Paul Giamatti was hot and knew he was getting his photo taken. That’s his explanation, at least, for the viral shot of the Billions star (on an MTA train) that’s circulated online far longer than his New York City commute to wherever he was going.
The image, which was taken in 2017 during the MTA’s Summer of Hell, was included in a fairly robust list of celebrities who also seemed miffed by the delay-filled transit nightmare that was a big story in New York at the time. Things haven’t gotten much better on the trains in the years since, but these days, it is kind of nice to imagine traveling places and being inconvenienced by mass transit.
Anyway, Giamatti has definitely seen this photo and, what’s more, knew it was happening. In a GQ interview, he was asked about the viral photo and explained that, while yes it was a miserable commute because it was “hot” that day, he mostly made that annoyed face because he knew the moment would be captured forever by someone with a camera phone:
“My demeanor is really because I knew the guy was taking my picture and it was pissing me off. That’s actually what’s going on in that picture. I was like, “really dude?”
That’s what I thought was funny about that picture. I was like, “did it not occur to anybody that actually I’m pissed off ’cause I know a guy is taking my picture?” What’s funny when people do that is they think you don’t see them doing it, and it’s like, “I’m an actor, dude. I notice everything. That’s what I do for a living. I see everything going on around me.”
Giamatti makes a good point here: many of these ‘on the train’ moments feel like snapshots of everyday life because people aren’t used to having their photo taken. But Paul Giamatti on an MTA train is putting someone used to being noticed in close proximity with people who will likely notice him. And during the Summer of Hell in New York, pretty much everyone is going to look like that if they knew it was about to be captured forever.
(Via GQ)
