The Holdovers Cast, Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa, Share on New Film
The cast of ‘The Holdovers’ shared their love for making their new film at a recent press conference. Director Alexander Payne and actors Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa conveyed their hilarious antidotes, bringing the not-so-typical ’70s holiday film to life with laughter on some emotional subject matter that was compelling and, at times, heart-wrenching.
Written by David Hemingson and produced by Mark Johnson p.g.a, Bill Block, and David Hemingson, this quirky new film follows an instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England boarding school in 1970 who is in charge of watching students at the campus over the holiday break that have nowhere to go and are forced to stay on the school property through the nation’s holiday festivities that are normally spent with family. The entourage of students includes one geeky and excelled student (Dominic Sessa) whom the instructor takes a familial interest in when the rest of the students are airlifted out by a jet-set parent, as well as the school’s cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) as the three seemingly unlucky loners find out that they all have more in common than they think.
When asked why the film is set in the 1970s, Alexander Payne shared that it was not until the script was finished that he decided on the time stamp when he shared,
“I mean, there’s a way in which I’ve been trying to make ’70s movies, or an extension, a modern extension of ’70s movies my whole career. And for some reason, once the script was finished, and of course, we had set it in 1970, ’71, and I was preparing to direct it, at some moment, I just thought, well, wouldn’t it be cool to kind of pull off a parlor trick of making it, to some degree, look and sound like a movie made back then? “
When asked where the idea for the story came from while collaborating with writer David Hemingson, Alexander stated that he “kind of stole the idea from an obscure French movie by an otherwise well-known director of the period, Marcel Pagnol, a 1935 film called Merlusse.”
Payne continued,
“It had the same premise. Not the same story, but the same premise. And I left the movie thinking, ‘that’s a stealable premise.’ So it was on my list. But I hadn’t done anything with it until about five or six years ago when I completely, by chance, read a TV pilot, a screenplay for a TV pilot by David Hemingson, also set in the world of boarding schools. And I called him up, and I said, “You’ve written a wonderful pilot. I don’t want to make it, but would you consider writing a story in that same world based on idea I give you?” And he said yes. “
Paul Giamatti worked with Payne almost 20 years ago on Sideways and shared what it was like collaborating with him again on The Holdovers when he shared,
“…we became friends after Sideways. So it’s not like we never saw each other. But, you know, we had ideas for things that never came to fruition. We talked briefly about doing a private investigator thing, which I still want to do… we tried to do this for several years running, but it just never worked out timing-wise. And then the timing seemed perfect because all these people were available.”
Paul’s ‘funny eye’ character which was actually written for him, describes him as ‘smelling like fish’ and adds,
“It’s a mixed blessing. The character was fantastic…I would do anything he wanted me to do. But I thought the story was great, the setting was great, the characters were great. . And there was something so familiar about this stuff that I was excited to do it. ‘Cause I had gone to a prep school. I’m bored there so I didn’t have that full experience, but I grew up around a lot of people like this. So it was kind of like, ‘Ooh, this’ll be fun.’ I can just pull on this deep well of all these memories and stuff, so yeah.”
Dolemite star Da’Vine Joy Randolph was asked for by name by director Alexander Payne for her natural talent, and she was eager to learn all she could about his work and process. She stated,
“Alex called me and described this beautiful character. I was given the script. And we kind of just walked through what his ideas were and what he thought this could potentially be. And I have to share this, ’cause it’s honest. At the end of our first meeting, [laugh] I said, “Okay, so yeah, this sounds pretty cool. And, you know, if there’s any of your stuff that you want, ‘stuff,’ that you want me to see that you think could be like, you know, just so I can get to know you better. And he was so kind and generous, it was like, ‘No, I think you’re good.’ And I’m just so grateful and continuously grateful that he even thought and considered me to be an option to do the project. ”
Newcomer Dominic Sessa gives a phenomenal performance as the emotionally triggered student who is not getting the love he needs from his mother and her new husband, who have stranded him in the care of his instructor. Sessa shared how this was his first acting job, and he was still in high school when he booked the role.
“I was at Deerfield Academy. It’s where I went to school. It’s actually a rival school to Choate, which is Paul’s old school. I finished my fall play, actually. And I went to my head of school’s house for like a cast party, and they were essentially talking about, you know, these movie people coming to our school and looking for the locations for some scenes, maybe. And I thought, you know, that’s really cool, and my theater teacher said, ‘Well, these casting people are gonna come and maybe look for some background people or something.’ And I just thought, maybe if it goes well, I can, like, sit at a desk or something.”
Alexander was asked why he cast a new face for such a central character, and he replied,
“I didn’t know whether it was gonna be a totally fresh face or an experienced one. I don’t watch many contemporary movies and TV shows anyway, so they’re all equal in my sight. [laugh] [I don’t know?] their unknown. But I just knew I’d know it when I saw it. And you may know that the casting director, well, she and her staff, had seen 800 submission by the time we found Dominic. Something to me about that though, too, was it actually felt like the really ‘70s thing to do, too. It felt like the thing to do that kinda, like, felt ‘70s to me.”
Focus Features and Miramax’s The Holdovers is currently playing in theaters nationwide.
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