Have we ever been as happy as Paul Giamatti reminiscing about being an orangutan?
"That was heaven, from beginning to end," Giamatti said, with a joy no other human being has ever expressed for Tim Burton's Planet Of The Apes
Aux News Paul Giamatti
Paul Giamatti’s cinematic roles tend to land on the dour or frustrated side—something used to great effect in his latest critical success, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers. And yet, there’s also a deep capacity for sudden sparks of joy lurking underneath Giamatti’s performances, one we might previously have described as “childlike”— but which we can now only refer to as “Being akin to Paul Giamatti talking about the time he got to play a talking orangutan in Tim Burton’s Planet Of The Apes.”
Giamatti may, in fact, be the only person who remembers that particular abortive franchise-starter fondly, but damn does he: In THR’s recent Actors Roundtable, the Sideways star took the time to express to his fellow luminaries (including Colman Domingo, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Andrew Scott, and Jeffrey Wright) just how much he absolutely loved being covered in prosthetics to play orangutan slave trader Limbo in the 2001 film. “That was the strange fulfillment of a deep dream,” he told his fellow stars. “To be an orangutan?”
Giamatti goes on to reveal that his agents suggested he might maybe, possibly, want to push for a role in Burton’s film that would show his actual human face, given that he was on a major career upswing at the time. “If you tell them I want to be a human,” Giamatti supposedly responded, “I am going to burn the agency.”
Hilariously, this isn’t even the first time Giamatti has revealed this deep ape affinity in the last few months: He recently told Happy Sad Confused’s Josh Horowitz a similar story, relishing days when he was called to set on Burton’s film, put in makeup, and then had filming canceled. “That was heaven from beginning to end. I loved it so much,” he says with happy laughter in his voice. “I didn’t want to take that makeup off.” In both interviews, Giamatti connects his enthusiasm to his childhood love of Planet Of The Apes, and it is really, genuinely, the happiest we think we’ve ever seen the man. (Compare it to his funny, self-effacing acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, which while effusive and kind, simply can’t match the almost pathological joy Giamatti expresses while reminiscing about those god-awful, hideous ape teeth from 22 years prior.)
21 Comments
He’s easily my favorite part of that movie.
Acutally, he’s the only part I can remember from that movie.
Man, I don’t remember anything from that movie, aside from HBC’s ape character wearing makeup, which is bar none still the fucking weirdest thing I’ve ever seen in a big studio movie.
I think I honestly remember more from the making of documentary. Like how they used conveyor belts to make it look like the apes could run really fast.
I remember watching the scene where Ape Helena Bonham-Carter was getting frisky with one of the other apes, and just thinking, “What is the film wanting me to feel here?”
Just avert your eyes until Tim Burton has reached completion. This is his $100 million dollar furry fantasy, not yours.
He and Tim Roth were the only people involved who seemed like they actually wanted to be there. So, naturally, they are the best parts of it. Beyond that, the only thing memorable was Ape Lincoln.
I saw that film in the cinema, and at the end audibly cried out “It’s Ape-raham Lincoln!” I’m sure I’m not the only one it the world who did.
Burton’s film is not great, maybe not even good. But Giamatti, Helena Bonham Carter, and Tim Roth all gave excellent performances, and the ape makeup was extraordinary (and possibly the last of it’s kind – the CG apes of the recent trilogy are likewise quite good, but another kettle of fi- er, barrel of monkeys entirely.
Marky Mark and the Monkey Bunch
I only remember ape Charlton Heston bequeathing his beloved gun to ape Tim Roth in a scene described as “really fucking dumb.”
I had completely forgotten about that. Man, it sounds like something from an SNL sketch, but that was actually in the movie. Tim Burton’s weirdness really has range.
I liked Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes. Granted, I was just a kid with shitty taste but to this day I think the prosthetics and production design were fantastic.
Production design is rarely the problem in a Tim Burton film.
FWIW I think Planet of the Apes’ production design in particular is underappreciated because it’s not as “Burton-esque” as the production design in Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, and Batman Returns. But I like that about this movie.
As a huge Planet of the Apes fan who thinks the 2001 remake is the worst part of the franchise (even the 74 and 75 tv series are better), Paul Giamatti, Tim Roth, Michael Clark Duncan, and Helena Bonham Carter’s work on that film is far too overlooked. They all commit 110% and with Rick Baker’s makeup you begin to believe they really are sentient apes. This despite being saddled with an often paint-by-numbers sci-fi script that prefers the generic action-hero human protagonist over the allegorical storytelling which makes Planet of the Apes so compelling in the first place. Basically, the work ethic of the Ape actors are a key reason why I don’t dislike the movie even though I don’t agree with much of its storytelling.
Wow. What a great article. What do you think, y’all?
It’s the part he was born to play, baby!
you must FIGHT TO LIIIIIVEyou must FIGHT TO LIIIIIVEyou must FIGHT TO LIIIIIVEon the PLANET OF THE APES
The original Planet of the Apes makeup from the 60s may not be as technically advanced, but in the race for realism they’ll never match how iconic it was.
This is the first confirmation I’ve gotten that Giamatti has ever been happy in his life. I love the guy as an actor, but joie de vivre is not the vibe I get from him.