An Unlikely Trio Bonds In High School Dramedy The Holdovers
From director Alexander Payne, who is often noted for his satirical depictions of contemporary American society, comes The Holdovers. The comedy-drama follows a grumpy instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during the holiday break to watch the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with a damaged, brainy troublemaker (played by newcomer Dominic Sessa) and the school’s head cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who has just lost a son in Vietnam.
Recently, Payne sat down in a press conference, alongside composer Mark Orton, production designer Ryan Warren Smith, costumer designer Wendy Chuck, and editor Kevin Tentto, to discuss everything that went into creating a film that immerses audiences into what everyone remembers deeply: being a confused teenager traversing their way through high school.
All expressed that creating this film transported them back to high school and they wanted their own experiences to be reflected in this. The traumatic parts like “taking Latin for eight years” joked Orton, but also bringing them back to the things that brought them joy and maybe even revealed their true calling in life. Orton specifically recalled music class, which was his true passion and now his flourishing career. While this movie takes place in the 1970s, they all say that people haven’t changed. You can make a movie about high school in any time period because the themes always transcend throughout eras. There’s still the punks, goths, jocks, and, throughout it all, teenagers are just plain awkward.
Costume designer Wendy Chuck explaining the rigorous process of creating costumes for a period piece to getting the hairstyles just right, while production designer Ryan Warren Smith expressing how important it is for actors to feel like they’re in the world their characters are in. Smith explained that he dresses every single part of the set to allow the characters to be immersed in every scene and the story overall. He went on to say that he even placed “books that we thought [Giamatti’s character] would like” in drawers that the audience can’t see, but the actors can if they were to open it during a scene. Some may not realize, but something Chuck highlighted was how many background characters there are in this film — and that they all needed costumes too. She explained that it's important to have costumes that “don't speak costume,” rather the actor carries the clothes and emanates their character through them. The meticulous details were certainly not missed in the creation of this film.
Writer David Hemingson said the character of Paul was based on his uncle, who was an incredibly coarse man and World War II veteran born in 1920. He channeled his uncle’s rarefied profanity, noting with a chuckle that the character has memorable insults throughout the movie. Payne remarked that Paul Giamatti was a product of that same world seen in the film, having attended a private school in Connecticut and then gone on to study at Yale. Payne stated that Giamatti knew how to play the character because he knew the character. Hemingson added that Giamatti is in the likes of Meryl Streep where you cast these performers to see where they’ll take the character you wrote and you know it will always be amazing.
As for Dominic Sessa, casting him was a gamble. They fielded over 800 submissions for this movie and still couldn’t find exactly who they were looking for. When it came time to make a decision, they were stumped. At the same time, they had to begin calling the schools they were going to film at. While on the phone with Deerfield Academy, they decided tosee if the drama department had any students that would be interested in auditioning — and that’s where they found Dominic. While he was a star in his school’s drama department, he had never been in a film before. Hemingson explains that it took around five to six auditions with Dominic expressing “he felt a little too old for the part, quite frankly, but he just evinced in successive auditions such talent and emotional intelligence, and life experience, that he could bring to the part.” Once they got Giamatti and Sessa together, it was a done deal. Sessa displayed innate talent and chemistry with Giamatti.
Kevin Tent, the film’s editor, went on to include the wonder of having “the great” Da’Vine Joy Randolph in the cast. “I was just watching the film again last night and her face is so expressive. She just has this great presence and it’s so weighted when you cut to a closeup of her,” he reflected. “I was just blown away by her moments. She’s a lot of fun, she’s a great character, and heartbreaking.”
The Holdovers will be in select theaters premiering October 27 and everywhere on November 10.
