SAUGUS — Hollywood came to town on Wednesday as movie director Alexander Payne chose The Continental Restaurant on Route 1 to film scenes for his new movie.
According to The Continental owner Paul Kourkoulis, the restaurant has been rented for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week for the filming of the movie “The Holdovers,” directed by Payne and starring Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
The movie, described on the online entertainment database IMDb as a drama and comedy, tells a story of a “curmudgeonly, universally disliked teacher, his trouble-making, 15-year-old student, and the school’s African-American cook,” who are “thrown together as they remain at Deerfield Academy over the course of the holidays in 1970.”
“The movie takes place in the 1970s (and) the restaurant is pretty classic. It is going to be a great fit,” said Kourkoulis, whose parents purchased the restaurant in 1983.
The Continental, located at 266 Broadway on Route 1 in Saugus, first opened in 1952. The Kourkoulis family updated the walls and reupholstered booths from the 1960s but otherwise kept the same classic look, the owner said.
“I was approached by the studio and (they) asked me if we would be willing to rent the restaurant out for a few days to do the movie and I agreed to it,” said Kourkoulis.
Next, Payne, prop people and studio officials came to check the place out.
On Tuesday, the movie crew set up for the filming inside the restaurant. Some dining scenes were filmed on Wednesday and the restaurant’s cooks did some cooking for props. On Thursday, the crew will clean up, Kourkoulis said.
This is the first time a movie was shot at The Continental Restaurant.
“It’s kind of exciting,” said Kourkoulis. “Getting over COVID, we had a tough couple of years. Things are getting better and it is nice to have them come in, because it is good publicity for us. Put the name of the restaurant back into the mainstream. Let people know we are still out here.”
The Continental is a family-owned and operated classic restaurant serving American-style food, hand-cut steaks and locally harvested seafood that is purchased daily. The Continental also has a large lounge where prior to the pandemic, the restaurant hosted live entertainment, Kourkoulis said.
“People’s habits have changed a little bit and people aren’t going out as much as they used to,” said Kourkoulis.
Before “The Holdovers,” Payne and Giamatti worked together on the 2004 Oscar-winning movie “Sideways.”
“I came across a writing sample for a pilot set in a prep school by David Hemingson,” Payne told Deadline, who first reported about the project in June 2021. “I called him, told him the idea, and he jumped at it. Ever since I worked with Paul in ‘Sideways,’ I’ve wanted to work with him again, and this role is tailor-made for him.”
Giamatti is best known for leading roles in the movies “American Splendor” (2003), “Sideways” (2004), and “Barney’s Version” (2010), for which he won a Golden Globe, and the Showtime TV drama “Billions.”
Payne, a director and producer, won screenplay Oscars for “Sideways” and “The Descendants” and was nominated for his directing work on “Nebraska” and his screenplay for “Election.”
Randolph, who plays a boarding-school cook who lost a son in Vietnam, made her Broadway debut starring as Oda Mae Brown in “Ghost the Musical,” receiving a 2012 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She recently starred in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” (2021) and a TV series “Only Murders in the Building” (2021).
The Continental Restaurant will reopen for customers on Thursday at 4 p.m. The restaurant is usually open from 11:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. on weekends.
