Paul Giamatti’s loveable losers: How the Billions star has always made us root for the underdog

Deeply disappointed with himself: Paul Giamatti as curmudgeon Paul Hunham in his Oscar-tipped comedy ‘The Holdovers’ (Universal Pictures)

Mr Hunham, the worn-down, middle-aged teacher played with such consummate brilliance by Paul Giamatti in Alexander Payne’s new film The Holdovers, finds the world a bitter and complicated place. He is an unsympathetic figure despised and feared by the teenagers under his tutelage at Barton Academy, an elite but stuffy boarding school in New England. He smokes a pipe and smells of fish. Cold and supercilious, he is always ready to draw attention to his pupils’ intellectual shortcomings and their privileged and cocooned position in the world. (It’s 1970, and they’re too busy applying to elite colleges to go to Vietnam).

Despite being a self-loathing curmudgeon, Hunham is so beautifully portrayed by Giamatti that audiences will fall in love with him regardless. The actor is already a contender in next year’s awards race, and will likely compete for Oscars and Golden Globes with the likes of Maestro’s Bradley Cooper, Oppenheimer’s Cillian Murphy and Leonardo DiCaprio for Killers of the Flower Moon.

When it comes to bringing underdogs to life on screen, Giamatti – arguably best known for his starring role alongside actor and musician Damian Lewis in the long-running drama series Billions – doesn’t have many peers. The Italian-American actor isn’t anyone’s idea of a typical movie star. Sometimes, though, character actors have such eccentricity and force of personality that they end up eclipsing the leading players. Giamatti has always been one of those.