Paul Giamatti couldn’t bring himself to watch Twin Peaks revival after missing out on role

Paul Giamatti has always wanted to work with David Lynch, and he almost got his chance with the Twin Peaks revival series several years ago.

While speaking with The Wrap, Paul Giamatti revealed that he nearly played one of the Mitchum brothers on the Twin Peaks revival, but was forced to turn it down due to scheduling issues. “The person that I’ve always wanted to work with and had an opportunity to and it didn’t happen was David Lynch,” Giamatti said. “It just logistically couldn’t work out, which was heartbreaking to me. We just couldn’t fit it, schedule-wise. So that was a bummer.“

The Mitchum brothers were a pair of mobsters who were played by Jim Belushi and Robert Knepper, but Giamatti isn’t sure which one replaced him because he couldn’t bring himself to watch the show. “I don’t know who did it because I couldn’t watch it because I was so disappointed I couldn’t be in it,” Giamatti said, “but there were two sort of mobster characters in it who befriended the Kyle MacLachlan character. These brothers, they were friendly mobsters. It was one of those guys.” The actor is still holding out hope that he’ll get to work with David Lynch one of these days. “I’ve met him and he’s a lovely guy,” Giamatti said of Lynch. “His movies really, I love his stuff. So maybe someday — and if not, whatever.“

Paul Giamatti can currently be seen in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, which has been receiving rave reviews. The film follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker (Dominic Sessa) — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). Our own Chris Bumbray called The Holdovers his favourite film of the year, and you can check out his review right here.