewed film of the year.

Giamatti: Thanks. Thank you.

Tavis: It's a small film.

Giamatti: Yes.

Tavis: Comparatively speaking.

Giamatti: Mm-hmm.

Tavis: And yet there's buzz, Oscar buzz, all around it. How are you handling this?

Giamatti: Oh, it's great. It's a flattering thing to have people like the movie so much. It's a flattering thing for all the Oscar stuff. I'm not surprised, because Alexander Penn, the guy who directed it, he makes good movies. He doesn't really make crappy movies, so I'm not surprised by the reaction to it. It's unreal seeming, a lot of that kind of buzz around a thing like this, but it's wonderful.

Tavis: So what happens when the success of this film, as it will, leads to the success of your next project and your next project and before you know it, people do know the name and the face? Are you ready for that?

Giamatti: I suppose. I mean, you know, I'm a pessimist. I don't foresee that happening. I think this is it for me, actually. This is where I get off the train. I'm done. I always think that way. I'm always just thinking I've got to get my next job, I've got to feed my kid and I don't really think of it that way. That would be strange.

Tavis: Yeah?

Giamatti: I don't know that I would love that thing of people knowing my name and knowing my face, but I guess if it happens, there's nothing you can really do about it.

Tavis: Maybe processing things--your career that way, though, is an advantage because it keeps you hungry. Gives you an edge. I don't know.

Giamatti: I think you're right. I tend to think that pessimism is a good philosophical standpoint to live your life from because you can only go up. You really can only go up.

Tavis: Yeah. How much--how much more up can you go?

Giamatti: Pretty up. I mean, it's--as far as I'm concerned, I'm pretty down. I really only--it's all gravy to me. It really is. I never expected to go anywhere. I started out acting in little theaters in Seattle and never thought I would go anywhere.

Tavis: Never thought you would be on a show hosted by a stupid guy on PBS?

Giamatti: Exactly.

Tavis: What can I tell you? Nice to meet you. Don't you ever call me stupid again. Paul Giamatti in "Sideways." Great film. Lot of buzz on it. Go check it out, you will love it. That's our show for tonight. As always, you can catch me on the radio on NPR, National Public Radio. I will see you back here next time on PBS with my stupid self. Until then, thanks for watching. Good night from Los Angeles. Don't you call me stupid. And as always, keep the faith.