Paul Giamatti Credits ‘The Holdovers’ Success for Him Now ‘Getting to Do Fun Stuff’ (Exclusive)

Paul Giamatti is no stranger to the screen, thanks to an award-winning career that has seen him find success both in movies and on television, in everything from HBO’s John Adams to Showtime’s Billions and Sideways to his Oscar-nominated roles in Cinderella Man and The Holdovers. 

Now, the 57-year-old actor is happily expanding his work with roles in various upcoming horror and sci-fi projects, which he credits to the awards season success for The Holdovers, which also garnered him acting noms at the 2024 BAFTAs and SAG Awards as well as a Golden Globe win for best actor in a motion picture — musical or comedy. 

“I think that I’m getting opportunities and going, ‘I totally want to do that.’ Like, I would love to do science fiction. I would love to do horror,” he tells PEOPLE. “So being able to do it, yes, I do think it’s a result of that for whatever reason. And so, God bless it, that’s a great result to have happened.”

Those “opportunities,” it should be said, include roles in Black Mirror, a Hostel series and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. 

When it comes to the former, creator Charlie Booker’s acclaimed Netflix series often depicting humans’ relationship with technology, Giamatti says that “it fits into the science fiction sort of interest.” 

“I’m a big Twilight Zone fan,” he continues. “And Black Mirror fits into that kind of eerie space of stuff that I really enjoy. So, it was definitely satisfying.” 

Joining Black Mirror for season 7, the actor stars in the “Eulogy” episode, which, according to Netflix, tells the story of a lonely man who is forced to “re-examine a heartbreaking relationship from his past” after he’s asked to participate in “an innovative system that enables users to literally step into photographic memories.”

Giamatti’s episode, the actor notes, is a slight departure from the typical “horrific and menacing” stories that Black Mirror often tells. Again, pointing to the Twilight Zone, he says it reminded him of those “more gentle, nostalgic, melancholy episodes about people dealing with mortality or their memory or grief or something like that, that I always liked.”

“As I’ve gotten older, I like those episodes more and this is like that,” he continues, explaining that when it came to his Black Mirror episode, in particular, “the idea of that technology was interesting to me, but then also the ambiguity of it. Is it a good thing or not?” 

Without spoiling what happens in the episode, Giamatti says, “When all is said and done, and I watched it, I came out thinking it was much more positive than when were actually doing it.”

That said, “It definitely satisfied the genre thing for me,” the actor notes. 

Taking him even further into the sci-fi genre is his upcoming role in the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, with Giamatti playing the season’s villain opposite Holly Hunter as the captain and chancellor of the academy. 

“Sometimes you’re lucky enough to discover that one of the greatest actors alive is also a huge Star Trek fan, and meeting Paul was one of those miraculous moments for us. The sheer delight with which he dove in on Starfleet Academy is only surpassed by the gratitude we feel about him joining our incredible cast,” co-showrunners and exec producers Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau said in a statement, per The Hollywood Reporter, when his casting was announced in June 2024.

While Giamatti was careful not to spoil anything about his role, he did dish on joining the hit franchise’s expanded universe. “It’s incredibly exciting. I’ve been a fan since I was a little boy,” he tells PEOPLE. “So that was really like wish fulfillment, a dream come true thing that I was constantly experiencing.” 

Adding that he “was constantly experiencing this sense of ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this,'” the actor says, “I was really kind of heartbroken when it ended. I really, really loved doing it.” 

Not only that, but Giamatti says, “The project itself is really good. It was a fun character and the scripts were really good. And I got to act with all these wonderful actors and be on the bridge of a ship.” 

As for the Hostel series, that’s something that may have come out of a conversation he reportedly had on the red carpet at the 2024 Golden Globes, when he said, “I’d like to do more horror.” A few months later, THR announced that filmmaker Eli Roth was working on a TV adaptation — an “elevated thriller” and “reinvention” — of his hit horror film, with Giamatti set to star “in a key role.” 

When asked if there were any updates on the project, Giamatti says, “They’ve been working on getting it set up somewhere. That’s the last I know, and that Eli’s writing episodes and stuff like that.” 

While the actor and fans alike wait for more news about the series, Giamatti reflects on what he’s been able to do this past year, saying, “It’s like I’m getting to do fun stuff on really good stuff, so I can’t complain.” 

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Black Mirror season 7 premieres Saturday, April 10 on Netflix.