Paul Giamatti dedicated his Golden Globe award to teachers.
The 56-year-old actor portrays a bad-tempered history master at a boarding school in ‘The Holdovers’ and after paying tribute to the cast and crew, including director Alexander Payne and writer David Hemingson, when he picked up the Best Actor (Musical or Comedy) accolade on Sunday (07.01.24), he took the time to honour the real-life members of the profession, including his own relatives.
Taking to the stage at Los Angeles’ Beverly Hilton Hotel, he joked: “Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh. So many stairs, too many stairs. My knees are shot, up and down all night. Never going to be in ‘John Wick 5’ at this rate.
He then added: “Surely this is the first time the award has been given to an actor who plays a man who smells like fish. Thank you Golden Globes.
“And thank you to Alexander Payne, Alexander the Great who for some mysterious reason continues to have enormous faith in me and why I don’t know. Divine Joy Randall, Dominic Sessa, I love you very much. David Hemingson, Focus Features, the entire cast and crew and Boston. Being in town, fantastic people, one and all.
“I want to say I love my beautiful girlfriend Clara Wong, why you bother with me I don’t know. I want to give a shout out to my son Samuel, who recently graduated from college.
“It’s a movie about a teacher, I play a teacher and my whole family are teachers, all of them, going back generations Teachers are good people, you’ve got to respect them. They do a good thing, it’s a tough job, so this is for teachers as well, thanks guys.”
Paul -who previously worked with Alexander on 2004’s ‘Sideways’ – took home the award ahead of Nicolas Cage ‘Dream Scenario’), Timothée Chalamet (‘Wonka’), Matt Damon ( ‘Air’), Joaquin Phoenix (‘Beau Is Afraid’), and Jeffrey Wright (‘American Fiction’).