Paul Giamatti earned his eighth Screen Actors Guild award nomination today for his work in the acclaimed Alexander Payne film The Holdovers. Giamatti has won four SAG awards so far, including one in 2005 for Sideways, his last collaboration with Payne.

“It’s awesome,” Giamatti said in a phone call shortly after hearing the good news. “It’s actually super, super gratifying to have your peers distinguish you like that. It’s really nice. And [Holdovers costar] Da’Vine [Joy Randolph] and all the other guys in my category [were nominated]—it’s a lovely thing.”

The Holdovers stars Giamatti as a cranky history teacher at an all-boys prep school who gets stuck looking after a few kids over the holiday break. The character also has a lazy eye—a quirk his peers have enjoyed asking him about.

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“Actors have really been digging the eye thing,” he said. “A lot of people have been like, ‘That must’ve just been really fun, the eye,’ and people saying, like, ‘I would really love to have this kind of thing [with the eye] going on.’ I mean, actors love stuff like that. People have been asking me if it hurts and does it feel weird, which it doesn’t. It was a sizable [contact lens], but it’s nice and soft, and so it doesn’t hurt.”

In addition to earning the SAG nomination, Giamatti has been a hit on social media recently, thanks to a photo of him enjoying a meal at In-N-Out with his Golden Globe statuette. Has he been told about the general enthusiasm surrounding his post-awards-show move?

Yes, his team “did make me aware of it,” he said with a laugh. “I’m pleased I provided America with a little diversion, my need for an In-N-Out burger. I’m obsessed with In-N-Out, so I just had to have it.”

Given his appreciation for the California-born fast-food chain, we couldn’t help but mention that should he end up attending, the Vanity Fair Oscar Party has an In-N-Out truck on-site all night—something Giamatti was unaware of.

“What? Seriously? A truck pulls up and it just serves you In-N-Out Burger? Are you serious? Such a thing exists?” he said in awe. “You’re telling me I can hire an In-N-Out truck to pull up to a soiree of my own? Holy cow! That’s blowing my mind. Oh, my God. Okay, well, this is good news! If we actually go to the Oscars, if I’m there, I’ll be at the In-N-Out truck.”

Giamatti’s go-to order, by the way, is the #1 with raw onion.