Minnie Driver Video Interview On ‘Barney’s Version,’ Paul Giamatti

There was some nights, there was a particular dinner in Italy with Scott [Speedman] and Rachelle [Lefevre] and Paul [Giamatti] and I. We went out to dinner late and it was the summer, we were in Rome and we were sitting in this, you know, 11th-century courtyard, and the food was incredible. We were all talking and you could sort of see the relationship between Paul and Scott and between Scott and Rachelle and this whole — it was so, because you could see it all happening — everybody kind of knowing each other and relaxing and it’s really nice when you feel that people are kind of open enough. No one was shut down or closed or sitting in their trailer, everyone was very together in this film.

I finished a film called "Hunky Dory," and that will be out later this year. That was a beautiful kind of, sort of a musical set in the ‘70s about a teacher at a school. And then I’m about to go into a film with Vera Farmiga and David Duchovny in February.

I worked with a very brilliant dialect teacher on the accent, which I knew what it sounded like — we just had to find someone that I could really base it on, and I did. And that’s really, that was my way in with this. Once I had that voice, everything — then I very much knew who she was. And all the costume designer and the hair and makeup design, which was such a big part of it, it all fell in and around that. Soon as you’re sure, everyone else can be very clear as well. Um, she’s such an immense character, a big, big character. But it was very specific because the woman that I was — the woman that I was thinking about, even though I had only heard her voice, I knew exactly who she was. It was very fun, very fun building the second Mrs. P.

He’s just such a good, interesting person. And there was a scene, there’s a scene, a really wonderful scene that goes from being fairly comedic to being really quite sad, where we’re in our house and I’m on the phone with my mother for the gazillionth time and it’s quite funny talking about the dad. And then she comes in and he's incredibly dismissive to her. And she says, “why do you talk to me that way?” And I remember, Paul and I had been having a conversation as we were shooting that scene that morning, and he’s just — he’s so present, he’s so — the whole thing sort of wove together, the conversation that we were having sort of pertained to what we were shooting, and it was such a brilliant sort of weaving and it was very like him. He stays very present throughout, without staying in character between takes, it was like — he’s just very clever and generous.