When it comes to dream collaborations, there’s one filmmaker that has eluded Paul Giamatti all these years in Hollywood: David Lynch.
And to think that it almost happened.
“The Holdovers” star recently revealed to TheWrap that he was cast to star in Lynch’s anticipated Showtime reboot of “Twin Peaks” in 2017, but scheduling conflicts forced him to pull out.
“The person that I’ve always wanted to work with and had an opportunity to and it didn’t happen was David Lynch,” Giamatti said.
“It was that reboot of ‘Twin Peaks’ that he did for Showtime a few years ago,” he continued. “And it just logistically couldn’t work out, which was heartbreaking to me. We just couldn’t fit it, schedule-wise. It just couldn’t work out. So that was a bummer.”
The Oscar-nominated actor and “Billions” star went on to detail the role he was set to play.
“I don’t know who did it because I couldn’t watch it because I was so disappointed I couldn’t be in it, but there were two sort of mobster characters in it who befriended the Kyle MacLachlan character,” Giamatti revealed. “These brothers, they were kind of like friendly mobsters. It was one of those guys.”
By that description, it’s safe to say the actor was cast as one of the “Twin Peaks” Mitchum brothers, as now-memorably brought to life by an against-type Jim Belushi and Robert Knepper. The eccentric gangsters were introduced in the series intent on killing Dougie Jones (MacLachlan), an off-kilter duplicate of FBI agent Dale Cooper. (Remember, this is Lynch’s world, and we’re just living in it.)
“I’ve met him and he’s a lovely guy,” Giamatti said of Lynch. “His movies really, I love his stuff. So maybe someday – and if not, whatever.”
Giamatti went on to bemoan the demanding production schedules of a long-running show like “Billions,” which began in 2016 and kept him from doing work like “Twin Peaks.” He said that he “missed opportunities because of it” and probably won’t do another yearslong TV series like it. (“Billions” wrapped with Season 7 this year.)
“Seven years is probably longer than any of us anticipated. It was great, but I don’t know that I want to do seven years on something again. So I think if I was to do something like that, knowing it’s limited from the get-go would probably be good,” Giamatti said.
In October, Giamatti joined the cast of HBO’s predominantly spanish-language series “30 Coins” for Season 2. He added that for a TV project like that, “they know it’s going to be three [seasons] and that’s it,” which nudged him toward the decision to sign on.
“I would be circumspect and really want to know how much it is because I don’t know that I want to do something [like ‘Billions’] for that long again,” he concluded. “It was a great job, but it was just, like, wow – it was a lot.”
While “Twin Peaks” was a disappointing no-go for Giamatti, the actor did recently reunite with his “Sideways” director Alexander Payne on “The Holdovers,” now in theaters nationwide.
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