Paul Giamatti Says People Keep Telling Him Cher 'Really Needs to Talk to Me' and He Does Not Know Why

Mar. 15, 2025

Paul Giamattiis playing phone tag with the Goddess of Pop.

During his recent appearance onSiriusXM’sThe Howard Stern Show, hostHoward Sternmentioned howCheris major fan of Giamatti’s. “She wants to speak to you and speak with you,” Stern told theAcademy Award-nominated actor, 56.

“She does that to me. Every now and then I get a message from somebody that says Cher — not just [that she wants to talk to me] — she reallyneedsto talk to me,” Giamatti admitted. “Like it’s important — like it’s crucial that she talks to me.”

By Giamatti’s own admission, a broken line of communication between himself and Cher, 77, has been going on for some time now and it remains unclear what Cher would like to speak with him about.

Paul Giamatti on Dec. 4, 2023.Araya Doheny/Getty

Paul Giamatti attends the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations Presents Career Retrospective with Paul Giamatti at SAG-AFTRA Foundation Screening Room on December 04, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.

Araya Doheny/Getty

Giamatti previously referenced this back-and-forth with Cher while he spoke about his podcastChinwagduring a NovemberappearanceonThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert. At the time, he referenced Cher’s repeated desires to speak with him “two times in the past couple of years” and expressed that he wants to host her on the podcast.

While speaking with Stern, Giamatti said a producer for his podcast did successfully get in contact with Cher and that she left him a bewildering voicemail. “All she said was, ‘I hear you want to talk to me.’ That was it. That’s all she said,” he said. “So I left her a message and said, ‘That’s great, I’d love to talk to you, but I thought you wanted to talk to me.’ And that’s the last I heard, I haven’t heard anything again.”

Paul Giamatti and Cher.Tristan Fewings/Getty; Kevin Winter/Getty

Paul Giamatti and Cher

Tristan Fewings/Getty; Kevin Winter/Getty

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

While it is unclear what inspired Cher to first attempt to connect with Giamatti, the music icon did share a post onX back in March 2022indicating she had been watching the actor’s 2008 HBO miniseriesJohn Adams, in which he portrayed the title character and second U.S. president. Giamattiwon an Emmy Awardin 2008 for that role.

" ‘JOHN ADAMS.’ PAUL GIAMATTI,& LAURA LINNEY’S WORK ‘TRULY OSCAR WORTHY,’ " Cher wrote on X at the time.

Paul Giamatti on Feb. 7, 2024.Noam Galai/Getty

Paul Giamatti visits SiriusXM’s ‘The Howard Stern Show’ at SiriusXM Studios on February 07, 2024 in New York City

Noam Galai/Getty

On Giamatti’s end, the actor told Stern he still does not understand what Cher would like to speak with him about.

“I have no f—— idea, I don’t know what she could possibly want to talk to me about,” Giamatti said Wednesday. “And it’s killing me, I’m dying to know what she wants to talk to me about. I mean, it would be great! I’d love to talk to her about anything. I don’t care, it’d be fantastic.”

source: people.com