He was the merlot-hating wine snob in “Sideways,” Russell Crowe’s boxing manager in “Cinderella Man” and the comic-book-writing file clerk in “American Splendor.”
Now, Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti is offered roles written just for him. M. Night Shyamalan, writer/director of “The Sixth Sense,” “Signs” and “The Village,” among others, had Giamatti in mind when he created “Lady in the Water,” which opens Friday.
“It’s a little daunting,” Giamatti told me last week in L.A. “… The guy is really something, so you’ve got to come up with the goods.”
Giamatti plays Cleveland Heep, a stuttering building superintendent who catches and tries to help the sea nymph using the swimming pool after hours.
We talked about working with Shyamalan, scary bedtime stories and baseball.
You’ve worked with some great directors. What’s the M. Night experience like?
Well, he rehearses a lot, which is a great thing, and he has very specific ideas about the characters. For example, my stutter in this character was a big thing for him and a big thing for me. It gives the sense of this character; who he was without the stutter and who he is after these awful things happened to him. There’s a certain kind of tiredness to this guy. He’s doing this job that he really shouldn’t be doing. It’s kind of a cool dichotomy, kind of thing.
And M. Night not only directs but co-stars with you, more than his usual cameo.
It made sense. He’s very into the acting. and he’s a very playful guy anyway, so it was this weird, easy transition to suddenly be standing there, acting with him. It was no problem at all. He’s really natural–he’s really good.
This was based on a bedtime story that he told his kids? Do you remember your worst bedtime story when you were a kid?
Do you know who Roald Dahl was? He did “James and the Giant Peach” and stuff. There’s a book called “The Twits” that I remember reading when I was a kid, and if you’ve never read it, it’s really creepy, scary, and there are horrible people in it. Horrible things happen in it, but I loved it.
Your dad, Bart Giamatti, was the president of the baseball’s National League and the former commissioner of baseball. Are you a big baseball fan?
I’m not a big fan necessarily, but I grew up with it all around me. The Red Sox were a big thing in my family, a huge thing, so I have to be a Red Sox fan. I have no choice.
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DRICHARDS@TRIBUNE.COM
