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Barney's Version

Coverage by Nobuhiro Hosoki

Story : Based on Mordecai Richler's award winning novel -- his last and, arguably, best -- "Barney's Version" is the warm, wise and witty story of the politically incorrect life of Barney Panofsky. The film spans three decades and two continents.

Runtime:2 hr. 12 min.

Interview with Actor Paul Giamatti, Actress Rosamund Pike

 

(Q): Paul, do you really know how to make a girl cry?

(Paul Giamatti): Yeah, that’s me man. I know how to make women cry, that’s for sure. Now I’ve just got to make them smile and laugh.
 
(Q): How does it feel being a stud?
 
(Paul Giamatti): It suits me. Am I a stud in this movie? I guess the guy does alright.
 
(Q): Even though he does some horrible things he’s such a lovable character. How did you make it a lovable character?
 
(Paul Giamatti): I think it’s just sort of built into the character, I think it’s just there; it’s the idea in a lot of ways. If he wasn’t likeable or lovable he would be unbearable. It’s kind of there and there are so many wonderful relationships; the relationship I have with her and the father and the fact that he has this sort of…
 
(Rosamund Pike): The character’s only really there by what someone does usually. He does lots of nice things.
 
(Paul Giamatti): Yeah, there’s a kind of care he takes with these sort of wounded people. With his friend Boogie and that French-Canadian actress and his father in a sense is this kind of vulnerable figure that he’s very protective of. He’s got a decent side to him. I just tried to not screw up the screenplay which sort of laid out all these characteristics.
 
(Q): Did you both read the book? Talk about research you did.
 
(Rosamund Pike): It depends who we’re talking to. Sometimes we tell people we’ve read it.
 
(Paul Giamatti): I know. You’ve noticed that haven’t you? You amazingly called me out on that. I sort of read the book. I read it afterwards, really read it, but sort of. I stayed away from it.
 
(Rosamund Pike): The script is pretty different. The script is brilliant in its own right.
 
(Paul Giamatti): The script is really good is the thing.
 
(Rosamund Pike): Often when you the resource to a novel you go there because you’re looking for the things that the script leaves out. This script has deviated from the book and somehow remained incredibly faithful to the spirit of it.
 
(Paul Giamatti): It’s really well written.
 
(Q): It’s really epic too.
 
(Paul Giamatti): It is epic.
 
(Rosamund Pike): It’s amazing what he crams into the length of the film. We keep forgetting bits.
 
(Paul Giamatti): But very intimate at the same time.
 
(Rosamund Pike): You start talking about one aspect of the film and you start thinking that’s what the film’s about and then you realize you’ve forgotten a whole other aspect, like there’s a sort of murder mystery at the center of it all.
 
(Q): How do you walk a fine line between making your character sympathetic and also a villain?
 
(Paul Giamatti): That’s what I mean. I don’t know that it was so much me. I mean maybe I bring something to it; I don’t know. I don’t think he was a villain exactly. He can be a bad guy but I don’t think he’s a bad guy. How’d you like that? Did you get the little inflection?
 
(Rosamund Pike): Yeah, it’s that fine actor at work, ladies and gentlemen. That’s why he gets paid the big bucks.
 
(Paul Giamatti): Thanks a lot.
 
(Q): Is it necessarily a bad thing if a man feels like he hasn’t found true love but gives it a shot a few times before he really does?
 
(Paul Giamatti): I don’t necessarily think it is. I don’t know that this guy thinks he has found it the first two times. I don’t think he’s in any way thinking he found true love with those two wackos. The first woman certainly not. It’s unfortunate, there’s much more to that whole relationship in the book that I wish could have been in there because it’s a fantastic character in the book, Clara. And crazy relationship that they have. He’s marrying her for all the wrong reasons. I don’t think he loves her, truly loves her. And the second woman he’s making a big mistake and he knows it, which is why the second he sees the person strikes him blind with love like that he goes after her, because he knows he’s making a mistake with the other woman. This is the woman he truly loves and the one time he actually finds it.
 
(Q): What I got from your reaction in that situation was that he never thought that existed until he saw her.
 
(Paul Giamatti): No, I think you’re absolutely right; he didn’t. And that’s why it’s absolutely the impulse to grab it while it’s there is so powerful that he can’t stop himself.
 
(Rosamund Pike): And it’s very powerful to be told that. For someone to sit on a train and say “Look, I really thought this thing never happens and it does, it really is happening to me now right here.”
 
(Paul Giamatti): It’s utterly sincere, and it’s not just about getting tail or something. He actually truly, truly realizes “Oh my god; that just happened, and I can’t let it pass by.”
 
(Rosamund Pike): And it’s kind of wonderful and desperate and funny. I love that scene on the train.
 
(Paul Giamatti): It was a hard scene to do.
 
(Q): Is that your version of love? What is your version of love?
 
(Paul Giamatti): A bit of comedy, some laughs.
 
(Rosamund Pike): A few tears.
 
(Paul Giamatti): Yeah, a few tears. The idea of that being struck by love like that, I think it’s certainly possible. I don’t know how many people actually pursue it.
 
(Rosamund Pike): Has anyone in this room ever experienced that?
 
(Paul Giamatti): I’ve been struck with lust. Frequently, many times a day. I don’t know about love per se. I’ve felt that kind of unbelievably impelling power, but whether it was something immediate I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s a real thing.
 
(Q): Are there any signs when you see it?
 
(Rosamund Pike): So you don’t miss it? I don’t know, I’m not an expert at all.
 
(Q): Well Miriam’s interesting too because she doesn’t work and she’s not happy about the fact that he’s sending flowers because he’s married.
 
(Rosamund Pike): I know, I think she behaves very respectably early on.
 
(Paul Giamatti); Absolutely.
 
(Rosamund Pike): There was a journalist next door, we just had a big fight because he said that Miriam screwed the whole relationship up by setting Barney up. Because I think she knows him so well at that point that she goes to New York, and knowing she’s going to see Blair. But I really don’t think she went to see Blair. I think she genuinely went to see the son and Blair happened to be there, because Blair is pursuing her like a kind of madman.
 
(Paul Giamatti): There’s clearly an attraction between her and Blair.
 
(Rosamund Pike): I don’t think she fancies Blair. I couldn’t fancy Bruce Greenwood over him.
 
(Q): What was so attractive about a man like Barney?
 
(Rosamund Pike): The previous one about her being non-flirtatious, it was very interesting actually to play the love interest in a film and not be flirtatious. Because in every romantic comedy or every big romance we see that first scene where there’s definite flirtation going on and it was sort of interesting to hold back and not do all the things that you’re told the romantic lead in a film has to do, sort of do everything against that. I kind of enjoyed that.
 
(Q): And it’s her being grounded I think.
 
(Paul Giamatti): It is, it totally is.
 
(Rosamund Pike): And surprisingly men seem to respond to it.
 
(Paul Giamatti): Very attractive. Actually, it is.
 
(Q): We want what we cannot have, that’s why.
 
(Paul Giamatti): Well there’s that. But there is something actually very attractive about it, this kind of no bullshit thing.
 
(Rosamund Pike): “Come back to me when you’re single.” That’s a line I’ve used in my own life actually.
 
(Q): I’ve had that said to me once. When I was single I looked her up and I ended up hiring her, which was a huge mistake. When you have the scene after the first lunch meeting, after all that time and you’re with a man who gets so drunk that he vomits and then he passes out and you have to sit there and wait for him to come to to finally get a slice of pizza because you’re starving. In playing that scene where do you find the motivation for what is keeping her there and what it is about this man who has just done these things that are pretty much all the wrong things to do on a date that keeps her there?
 
(Rosamund Pike): She could be about to walk. I think it is really disrespectful to turn up drunk to a date. But then I think it’s when she goes into the room and she sort of sees you have a total new insight into somebody. You have an insight into the fact that he brought however many suits and shirts and ties that he laid out and obviously really thought about this. And then this sort of absurd thing of this Champaign and roses came, which is on one level terribly insulting, and on another level so inappropriately endearing that it’s kind of charming.

And then she finds these crib notes of conversation topics and I think whereas she could have thought “Is this guy just an arrogant asshole?” I think she sees that this is someone who’s so desperate for this meeting to go well that he blows it, and I think that makes her stay. And then that they walk all the way from Central Park to Queens when they actually kiss, like when is this guy going to get on with it?
 
(Paul Giamatti): You’re right. It’s true. Queens.
 
(Q): You are over the 59th Street Bridge.
 
(Paul Giamatti): That’s funny; I hadn’t really thought about it.
 
(Q): Could you talk about the collaboration of working with Dustin? He plays such a funny father.
 
(Paul Giamatti): He’s fantastic. He establishes immediate intense intimacy with you as a person and as an actor. But he’s a lot of fun. He’s a fun guy and the process of working with him is kind of nuts. He’ll dig right down into the thing. There were several times when he turned to the director while the camera was rolling and said “Can we go back to the beginning of this and throw the script out completely? Paul and I will just do this scene in our own words and make it up as we go along,” which we did a couple of times, and then he would suddenly click back in.

You had to chase after the guy and keep up with him, but then he’d suddenly click back into the dialog. It was fantastic, it was great. I’ve never worked with somebody doing this kind of mad thing that he was doing but it was highly effective because it just breaks down. He’s getting everything out on camera, he doesn’t believe about doing any rehearsal off camera. You’re going to do it all on camera. You’re going to get your nerves out, you’re going to get all the kinks out, you’re going to work it out all on camera because something great might happen while the cameras are rolling. That’s the way he is.
 
(Q): How hard was it for him to play the scene when he couldn’t move at the end when he’s dead? Did he keep popping up/
 
(Paul Giamatti): He had a fart machine with him, first of all. He had a farting thing with him which was really hilarious. Very funny. Big laughs as he would hit the fart machine while I was trying to do my big serious scene. For a 75 year old man he stayed remarkably still. He was pretty amazing because he did have to lie there that whole time and not breathe. He did well actually, he did very well. It was shot really fast because we had to get out because it was a real massage parlor and they had to open for the night so they were like “Get out, because we’ve got to open.” So the whole thing actually had to go very fast so he didn’t have to lie there too long.
 
(Q): Were there any paparazzi photos of you guys walking into a massage parlor together?
 
(Paul Giamatti): No, strangely enough. It was good times though. Lovely place.
 
(Q): How would you describe the love story between your two characters? Beautiful, tragic, true?
 
(Paul Giamatti): True is a good word for it I think.
 
(Rosamund Pike): True, yeah that’ll do.
 
(Paul Giamatti): Truthful, yeah.
 
(Paul Giamatti): And I think it’s a really nicely matched relationship. I really admire Miriam because guys like Barney are incredibly fun to be around. The selfish narcissists are also the people who live in such an exciting way. You have to be the kind of woman who can tolerate it and Miriam is so she gets the benefit of it and she’s able to nurture him and be totally selfless herself. I think they’re perfectly balanced.
 
(Q): How is the experience of working with Richard? He has a tv background from “CSI” so I was wondering if there were any spontaneous things on set?
 
(Rosamund Pike): There was a scene where he wanted like at the moment of Barney seeing Miriam he wanted to go right inside his heart and do this whole intravenous journey into Barney’s heart to see it kind of pulse.
 
(Paul Giamatti): That’s very funny. That’s very good. That would have been great. What’s great about I think the tv thing is there wasn’t a whole lot of screwing around. He really knew what he wanted to do. He was great.
 
(Rosamund Pike): He loved the story. I don’t think his tv background had any bearing on it. He had been passionate about this book for years, like 12 years, and hounded the producer to let him direct it. I think he knew a lot of how he wanted to shoot it. I think he’d had these scenes living in his head.
 
(Paul Giamatti): Yeah, he definitely did. When we rehearsed he knew down the line how he was going to shoot something and he would tell us, which was good. It was nice to be able to know that when he got to a scene.
 
(Q): What’s next for the two of you?
 
(Rosamund Pike): Children. No I’m just kidding. Don’t print that; please don’t print that.
 
(Paul Giamatti): I’m doing a movie that George Clooney is directing called “The Ides of March,” which is about a political campaign, a very dirty political campaign.
 
(Q): You play dirty good.
 
(Paul Giamatti): I play a dirty political campaign manager.
 
(Q): When is that due?
 
(Paul Giamatti): That starts in February. Mid-February.

 

End.