Page 29 - Aruba Today
P. 29
PEOPLE & ARTS A29
Monday 18 January 2016
With ‘Billions’ at stake, Paul Giamatti is rich in new drama
FRAZIER MOORE John Adams in the epony- In this image released by Showtime, Paul Giamatti portrays Chuck Rhoades in “Billions.”
AP Television Writer mous HBO miniseries. (Jeff Neumann/Showtime via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — As an According to each char-
endlessly adaptable on- acter, his eyes are stormy ed by the avant-garde art- into the comedian on the I don’t really know what
screen everyman, Paul or woeful, his smile benign ist Matthew Barney. He said street. it is I do.” A pause. “Well, I
Giamatti has proved he’s or wild, his soft voice, when “yes” to playing God for “I throw myself into things, do. But I don’t know how
one in a million. he chooses, as command- an episode of “Inside Amy trusting that I know what to talk about it. It’s always
Now, in “Billions,” his new ing as a roar. Schumer” after bumping I’m doing,” he says. “But different.”q
Showtime drama, he por- Meanwhile, his average-
trays Chuck Rhoades, the guy mien and puddin’ face
powerful and perverse U.S. spurs journalists to reach for
Attorney engaged in a their most colorful descrip-
political cage match with tives.
hedge-fund titan Bobby “How many synonyms ARE
“Axe” Axelrod (played by there for ‘balding’?” says
British heart-throb Damian Giamatti with a chuckle.
Lewis). And what about the article
You might say comedy is that likened his physique to
a ruckus between fools, a manatee’s: “I’m a SEA
while drama — solid drama COW?!” He laughs again.
— is a clash between smart But no argument from him:
people who are driven by As a movie star, he’s no
compelling creeds impos- Brad Pitt.
sibly at odds. “Brad Pitt’s great,” he says,
The latter applies to “Bil- “but I love Boris Karloff. And
lions,” which is a deli- Ernest Borgnine! He didn’t
cious drama of two Alpha look like Brad Pitt either, but
Males on a collision course: he played cool parts. Ned
Rhoades wants to pros- Beatty: amazing actor! I
ecute Axelrod for financial did a film with him once (a
fraud, but only if his case 2002 effort called ‘Thunder-
is ironclad, while the slick, pants’) mainly so I could
calculating Axelrod dares work with him.
him to try.
“It’s super-complex and I thought: ‘Maybe that’s
byzantine, with Machia- the kind of actor I could be
vellian behavior from both if I get good enough.’”
of us that gets extreme- Giamatti, 48, grew up in
ly complicated,” says a New Haven, Connecticut,
pleased-looking Giamatti. the son of Bartlett Giamatti,
“It’s really fun.” a comparative literature
Interestingly, Chuck and professor at Yale who later
Bobby seldom appear in became president of the
the same scene, but such university and then com-
is the fever pitch of their missioner of Major League
rivalry that, whenever one Baseball. The younger Gia-
is on the screen, the other matti studied literature as
is present viscerally, as if in an undergrad at Yale be-
the ether. fore getting his masters in
“They operate pretty sepa- acting.
rately,” says Giamatti, “but In between, the stage-
their awareness of each struck Giamatti moved to
other becomes quite pow- Seattle, then a mecca for
erful. It’s really cool.” young actors.
“Cool” is a frequent Gia- “I did theater and indus-
matti affirmation as he trial films,” he recalls. “I did
meets with a reporter over an infomercial, for reverse
coffee in Brooklyn Heights, mortgages, I think.
where he lives with wife I’ve done everything an
Elizabeth, a film producer, actor can do except porn
and son Samuel. and performing in an
Cool is something he ex- amusement park.”
hibits himself, a brand of He is somewhat at a loss to
regular-guyness befitting account for his professional
an actor who uncovers a ascent.
fresh measure of truth in “I think it was a lot of acci-
each character he plays, dents leading to other ac-
from the exasperated wine cidents,” he says. “I was al-
enthusiast in “Sideways” to ways willing to just go, ‘OK,
the divisive music manager sure, I’ll do that.’”
in “Straight Outta Comp- He said, “OK, sure,” to a six-
ton” to Founding Father hour filmed opera, “River of
Fundament,” mastermind-
