— in the holdovers, paul giamatti adds to his impressive résumé by playing a character with a lazy eye. But how does the actor pull off maintaining his eyes pointing in. If you watch paul giamatti in the new movie the holdovers, you might be left wondering: Is that his real eye? — the dramedy served as a reunion between giamatti and director alexander payne nearly 20 years after 2004's sideways. We think we know who paul is when we see. In the holdovers, paul giamatti plays a pompous and lonely classics professor named paul hunham at a new england boarding school for boys in 1970. — if you watch paul giamatti in the new movie the holdovers, you might be left wondering: Is that his real eye? — if you watch paul giamatti in the new movie the holdovers, you might be left wondering: Is that his real eye? — when it came to casting the role, payne only had paul giamatti in mind. Comparing him to the likes of meryl streep and laurence olivier, the director revealed that. — giamatti has peddled this line before, telling people in december that the eye was a “state secret,” and that he and director alexander payne got a kick out of telling curious fans. — while giamatti leaves the cornea conundrum unclear, in their final moments together in the film, hunham reveals to angus which eye looks the wrong way. — set in the 1970s, the dramedy casts giamatti as crotchety boarding school teacher paul hunham, who is forced to remain on campus over his christmas break to babysit the. — the lazy eye detail in the holdovers is a deliberate choice for paul giamatti's character, adding depth and uniqueness to mr. Paul giamatti revealed that the lazy. — the eye baffles even the film’s friendlier characters; Halfway through it, an exasperated angus (dominic sessa) asks paul which eye he’s supposed to look at. — this blog post delves into the particulars of paul giamatti’s eye condition, the corrective surgery he underwent, and its impact on his acting career. Paul‘s character is described as a curmudgeon with an odor problem and he also has a glass eye. Director alexander payne reportedly had only paul in mind for the role. — annually, one teacher is obliged to stay with such holiday “holdovers,” and paul hunham (paul giamatti), a fiftysomething teacher of ancient history, is this year’s.