Video: ‘The Holdovers’ | Anatomy of a Scene

“Hi, I’m Alexander Payne. I directed ‘The Holdovers.’” I assumed Barton Men don’t lie. Don’t get me incorrect, that was enjoyable. But you simply lied via your tooth. “The story is basically about a bunch of students at an all-boys prep school in New England who have nowhere to go for the holidays. And eventually, the story boils down to the relationship between the very curmudgeonly teacher selected to stay behind with the boys this year, Paul Giamatti and one student in particular, played by Dominic Sessa, a new actor.” There was an incident once I was at Harvard with my roommate. And? He accused me of copying from his senior thesis. Plagiarizing. Well, did you? No! He stole from me. “A cook is only as good as his or her ingredients, and having Paul Giamatti and Dominic Sessa, both are capable of learning and performing pages of dialogue at a crack.” So you bought kicked out of Harvard for dishonest? No, I acquired kicked out of Harvard for hitting him. You hit him? What, like, punched him out? Nope I hit him with a automotive. “It’s about three or four pages of dialogue, and I wanted to do it in one go and choreograph it to the camera.” “At first, you’re fooled into thinking that only these two characters are alone at the liquor store. But suddenly you’re surprised at the end of the scene by the appearance of the liquor store salesman.” There you go, killer. “And he was played by a guy named Joe Howell who actually works at that liquor store.”