When he's in front of you.

 

Something special happens everytime Paul Giamatti appears on the screen. He says his way to work is to read the script so many times that in the end he memorizes each portion of dialog. When that happens, he's sure he knows and understand the character he's gonna play. I love the idea that over the theorical part of the acting there's also a kind of instinct that lets his characters in. I think that's one of the reasons he's so believable and able to do something so difficult as playing himself, as it happens in Cold Souls, the feature debut of Sophie Barthes.