Conversations with Andrew Garfield

hi everyone how's your day going have you seen breed by the way and even know if isn't it beautiful really beautiful um I'm Stacy Wilson hunt from New York magazine I'm the Hollywood editor here in LA and I'm so honored to be here to speak to an actor whom I greatly admire and is just as charming and lovely as he appears to be which is rare did you guys know so let me welcome to the stage Andrew Garfield hello again how does it when you see the teaser and for the movie and you hear him speaking about you in that way and knowing how happy he is that you really captured his father's spirit how does that make you feel I try not to listen I try not to look I try not solicit just overwhelming although goodness it's um yes because I just feel lucky that I get to act I feel lucky that I get to do it at all let alone do I get to do it in in projects that I believe in there are very rich and then and then for people that matter to me to tell me that it was it was all right it's it's hard I find it it's a hard life I find it I find I find it overwhelming and because I just feel abundantly lucky to get to get to do what I do yeah so for Jonathan to say that who's a remarkable man unto himself and absolutely his father's son who shares all of the qualities that that Robin has the character I play has to hear that is yeah it's it's reassuring it kind of you to know that you haven't screwed up the life of someone that you that you care about very much well you certainly didn't you thrived so backstage we were talking about the last 10 years for you have been pretty packed very impressive I feel like you're the only actor who for his first 10 years making films that we've been seen in America you've been nominated for an Oscar you've headlined the superhero franchise and you've been directed by Martin Scorsese in a relatively short period those are all I don't think Leo did that just now they were keeping score I'm just saying it's an impressive run but I would love to start with the fact that you were born in Los Angeles yes don't tell me how that came to be yeah well well my dad just well I was concerns dances well the circumstances of my parents lovemaking I was conceived in New York City it's a balmy spring evening at an origin story today is my mum and dad right they will demonstrate no we need this you guys this is very dreadful no so yeah anyway I was conceived in New York and then my father's American my dad was they his family were Polish immigrants during just before the the Nazis did all their terrible things they they managed to get out and they went to Los Angeles first and some of them went to New York and then yeah my my my dad's family wanted to be closer to their European relatives again when it was of course safe to go back and so they moved back to London but then it had the the adverse effect on my father where he decided he he wanted to be secular he didn't want to be Jewish he only not that he didn't wait can't say I'm not Jewish in practice but yeah so that was an interesting thing but anyway he was he was dragged away kicking and screaming from from Los Angeles at the age of 12 because the Beach Boys were we're here and the surf culture that was just kind of getting going here and he was absolutely obsessed with all those things and he loved the sunshine he loved he loved films he loved movies I think if he had stayed here I probably wouldn't be here now in the sense that he probably maybe might have lived out his primary dream which was to be a screenwriter if he had stayed and I and if he had done that I wouldn't have had his his dream till about for him in a way so I owe I owe him a great deal I and I got to bring him to the Oscars last year and and that was one of the great moments of both of our lives together because he he ended up moving back to to LA when he met my mum and he had a shipping business a moving company and he he would drive past that all the studio's especially Fox for some reason and he would romanticize and imagine what was going on inside and behind those gates so I got to take him for the first time into Fox the day before the Oscars and he cried as he as he as he passed the football and it was just you know because he's in his late 60s now and so he's he's in the third act of his life and and he's just started writing now because he is he sacrificed so much for all of our family but I think I had the most profound effect on me it meant that I could you know be an idiot for a living and and tell stories and be a clown and get lost and and yeah be here with you also I am a great deal and you move back to the UK when you were three yeah do you have memories at all of yours yeah do you have glimpses yeah I I have a I have like a sense remem I have sensory memory of the feeling of being here so when I come back here I actually do love it and just in terms of the weather and and the space and the sky and the blueness of the sky and so yeah it was like the first three years of my life are probably that happy because I was getting bad didn't have any acting responsibilities III didn't have to you know make coherent sentences and I was just you know I was I was out you know in nature with my with my mom and my brother and yeah so know that but Disneyland I remember Disneyland I have one I have one traumatic memory of Disney I think we all do it's a scary place when you're younger yeah and mine wasn't it wasn't because it was scary for me unfortunately a more recent one no no no no no no no notice this this is a this was my first brush with ego I think when I was two and a half and my brother who's older than me he he had won this light up at one of those one of those visors you know one of those kind of visors and the headlight lights on it and he had won it he had won it by winning a competition and I I said well I want one of the I would like one of those please as well and the ending I was only one no I mean like you have to you have to play the game as I played the game I didn't win it because I was two and a half if he was five this is where the dynamic my brother began and the the hatred between us and and he and so I couldn't win the game and I and they gave me like a kind of runner-up visor which was which had no lights and was made merely out of cotton and and I threw a hissy fit I lost my mind I was like wailing and screaming and that's when I understood that life was in fact unfair it was a defining lesson to learn that young yeah yeah I'm still I'm still not an acceptance of reality as it is that visor I will one day so when you went back to the UK it seemed like you were very athletic you were into sports did you see sports as more of a conduit for your passions before acting or were they sort of simultaneous I don't know really I didn't I didn't know about acting I knew about films and I watched films when I was a kid my dad of course you know he was in a file and but and we would rent every movie and local movie movie store and and and then we and then the blockbuster came to Blockbuster Video came to Sutton where we need nearby where we live this little town in Surrey where we lived and so I mean we would just get it we would consume everything and especially in the 80s film anything with Tom Hanks in it like the burbs or you know any of those obscure overseas the volcano was a family favorite and all Michael J Fox movies and Richard Pryor movies and Jean wild and all that stuff but definitely yeah a lot of comedy a lot of like funny and John Candy films and but then so in terms of the sport I mean I didn't know acting was a job I just thought oh these are the these are the things that you know the movies gave me so much reassurance and like everyone else you know I I would have died without films I think and then and then I started I was just very I was just a I had a lot of energy and I was like it's just a monkey child and you know and and I was annoying and I needed to go somewhere and so we we found it I decided doing gymnastics and swimming and rugby and football and cricket in it and just everything really and but then something happened where I thought I can't it's a mystery I can't quite explain but I'd let it go of it all I like stopped everything I started I think secondary school high school and academia didn't wasn't there was nothing hooking me in in academia in in any of my school subjects had you been a good student until I wasn't I was I was I was diligent I would I would work hard even if I didn't even if I didn't you know care so much about what I was doing I because I might because of my dad he was used as a swimming coach attended turned out to be a really great swimming coach we gave me a lot of discipline which is a blessing and a horrible horrible curse because it means I never stopped working I know and I get obsessive about things I know that there's never any end to what one can do especially in the arts you know which you're never going to create the perfect thing it's always it's always unreachable that's the beauty that the Divine's dissatisfaction I think is what Martha Graham said about the artist that we were all just need these divinely dissatisfied creatures which I bring so so true but anyhow I let it all fall away I let all the sport all everything fall away I I probably was depressed I was definitely lost I definitely didn't know why I was alive I didn't know what we were doing here none of it made sense and but I cleared the space in order to feel that I think so that what needed to come in could quartz wasn't the outlet you necessarily need it it was more of a next you need something more expressive but also I was too small that was a blessing today that was a horrible thing at the time but in retrospect it was it was exactly what I needed to let it all go I kept getting concussed during rugby I kept getting very cold during swimming okay and like and and and you know it didn't and oh and there was a big fat guy that would sit on my back while I was doing the splits in gymnastics and I thought this is abuse and I when I was like 13 actually literally a big one but no I mean that's what makes Olympians I guess I wasn't cut out for it but then so but I let it all fall fall away and but thankfully I did because then you know my mother came in and saved the day she said what about something creative and I said well okay so I tried painting rubbish I tried sculpture rubbish music I tried you know I tried all the all of the all of the things and then she was like well what about what about theater and acting and I said what does that mean what do you mean by that I didn't associate the burbs the movies I didn't the inter it felt out of didn't feel possible it didn't it felt totally out of reach so then I've caught you know I tried it and yeah theatre what was a very first role you played that Sam and Bugsy Malone and at the Everson Playhouse yeah when I was I think 15 and it was just yeah bliss you ever seen Bugsy Malone I mean it's like little kids playing gangsters it's the most absurd right it's Alan Parker movie yeah that was dirty Foster and Jodie Foster far too young to be sexualized but she's so you'd already done that I think before right yeah but even but even more so I mean this was the loss of innocence like crazy but yeah it's an amazing movie though Scott Baio yeah it's wonderful yeah great songs and Alan Park is such a great director anyway so so yeah and that was my favorite one of my favorite films growing up and and then so and they asked me to play Fats and which I thought was I don't know stretching me is good and then you're too thin for sports but perfect for a path yeah exactly my dad still says everything he sees I do there's no it's all right parents parents say things like that so I want to make sure we get to a lot of your roles which are so plentiful that we're gonna have to move very quickly but oh joy ramble you did you warn me but I'm gonna be here to like cut you off from wanting me to please so the first thing I saw you in was in 2007 and Lions for lamb oh yeah which was directed by Robert Redford starring some unknown people named Tom Cruise Meryl Streep and also Robert Redford mm-hmm so this is your American debut and what the hell did it feel like to be working with these people in your first American movie I mean you just said it like what do you do with that like how how do you reconcile that being your first film and then where do you go quit it was it was remarkable and so bizarre but Redford if anyone anyone knows him why were there more Bob of course Bobby we're close about I also call Martin Scorsese Marty Dodd we've earned the right to do that well you've worked with anyone or near his if he puts everyone at ease immediately it's it's a strange thing meeting those people and kind of realizing just realizing that they are as up as you so great is the best it's the best all this illusion that's also a good lesson to learn early on yeah yeah but but I will say this about about Redford is that he um I don't know he was incredibly inspiring his his ethos about the world his way of seeing the world how he started Sundance it's incredible he started it because he's isn't he he bought property in Utah and he was introducing yourself to it to a neighbor and the guy was like well I'm about to be bought out by this multinational company that buying my land I can't afford to keep it he was like well how much do you need like this amount okay well I can probably stump you that amount but we have to figure our way to make some of it back together and then they started the labs they started monetizing the labs and since Sundance and then from the core I mean but how what a beautiful impulse and that really sums him up what's obviously worked with Mel Gibson to what are the distinct differences you see and being directed by actors like Robert them yeah yeah yeah where is their distance well I mean I you talk about Scorsese as well because I think it's generational if from my experience so far it's been its that there's a definite generational divide you know Scorsese and Redford and and and and Mel will they're more often than not be next to the camera looking looking at what's happening live they'll make sure that the framing is all right and then then they make sure that it looks the way they want it to look but and especially Scorsese is you know he's a master at composition and all of that but then they really they're just they are that they know that the scene doesn't exist unless there's life you know I think Sidney Lumet was the same way you know he's one of my favorite filmmakers of all time I think they're harder on actors then maybe more contemporary directors I think that there's a disconnect with with certainly contemporary I mean I'm painting large brush strokes but I think there's a much more technical wizardry that the contemporary directors have access to because of you know the developments in technology and I would say sometimes occasionally not all the time that can be a little bit out of balance with an understanding of emotional life when those guys came of age in the 70s I mean those movies were really just about the performance yeah we have a ton of money to add in ya fix it in post no really all you had were those incredible performances yeah and that's what I'm interested in I'm interested in the humanity of you know all those movies from the 70s especially you know there that's that's what turns me on as an as an actor now I'm Day Afternoon of course yeah and network and you know all of City Limits movies really and of course Scorsese's films from that era so yeah as an actor those are the for me those are the and and you know there are they're a great derail like Paul Thomas Anderson of course is someone who is feels akin to and you know Bennett Miller and and those those in Spike Jones and you know these proper proper visionaries who are still in touch with humanity I'll started out making India's - yeah and finisher as well you know actually sire in the commercial world in a you know in a crazy way but they were bet they were just on the cusp it feels like between the newest generation and the and those and those filmmakers from the 70s it feels like there's a real yeah and I and I had this and I know you'll probably talk about it but I had this amazing moment where I got to work with Mark Romanek and then spike and then Fincher all back-to-back those like those classic music video the guys who created music videos and spike is like someone who I idolize have analyzed since I even before I even knew he existed like when I watched skate videos I didn't know he had directed the skate videos that I was consuming I used to skateboard in Lund that was what I was doing when I was lost I was skating around I was skating when I lined us up and breaking bones and kind of like moping and in clothes that were too big for me so no and then so so spike so anyway there was that that was that period of time was remarkable yeah he came of age in a very cool way very distinct yeah and I had when I was reviewing all your work I had forgotten that you were in the Majan areum of Doctor Parnassus which was obviously a very troubled experience because of Heath Ledger passing away during production what was it like working with Terry Gilliam and were you a Monty Python guy before that what is that experience yeah though he's crazy in the best in that in that creative genius way you know he's uncompromising to the point of you know you know kind of irresponsibility sometimes but it's wonderful to be around we had Tom Waits on that which was crazy I just I was so beautiful and Christopher Plummer of course and it was um that was an amazing experience and then and and and yeah so yet I'm and he just made Don Quixote Terry he just finally finished that great documentary lost in La Mancha you guys are such a great film yeah so know Terry is Terry's amazing Terry all freedom in its totally he said to me you know he said just do just don't think don't don't think about what you're doing don't watch what you're doing don't worry about what you're doing and trust that I'm only gonna use the bits that make me laugh and all the rest it will be on the cutting room all the crap bits will be on the cut cutting room floor who's I want to see crap I want to see you fail I want to see you fall over and be terrible did he let you guys do improv yeah it's so many great comic moments yeah yeah it was a lot it was a lot of improv actually which I didn't expect to be there that was the only one that was my first time doing improv on a film set yeah and did you get to know he that all a little bit yeah a little bit I admired him so much as an actor and as a spirit and as a creature he was he was one of those very unbridled spirits any favorite minute he seemed like it yeah and yeah there's some what do you say what do you say you really had it I mean it was a natural yeah even beyond that he wasn't of this world he so over the weekend I was rewatching never let me go he was I saw at the time and you know movies get lost in the shuffle and then you sort of want to revisit and and seeing you among all these people including Carey Mulligan Keira Donald Lisa and and Ray Rice Burroughs sort of like this incredible generation of young actors you all sort of came of age and carried been around a little bit before that but yeah yeah at that point she'd you know she'd been working for a long time but to see this amazing group of people and to see where all of you are now it's what was it like to sort of bond with each other at this crucial moment when you're all kind of on the cusp well you're definitely not aware of anything like that but you know I mean that journalist was a gift that you have but it's all in hindsight - now we know you're on the cusp it no it was all I can talk about is working on that story and with those with those themes and obviously kazuo just got the the Novaya Nobel Prize Nobel Prize yeah for Literature yeah yeah yeah of the day and was it how it done - I was I should know this amazing novelist yeah and the berry giant was his most recent novel and never let me go of course um it's just that story in that book and what it's dealing with is about the essence of a soul what it is to have a soul and how do you quantify a soul and I and I and I would pick I I like to mean I like to get things as reduced as possible so that I can understand them so I would bother him a lot Kazu and I would say what is this what he what do you do it was engaged a lot in the production he co-wrote the script with Alex Garland I wonderful new filmmaker out of England who's been chomping at the bit and finally people are seeing that he's this tremendous filmmaker in his own great at dystopian content yeah yeah and you wrote the beach and let me know so yeah so I I would just bother kazuo a lot and I would say what are we doing what are we doing why are we doing this why is this so this why is this so important and why and why do I did it why do you feel why does the book feel like a slow stab in the back that you don't know is happening until the final how did you do he's like well I think I wanted to write I wore him down and you had to say it was no he's the most polite in like English and Japanese in one that's a polite individual that's very public borderline psychotic like he's got like dead bodies and the basis yeah yeah he was this most gentle like like or such a beautiful man and he he eventually eventually got worn down and he said well I think I was wondering about the meaning of life and as far as I understand it it's for me about love and creativity and there was that was it and I was like well that's that that that's a pretty good indication of what a soul is how we love and how we create whether it's art or otherwise or home or family or connections or relationships or so he got he got to the he got to some core thing about why we're here and what we're doing also using our anatomy and our body parts as sort of these the currency of our soul and kind of like that's to me sort of how I read the story was you know how much of us is actually our innards and sort of what we can potentially give away or yeah yeah and what's disposable and the idea of some of us being disposable because if it didn't feel it didn't feel all that alternate reality to me you know it felt it felt very symbolic of the web of a Western culture right now where it feels like a lot of a lot of people feel disposable don't feel welcome don't fuel needed don't feel like they matter I would I would say that's that the percentage of of us who feel that on a day-to-day basis would would would be quite harrowing to know in terms of how we're valued and in terms of how we were welcomed here a sense of belonging here what offers the perfect segue to a movie about Facebook which is a social network which all seems so quaint now seven years later is there a sequel in the works because there be a lot of material to it don't they do as of late maybe Aaron's working on it luckily the character I play is in Singapore with his feet yes he's he is a helicoidal a kajillion s somewhere across the globe so of course she played Eduardo Saverin first of all what was it like to play a real-life person how much time did you spend with him and now when you look back on that movie I mean that movies stunning I haven't seen it in a couple years but I just remember it was just like electric and what David and Aaron were able to do telling this incredibly strange story and was astounding yeah well maybe tell me how you got the job first did you audition for David and yes difficult for this role no I auditioned I auditioned with David's casting director Lorraine Mayfield wonderful casting director and though I think I don't think they were there was no script we didn't get scene showing the script yet maybe we did I forget but I was reading for mark because everyone was reading mark scenes or maybe not everyone was but I was and I then and then I went in and I read with David just me and him that was really interesting and then Aaron came in and then was the three of us and I read I was reading for Mark I thought and I thought well because there was a scene with a zip line where Mark was on a zip line and but I think actually ultimately in the film they cut that bit and they just sent one of the other guys down as implying into the into the swimming pool for the roof in Palo Alto and I read that scene I was like I want to do this do this film and play that part just for that scene so I can zipline over and over here into a swimming pool this is what my life's work has been going towards this is my reason to be here not because it was a great par and because you know whatever they would venture to say it's not a lot of energy to get out yeah exactly and yet the zipline and so I was reading for Mark Zuckerberg and and then I Rivera and David and it felt like one of those meetings way where it's one of those meetings where you go I nailed which is so rare but working with Aaron's language it's so hard not to feel like you've nailed it but I could feel like I think he like stood up at one point after after one of my light reads he kind of stood up and I turned around and and then like as I was leaving I think David said I told you to him and I was like okay this is what we're good we're yeah and I never feel hurt I never feel confident I never feel anyway any time in my life just in that moment I'm like okay that went well I did my best and it's and they like that and that's nice and then and then I got a call from David I was hearing that was all happening before Jesse was even in the conversation jesse eisenberg was okay well I keep hearing from my agents is it's looking really good we're just waiting on the official thing I know but they actually don't my guys might my agents are very like they may know how neurotic I am and they don't like dangling carrots so because they're not banging my head and he's so so so it kept on happening in there and I got it was gestating it was longer and longer and longer I was like oh dear what's going on right right and and then I got a call saying it David wants to speech I was like this is where he breaks the news and I got to his office and he said look I had two actors one of them is perfect for Mark and one of them could play mark but it's kind of perfect for this other thing I said just give me any part in cares I just want to do this film and then the so he gave me he said well would you like to do Eduardo go and think about it go and think about it it was very sweet of him to say that even though I didn't need to think about it at all like I was I would have I would have done craft services you know I you know that script is one of the greatest film scripts I think ever written it actually was shot pretty much whatever what was mostly very rare yeah and and especially for David Fincher Hoosick you know controlling I know this Fincher Sorkin that could have gone another way because they are so fastidious and so detailed I have no idea how they didn't kill each other but it was the most symbiotic like perfect his David's eye David's sense of the character because they've really really got mark he was written also with Sorkin's been writing Marc characters his whole career is finally like that there was enough dialogue to finally satisfy central character yeah and it was an excessive dialogue it was like absolutely enough and right how do you think your mark would be different from what just so much better what do you had a British accent no no no no Jesse I fell in love with Jesse like you know that was a love story for me that was that was what that was like that relationship yeah it was like Cain and Abel it was like brothers for me and and for Eduardo I think in the way it was written and obviously for Marquez different stories they know you are needed and then you are not needed so interesting so it might had to be so different from and he was sort of the counterpoint and I think he was the more kind of watery heart kind of thing yeah but but but yeah so anyway but no with Jesse you know what Jesse did was remarkable and I and I did I fell in love with with Jesse as a person as an actor and as a character and that were creating that relationship with him and we spent Halloween together in Baltimore and a Cheesecake Factory and that was the best Halloween I think I spend the whole Halloween doing an Australian accent because he liked it the specific character I think I was playing like a gay Australian filmmaker based on a filmmaker we know which is very flamboyant it was very very very theater geeks I mean yeah Cheesecake Factory Baltimore of all places yeah those days I missed those days nobody and I and and he's remarkable and what he did was what him and David did together because David really got new what that character David brings such an ominous honest if that's a word I mean everything he makes there's like this like scary cloud even I mean that movie could have been made in a very Spielberg and sort of like this happened and like catch me if you can kind of buoyant and John and he made it like a horror movie about Trent Reznor school spielberg inand resinar need to work together at some point that's yeah it's a partnership we haven't so we segue to when you enter the stratosphere of superhero dumb the amazing spider-man 1 and 2 what did it feel like to find yourself in this position after others had with great success as well and were you scared to jump into this after having done a lot of artistic movies and kind of existing but not in this same kind of wild presence yeah I think until until I got the part I was just going for the part where that's all I wanted was to play that part and then as soon as I got it everything just went ok no and I think the reality of it hit me in a in a new way it took a few weeks but then you know I'm not gonna go into all the processes but it you know even after getting the part I didn't read a script for like another couple of months which was unnerving to say the least meaning that you were separating yourself from other opportunities no no no the spider-man oh the actual spider yeah yeah because you don't you're not allowed to read it before or before getting the part and I thought well I once I get the part then they'll show it so was your audition you climbing up the wall like how the wall just like them to be spider-man Peter Parker had written scenes and so they're like dummy scenes for you yeah yeah yeah because they were really good actually Alvin Alvin Sargent yeah yeah I was I was married to Loras this originally produced the movie she's so then I didn't so then I didn't read the script there was no because I think they were still writing it and I thought well oh dear what do we need a script in order to make a film and I what am i what do why I need to learn my lines I need to know what are we doing and is it good and I is it gonna be alright so there's a lot of anxiety and I realized that there was a different set of priorities that were happening in that kind of film you know they have a release date before they have a script and I would what reality is what and had you been a fan of Sam Raimi's movies hopefully I loved him this was a person who for you just not wanting to be the guy who screws up the French god beyond that like wanting to be the guy that does the definitive one like wanting to be the guy that is like you know that my heart and my my full self could not have been more invested in in in that in that character and I you know my first Halloween costume when I was three my mother had made it and it was spider-man so it's like a huge to get given that opportunity into you know what a gift and and and then the reality is is the reality you know the fantasy is wonderful fantasy is is is anything you can cook up but then when you when you get into it when I got into it was obviously a very complicated situation like all situations in life are and then so yeah it was it was really I didn't sleep during during well I mean I it's and not literally that would have been I was like I was on like three hours a night during production during pre-production and all the way through production yeah because because there was lots of this and lots of rewriting and the night before and and things that weren't because there was so many different writers that came in and went and that and this is my first experience having to rewrite things in order just to create some logic in terms of the character's journey and mean you know Marc Marc Marc Webb is a wonderful wonderful filmmaker and a wonderful man he you know we were scrambling because he had come from 500 days of summer you had never done something of this scale before no yeah so so so we we really you know there was everyone was working their asses off as it were and when you're making a movie like that it when there's some you know so many special effects and you're not this is not like a cohesive narrative you're shooting it's obviously you're seeing certain scenes out of sequence I mean do you even have a sense of if it's gonna be good when you're shooting it or you just have no no idea I knew I knew that I knew that I know that me and Emma were getting along and I knew that one chemistry you know I knew I knew that and I knew that those scenes were gonna work I knew that you know she's remarkable as an actor and as a human being and and I knew that that was gonna be okay and but otherwise it was kind of and I knew them and me and Sally got along really and mean Reese Carla and I got along with all the actors really well and I that that journey between mine and Emma's character was very cohesive and was as was mine between mine and onme Sally's character that felt very cohesive we figured out a nice through line other stuff just felt it was you know it's just tricky just you know it's tricky tricky and and what is it like to promote and living like this we were talking backstage you've been promoting I've been promoting this movie breed which is a smaller scale it's very theater but I so exhausted when I see like the you know the premiere in China that I mean you're traveling the globe you're doing junket after junket I mean yeah how long did that take to actually roll this movie out beginning to end whatever it was it was like being in a time warp it didn't it's again it's a very strange thing now because especially with those films where the priorities are different and you know there's more money in the policy toward and they're ism on the screen in certain certain regards and that's I mean it's a business right it's an economy and and and we have to they have to be able to make money to keep making films so I get it it's it's it's I I find it quite hard being an actor of that happens to be alive now you know I going back harking back to actors from the 70s or even you know before that or even in the 80s you know I think it I think press and publicity and those kinds of things hadn't hadn't become the the Baio moth that we now have which which we're where that is the thing we're opening weekend and ad buys and you know how much awareness there is and visibility there is about the film or about you know the story that that is much more important now also comic book fans are nuts I mean making them happy I'm insulted Umbridge but making them happy and now you saw you're rolling out clips at Comic Con a year before the movie comes out you're trying to get everyone on more because they can kill a movie if they don't like it yeah yeah yeah yeah and and that's fine you know that's that's that that's their power and you know it's an interesting thing it's some I'm lucky in the sense that I just get to do the making and if I might the thing I struggle with in all honesty is is keeping detached from an outcome all I can do is do the work and and devote myself entirely and and have my life and and the rest is not up to me even though we seem to believe that it is up to us somehow that we can somehow manipulate and maneuver a reaction out of an audience and and and get people to pay I mean we care you it you know if PR exists it was invented in the 20s by Freud's nephew have no one knew about yet Sigmund Freud's nephew created PR out of Sigmund Freud's psychological findings so he's mean so and we are being manipulated magical communications in New York yeah audiences have a displaced sense of reality when it comes to the actors role like if a movies bad they just blame you or they think that you somehow have final cut right well we are the face that's that that's the scare that's the tricky thing and I've been in situations where I where I where I've had to say to someone I'm I'm you don't understand like people are gonna think that this is my fault people are gonna think that that I created this like like it like you get to go and work on something else secretly and privately but it's my face forever associated I mean you know that's that's the reality that's that's where we are that's where my life is and that's I have to live with it it's a challenge it's very challenging though it's very challenging because I like I like what my I like having private see I like being just you know I like I wanna I don't want to have any I don't want to I don't want to feel pressured to be anything but than them than what I am that's why I think I ultimately became an actor and went into the creative arts is because I needed to express myself truly scary to have that sort of loss of privacy yes very very very very very very very very and I think it's I think that's that's the hard thing about being an actor of this time is there is a different expectation that our audiences have and I think it can get in the way of the work it can and it can shut people down and I know for me my my my thing is I have to not be shut down because I can get very like a turtle I can get very protective of my life and of my myself and I have to do that in order to be able to be in the world and do and do the work that I want to do I love observing people I love meeting people I love being in the world and with people and and and I'm a bit sometimes I get a bit angry at myself having created the reality that I've created where it's it's harder to meet strangers without without an expectation of or kind of an idea I am I'm not putting this right it's I I just I I I get angry at myself sometimes angry it's not your fault hey let me be angry to say no and everyone in this room can hear but I chose it I did choose it you know I knew it's gotten out of control we can all agree I mean this is really but but I didn't know going into spider-man that my life would change and and and that was my main there was the main thing that was holding me back from ultimately saying yes that was the only thing actually as I knew that my reality would change but I still I had to put my hand in the fire oh not long after spider-man you made what is my favorite movie of yours which is 99 homes a complete opposite of spider-man and that in every way yeah just just all of it the the anti-big movie yeah marine Bahrani which is who is the director and about the housing crisis in Florida yeah that's just the very blanket term for what it was but you you brought it you made it personal I love this story so much and and this character was very different for you to not that we hadn't seen you play sort of like a working-class guy but I thought now that I didn't think you could but you so beautifully captured this guy's malaise and but oli it's like fighting for the people and wanting to do the right thing and what did it feel like to see yourself doing this kind of project after this juggernaut did you feel a little less anxious about maybe the control you have in your career thank you for saying that um I I waited I waited I waited what to to go to work after the spider-man stuff and I did a play in which I did Death of a Salesman in New York in between the two spider-man films which was like a healing balm yeah I was that was such a incredible the great the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman as Willy Loman and the late great Mike Nichols directing just the most gorgeous experience of my life maybe to date so they're not yeah so then after after the second spider-man is that I read this script and I met Ramin and I was so I was so touched by it I felt so if even though I never been through what these people were going through I felt like I had it felt like it was all of our stories and it felt very Universal if a very very of again back to the people feeling disposable and a value system that does not place value on the human soul a value system that places value on whether you have an economic ability to contribute or status power you know these things and what happens to those of us who feel exiled and discarded and remain taps into that so wonderfully in all of his films I think so and I love the Chop Shop and man push which are other films of his which if you haven't seen you should definitely see they're very beautiful humanistic filmmaking not unlike Arthur Miller you know and and Ramin came and saw me in Death of a Salesman actually is that how he knew he wanted yeah yeah and he had never seen a Miller play before and he realized oh that's that's what I'm trying to do he's a New Yorker right yes yeah yeah so anyway so so yeah we it was there and I had personal connections to it my father you know we almost went bankrupt we did go bankrupt in fact we all man we almost lost our house when I was a teenager during during the you know that period of time where I very lost it was everything everyone was very soft to do it was yeah it was a very it was it was the dark time of our family really and my dad's business fell apart and so it was a no it was an opportunity to heal something there where I could feel that he hadn't forgiven himself for certain you know things that he would have deemed failures on his own behalf of course you know he was very hard on himself for it and so we had we would have amazing conversations in the pre-production process of that and then I would ask him about that period of time and he would you know my dad's amazing my my dad's one of those guys that that that his has allowed his heart to be cracked open as he's gotten older and he's his because he was a baby boomer and you know he's like very post-industrial kind of you know capitalist mindset he you know that kind of dull trumpian thing and but he's allowed him he's allowed himself to to get soft and it's a beautiful thing with me you know I mean what a gift so I got to talk to him about that period of time that was a big help for him to feel like he's failed his family yes exactly and that was a bad thing I think I was carrying a lot of it I think we all we all were the family were carrying a lot of it so making that film was an attempt to do some healing for personally for my father me and my family and every single family because every single family goes through something similar I believe in in in the way that all that our world is is that they our world has been set up for us to fail but the amount is not in place to help know the American Dream is a sweet idea and and you got to work with laura dern Oh who's the goddess of all goddesses she's amazing and husband for like 30 years I feel like and I feel like now it's taken a long time for people that could sort of realize the work she's been doing all this time just so humble like so truly humble she doesn't ask for it she doesn't say look at me she's she's such an artist like she is such a pure artist in everything that she does and so generous yeah I can't I can't speak highly enough of Laura she grew up in Hollywood too and how crazy your father I know someone had to be saying in the family well you come from - artists you know yeah it's not an easy thing yeah so I want to make sure we get to of course breathe and everyone's questions but I do want to talk about you sort of had an amazing double bill last year with hacksaw and silence Mel Gibson and Marty in the same year yes and earned an Oscar nomination for hacksaw bridge which is again super impressive that was a very physically demanding movie I remember watching it I always take the screeners home with the holidays and try to enjoy the ones I haven't seen with my family and I was just I was so worried for your safety making this fun I mean were you incurring injuries all day long on set I mean this is pretty grueling minor injuries minor so no not nothing to worry about it was it was grueling and we didn't have much time to shoot it you start an Australia right 100% Australia and Mel Gibson is a genius because he had half the budget and half the time he had worked for Braveheart and he managed to achieve what he achieved with those battle scenes and also setting up characters that you care about I I don't know how he does what he does it's also in curative and instinctive and he he's so brilliant he's smart as well but his body is so small there's something about Mel where he can tell he knows exactly he makes no notes he's just it's all instinctive intuitive storytelling like almost like indigenous you know what I mean like primal around a campfire Apocalypto which was right yeah you can make that movie you can kind of do anything but he gets to the root of that classic mythic kind of storytelling that just he can't help but it shakes your soul that gets you closer to yourself and it makes you love other people and a yeah so um so I would very very quickly realized that and I would I would have I would have done anything really and also you know that character is such a that man Desmond das was such a special human being and I think he was the kind of person that I would be sad to leave at work every day you know like it's that kind of thing where you go I'm why can't I just be him my god he as pure as him be as wise as him because it wasn't just he wasn't just in it he wasn't just an innocent he was he had this ancient wisdom Desmond he had this awareness of what what of our common of our commonality as human beings not only as human beings but he had the set he was a vegetarian and he was a it was a head of it's hot yeah he was like Ferdinand the bull you know well while everyone else was you know he was just smelling flowers and the in the battlefield it's a hippie essentially yeah pretty good but this is why hippies don't go to war generally yeah well I see a lot of similarities between him and Robin and debride yes so tell me a little bit about what attracted you did the story obviously we saw the teaser and it's a very compelling story but I have to imagine the physical part of this role was a little would cause a little bit of concern just because acting while being immobile is not easy I never saw it is that I saw it as a living challenge rather than acting challenge and I thought well this is a man that was not always a disabled person this was a man that started out as a non-disabled person you know he was very athletic very physical very gregarious extrovert is party throw a leader captain of the army very religious you know a very spiritual man but there in joyful as well and and then at 28 he contracts polio in in Nairobi and he's paralyzed from the neck down so I so his challenge was my challenge was like well his challenge was how do I live like this how do I adjust to this how do i reconcile well first of all he renounce God first of all he was I will bug you I've done my it seems a fair reaction yes something like that yeah but um and and then he was suicidal for about a year it was depressed for about three and then ultimately he decided to be here to be to be alive he had a baby he had a baby on his loving life away when he was paralyzed which added to his agony you know the letting go of being able to throw a ball back and forth letting go of you know being able to wrestle and you know in like and like the back guard and you know all those things what did you learn so Andy Serkis this is directorial debut someone who knows a little bit about kind of creative oh yeah face acting but also just using the body in clever ways what kind of advice did he give you about this challenge he he's amazing actually excuse me clear amplified we can do it again later if you'd like he he's amazing cause he's a wonderful actor himself and he is so aware of all the different ways the actors go to get to where they are getting to and so he was very hands-off because he had a whole lot of other to deal with you know like making his first movie and and he cast people that he trusted and he would adjust things if they needed but otherwise he would let us fly because he was we focused on with amazing camera DP Bob Richardson who's legendary and genius so so Andy was very is a strange thing we like myself and Claire Foy another remarkable actor and again like someone that you know thank God you know it was her because otherwise everything we would have had much of a movie she she made it live she made it all live and the connection that we were able to create was lucky thing and so yeah I think he could feel that me and Claire really loved each other and we were making a dynamic that was very specific without even thinking about it so I think he just was it was very believable he let it happen which is a mark of a true great director I think a confident director who's not feeling left out you know someone who's like no this is if it ain't broke and I'll take the credit for it you know what I mean like that's that's that's the beauty of later Scorsese is the same he's like best idea wins and I take the credit and same with Mel play all these really confident directors it's like I love that I love collaborating and I love being in post as well when I'm allowed to be and used strangely enough it's the ones that the ones that you wouldn't expect to it to allow me in post there were the ones that did it like Mike Scorsese like Mel the ones who you know and what sort of feedback was Marty open to anything really anything cuz he knew it was in my bones he knew that I lived I lived it out he knew that I studied with the Jesuit for a year he knew that I that I that I was so devoted to his story into the story of this film that he knew he trusted that I would have certain insights about the inner life of the character I mean I'm not gonna say you know what I think the framing is a little off I mean like I'm not gonna do that right but I might put it you know I might say I might say that can we talk about this scene and this is what was happening on the day in terms of editing well I mean intent well yeah I mean in terms of in terms of in a life and in terms of colors and in terms of trying to make sure that all but but then again I mean I say that I didn't really give him any know because you know Thelma and oh they have a good thing going Janice know did you ask him who he likes better you or Leo I did I did ask no I know I didn't know you can both exist in very different ways in this world that's your room what do you think are some misconceptions about you as an actor oh well like great let me tell you people see you as because you've played a lot of what I would call virtuous characters which is a great compensating your for something you're a very good kind person but I wonder is there a part of you who you think gosh I'd really love dis kind of segue to do something darker or do you think you'd have to talk someone into letting me be the villain or let me I don't know I don't know no I've been interested in that I've been interested in virtue I think I've been interested in goodness and in meaning and purpose and destiny and you know connect connectedness and love I've been interested in I've been one I've been wanting to do those things I I haven't I think there's enough horror in the world and in my own head I don't I don't need to indulge that maybe it would be good to express it III longed to go towards the center of things whatever that means I think what that means is the things that are meaningful and I think every film that I every play I've done every film I've done asks that question what are we doing here and why and why why are we here and can can we can we can we heal and can we can we create lives of meaning so I think that's what I've been what I've been drawn to I think that's probably change now because I think I'm a bit tired and I done I've been doing a play in England and I'm going to be doing it in New York if anyone's going to be in New York with angels in America which is you know we've heard of it yes Beth yes and and if--and and that is again similar in its themes it's so and I think after that something different is gonna happen I don't know what but I am I'm very tired and it's hiring time to be alive I think just it is yeah it's overwhelming I think it's overwhelming right now and in the culture and do you also want you know you're obviously you care about the world and what's going on the world do you sometimes want to that I wish I could be doing something where I can help these things but because I mean all of us you know we're in artistic pursuit and every day I'm thinking gosh I really should be writing about important stuff and so I do do you find yourself jockeying between wanting to pursue this incredible career that you've established versus migrating into something else yeah no it's a really good question and I think at best the the work is is when I when I'm when I feel most in the center of what I'm doing in social service it feels like service telling a story and acting and creating art feels like you know my brother's a doctor the bastard the competition has remained like he's literally saving lives or the days they basic good for you I shall have advisor with the hat with the my is like you're just taunting me like fixing people's lungs show off and I'm just like tap-dancing tripping over my own feet no so no but in all seriousness I do feel that art I need are in my life I need stories I need paintings I need I need to make set I need to be I need the world to be made sense of in order to feel welcome here in order to feel belonging here and my connection to the world and to nature and art is a such an important thing for me and I think for all of us really whether we are admit to it or not so I especially feel it with theatre more than anything when I do theatre when I was doing this play in London and I'm going to be doing it in New York because it's a media and because it's a direct transmission and you know Roy Cohn is Donald was Donald Trump's mentor so we I can't think of a better play there is a March you know like doing that play feels like you're doing a March every night for for human rights and for sanity and for love and for compassion and empathy and it's very very powerful you can feel it it's like a transmission and movies do that too obviously so so being in New York and performing that there and just knowing you know yeah at best it feels of service but yeah of course I think I'm thinking about it right now I think maybe I won't I don't I don't know what I'll do after the play maybe I'll you know I'll do something different I don't know take a vacation yeah I probably will do that but but but but but there is there is definitely live share your feelings that longing of wanting to be a part of the healing learning to be a part of the world turning forward and you know ending the madness but creating creating a new reality creating a new future creating you know imagine it because it's dying we're dying the West is dying capitalism is dying it's all dying and this is this feels like the last and the throws of a dying right so dramatic yeah and ugly and violent so we need to deter let it die and it's going to be painful and horrible as it has been and will continue to be and but in the meantime we have to be a man I feel like we have to be imagining a new structure a new system a new way of interacting and creating community and a system that actually reflects the new reality that is trying to it's this disparate thing of old versus new that's just not yeah but I would say where I'm where I'm doing most hope and inspiration is ancient cultures indigenous cultures who if you do a little bit of reading about the Aboriginal people or the the Native American people there's that's that's living with that's living wisdom that's living with wisdom in accordance with nature look at avatart2.com aster peace and he's created something that harks back to ancient indigenous wisdom and as kind of symbiotically tied it to modern technology and maybe James Cameron has the answer I think he's probably always thought that he did he said he the world yeah but that I love I'll think but I think there's something in it I think there's something in it and now we segue to audience questions and there are so many good ones Morgan has a question for you Morgan says when was the moment you knew that you were quote Wow I am doing exactly what I love what is a highlight or mind-blowing experience that you've had you've probably touched on them at some point or maybe not know wow I'm doing exactly what I love when did that happen has it happened yet just on this stage today you have I know when did it happen it's definitely happened Oh got it it was a drama school I was Morgan here I feel like I need to say it to Morgan hello Morgan hi I was in drama school and I was we were doing an Arthur Miller play we were doing all my son's yeah and I and I and I wasn't playing Chris I wasn't I was playing the neighbor the doctor neighbor you know we were all cast out of type and I was playing the doctor neighbor it was in his I think late late 40s and I remember being in rehearsals and I was watching other scenes being rehearsed the Chris scenes and it was a scene between Chris and his dad I forget the character's name though it's the key it's the cool relationship in the play and I remember every I just I fell apart I just totally fell apart watching this scene being rehearsed and that's that was the moment well after the scene was done and the director of there and there and the director was going and talking to the actors and I was just hearing listening to them pick apart this scene and the dynamic between them and I was just sat on the side of the just crying my eyes out and then they did it again it's just and I was just like this I want to do this forever I want to do this forever and ever and ever I want to work with this kind of writing I want to I want to get to the core of what we're doing here because Arthur Miller somehow got to the core of what it is to be a human being and as an actor to get to get to attempt to inhabit that is yeah that was the moment that was one of the first moments where I was like oh this is what it I get it this is it all those Tom Hanks movies and everything in like oh my god this is this is why we need stories this is like you know when you get conscious of something when something Alliance so yeah that was a great moment good one very good [Applause] Jesse where's Jesse on there hello Jesse would like to know did the movie silence impact you spiritually as you portrayed a person so forcefully denying his faith and also warrior any of the scenes shot in Japan hmm all in Taiwan strangely the landscapes are very beautiful and could double these yeah it did change me spiritually I did I studied with a wonderful Jesuit priest called father James Martin who's a stunning man he's just wrote book called bridging building a bridge which is about how reparations need to be done between the Catholic Church and the LGBTQ community and it's a cool book it's a really beautiful book he's getting a lot of heat from it on both sides weirdly like one side is saying how the blasphemy and the other side is saying this isn't enough so he's he's they're just holding like I'd like that like a true man of God and he's weathering the storm and it's amazing his lives in New York he's a New Yorker yeah yeah Jim Jim Martin follow him on Twitter and all that stuff is beautiful and so I studied with him I had the privilege of studying with him for a year and whether I liked it or not he he converted me somewhat yeah he because he's a true man of God he is he's not you know he's no charlatan and you know I I learned a lot about Jesus you know who had previously just been a joke to me you know the idea of Jesus ID you know I never really in a because I only really absorbed all all of the bastardized ization of of what you know his life was and the manipulation and the misrepresentation of this particular person and look at what what's written down you look at what he did and it's it's desmond dos it's it's it's choosing it's this mahatma gandhi it's my luther king it's it's john lennon it's it's just choosing its its choosing to live a life of love and a no end under the awareness that we are all one that we are all connected is really that simple do unto others so I I got I got given a very pure kind of transmission of the Christian faith and it was a very very beautiful thing yeah yeah no thank you [Applause] and this is from a different Jesse Jesse with an e who would like to ask what has been the most difficult and rewarding part of tackling prior and Angels in America hmm the difficult the do the difficult first it's the length it's the seven and a half hours of dying of AIDS and it's doing that every night is the hardest thing I ever do definitely I would ever do anything acting-wise as challenging as that it's a spiritual immerse Evan and a half hours of a spiritual emergency and feeling like any moment your life could be taken because you have no immune system I think the anguish of that and I think the the the the injustice and the horror of what these men were going through this time holding that feels like a tremendous responsibility privilege mostly so I would say that was probably the the greatest the greatest part of it and the hardest part was is because I will continue to do it for some strange reason is holding the like quilt you know that quilt quilt through God I don't want to cry those who don't know there's a quilt and it's called the AIDS quilt I think and is this beautiful massive tapestry and there was one time where they spread it out in Washington DC where the monument is and it was all all the people that lost their lives in the AIDS crisis and it's the most beautiful piece of art you'll see there's a wonderful film sorry um called common threads which is a documentary have you seen yeah with Bobby McFerrin music in it oh my god and so that I think is - you have this living yeah a monument so yeah that I think is the the the privilege of doing the play and the hardest thing because it's never gonna be enough you know you know you know that it's never gonna be enough oh how many people walk away from those performances having an insight into this that they didn't before mm-hmm so if you multiply each of those I mean that's oh no it's all missing privilege it's a privilege to do it it's a privilege to do it me too I'm very lucky to be doing it so lucky next is from Chelsea and she would like to know what is your process when you receive a script mm how do you break down a character and the analysis of the story yeah oh oh oh in terms of working on it um yeah I mean I loved that period that's my favorite period when you finally get the script right yeah um it's not waiting for this for yeah so I I have no set rhythm I have no set routine it's always different it always feels new always feels like the first day of school for me I always I never know what I'm doing and I I haven't really I should mention I have a would like to mention I have a really wonderful acting teacher here in LA and she there in New York to San Jessica and Greta CK I don't know if anyone knows these I've heard of them genius they are remarkable teachers and remarkable beings and I lean very heavily on them when I when I get a script we I like having someone to work with I like if it's just me on my own oh I'll make terrible choices and I'll go down the wrong path and I'll go a bit mad but I I have a wonderful process that I do with with either one of those wonderful people and they'll help you cheat a little bit yeah I'm just like the frontman okay no it's like it's it's that they have this amazing technique where they get you in touch with your inner self basically and all the you know the idea that you will like that you were meant to play this part and you better do it from that unique place inside of yourself as opposed to attempting to do what you think someone else might do or what an audience might want or what you know the conventional choice might be it's all about coming from the the truest place in yourself your creative self your creative source so there's a magical thing that that happens where they bring you down into who you are and how you and the character meet and saying that I do love doing you know especially with the play units and objectives and intentions and actions and and I animal study I like doing it using animals to create different characters or work on different characters I mean I I'm I'm I love I love the craft of acting I love reading books so I like I like Goethe hog and and Stella Adler I have an amazing movement teacher called Vanessa you and I studied with and I I just I also like Japanese see it's like working with these amazing Japanese actors in silence this is one actor particular called Yoshi or EDA who has a couple of books that were on my shelf at drama school so I got to then work with him in this film it's called the invisible act on one of the books that I had so I like I like drawing from any I like drawing inspiration from lots of different places and I love that it's there's no getting there there's never any getting there it's always it's always a journey towards some moment of truth or some you know unique choice so you make use of all your resources I'm kind of obsessive it was very thorough it's obsessive it's my dad's fault it's my father's no it's he taught you how to be prepared hey remember when Denzel one is first Oscar he said I may not be the best doctor but I'm the most prepared and I always thought has always started I'm not an actor but but I always I feel like that's a good I dig that he's also really great so it's a little false humility maybe it is but I also and maybe that way you know that was a few years ago but it's still but it's a great advice I love that that's really love that yeah this is from Marla and she would like to know if you have it's a great question any plans to write or direct yeah I do I I'm starting to develop things and there's certain certain projects and so you know I think and I think as a reaction to the time we're in as a reaction to the world as it is now I I think I only want to make things that I feel the world needs or that I want to see in the world and sometimes you can't I can't depend on those things just arriving on my lap like I and also I'm I'm curious about the creative process with writing and more directing than writing I think I know how good I'd be at that directing but I'd like to give it a crack at some point maybe your dad can write something he has I had a sense that he might be angling for you to help him get his his first script make it finally likes me what's his story about can you tell us what its lock and key it's like it's like the new Star Wars no information about the new richard garfield he has a great writer lee name remember the guy who wrote King's Speech he had just started writing later in life and he won an Oscar the first year not gonna happen my dad keep trying the fact that he's doing it at all yeah that's it pretty stuff that you didn't know I'm trying to just find a question that we haven't already touched on you've been so comprehensive I feel like maybe maybe we should just stop here because we know no you do not ramble Andrew you give thoughtful answers that we all appreciate thank you guys for coming thanks so special rambling and pies talking without saying something right now I think there's no substance yeah no some substance there was something yes thank you thank you great lovely thank you thank you [Applause]

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 71,413

Rating: 4.9624667 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Andrew Garfield, HACKSAW RIDGE, SILENCE, BREATHE, UNDER THE SILVER LAKE, ANGELS IN AMERICA, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, Spiderman, Stacey Wilson Hunt, Q&A, Career, Interview

Id: qm-V4W4eze0

Length: 79min 4sec (4744 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 17 2017