Paul Giamatti
I really do like a really good science fiction movie and a really good horror movie. Those are the kinds of things I really like. But, I mean, I'm not into sort of like slasher movies. I like a really good science fiction movie, which is hard to do. They don't make many really good ones any more.Collection: Movies
As an actor, to have achieved financial stability is amazing. But I always have this weird fear that I'm not going to get any more work; it's about not having enough money.Collection: Work
Am I really cool? You're telling me I'm cool? Well, that's good to hear.Collection: Cool
Religion features more now in my life than it did when I was a kid - my dad rejected the Catholic church as a young man. I had no religious upbringing, but certainly, Dad was a kind of secular humanist. I don't know if he was an atheist or agnostic. I regret I didn't talk to him about it.Collection: Religion
It's funny: most people who recognize me on the subway and stuff - it's much more they think of me as a funny guy. I get much more of people telling me how much I make them laugh, actually. Which is nice.Collection: Funny
I consider myself an atheist. My wife is Jewish. And I'm fine with my son being raised as a Jew. He's learning Hebrew and is really into it. I will talk to my own son about my atheism when the time is right. But there's a great tradition of Jewish atheism, there are no better atheists in the world than the Jews.Collection: Learning
You are absolutely free to describe me as a turtle or something.
I was the youngest child and got a lot more freedom than my brother and sister. I used to wander, doing my own thing under the radar, but I didn't get in bad, bad trouble.
I learned how to fire a sniper rifle, which I'm sure will be useful at some point.
My father died in 1989 before I knew what I was going to do with my life. I had just graduated from college. My mother died just before 'Sideways' came out. She knew I was an actor, but she never saw me become successful.
Acting can be a really silly thing. It's like playing dress-up.
I wanted to play Zapruder, as he is a man you really don't know much about: a faceless, anonymous figure.
I don't really have any opinion about my performance in 'Big Momma's House.'
I remember when I was at the first showing of 'John Dies at the End' at Sundance, and I was talking to some of the people in the standby crowd who were outside and didn't have tickets. They were just waiting in line to see if they could get in. It was this whole gang of die-hard sci-fi wacko people, and they were just fantastic.
It'd be disingenuous to say I don't like attention - I'm an actor for God's sake - and it's flattering and all, but attention was never my big goal. I just like to work and have a good time.
I'm clearly not Brad Pitt, and I'm never going to be Brad Pitt.
I was an English major at Yale, but I did do undergraduate theater there. And I went to the graduate school for acting.
I was a big 'Planet of The Apes' fan, so I was really excited about being in it. I had a really good time. I liked wearing all that stuff, and I liked playing the part.
Well, you know, when people say stuff about you, it's always really flattering. But does it mean anything to me? It's not really real to me; there's no reality to it.
This whole business feels kind of intense, like a bad fit. Round peg, square hole. But whatever, I'll take it.
I've got to be the geekiest guy in the world in a lot of ways. I'm like a zeta male.
I don't consider myself a very interesting person. I have the mentality of a supporting actor.
Lead roles are fun, but I'm especially happy other, more colorful supporting stuff has come along.
I definitely have a tendency to only see the blemishes of things, and see lots of things about my acting that I don't like.
I've very critical of myself, and film has been an adjustment for me.
I don't mind being stereotyped in some way and playing certain kinds of guys, but if I can find something to occasionally get a break from that, that would be nice. And I feel like I manage to.
I always would be happy to make a character even more unlikable, but you know, there's a limit and if you go there, you get into a very different kind of movie, man.
I find that the crazy narcissists, the selfish loons are often the most fun to be around, weirdly.
Sometimes, I think I may be more recognizable because I'm character-looking.
I'm not a big wine guy. And bars, I never go to bars anymore. It's such a drag, man.
I get tired of myself pretty fast.
I like to work - I probably work too much.
I don't mind talking about acting. I don't have anything interesting to say about it, but it's interesting talking about it.
I never thought I would have any particular career in movies at all.
Somehow whatever I play ends up being sleazy.
I like playing weird, kind of shady people.
I mean, I'm not going to play the hero of something.
It is because my dad died suddenly that I became an actor. I thought, I'm going to make money doing this thing I enjoy.
Academia is a rarified culture, especially an Ivy League academic background.
The supporting thing can be harder to pop in and out of. The hardest thing is the people who have to come in and play, say, the bartender for a day - that's a lot harder than playing the lead role. You have to pop in and get it right. It's a lot of pressure to just pop in there and fit in and find your footing really fast.
I suppose there must be some way in which I'm compelled to show some side of myself - or of people - that's paranoid and fraught and beleaguered and downtrodden, just as Tom Cruise wants to show that he's terrifyingly upbeat and terrifyingly heroic all the time.
I definitely had a top-notch education.
I have the mentality of a supporting actor.
I still want to be the guy who can get on the subway and check out the freak on the subway.
I don't think film actors need training, really.
There is something pleasurable for an actor to produce something and not be in it.
If I play a more aggressive, stronger guy, I often go through my day feeling a bit better than when I play somebody who's not.
Now, actors get so familiarized with Eastern Europe. I never imagined I'd get as familiar with Budapest and Prague and places like that in my life.
I was more used to acting onstage, for a long time. I don't know, maybe I was temperamentally more suited to stage stuff. And there are things about the stage that I miss in a lot of ways.
With 'Duplicity', I was a little bit like, 'This isn't that hard of a movie.' This isn't like some huge brain trust of a movie. You gotta be a little bit awake to follow the plot, but it's really just a kind of light entertainment. It's like those Cary Grant movies, which are not meant to be anything other than diverting. In a nice way.