Welcome to my page devoted to the wonderful man, Andrew Garfield. I try to update with the latest news on Andrew, but most times this blog will have me fangirling about TSN and Andrew's beard. Enjoy!
Garfield, who tells me at one point that his childhood hero was Gandhi, found the idea of the priesthood strangely appealing. 'There were moments where I thought, Maybe I could do this,' he says. 'But I knew that I wasn't ultimately built for it.' He laughs. 'I probably enjoy sex too much.'
Andrew Garfield in Venice with Hacksaw Ridge - L’Uomo Vogue Cover Story
From playing an Internet entrepreneur or a real estate fraud to personifying the latest Spiderman, the British-American actor Andrew Garfield has shown no limits to his gritty, sensitive and street smart on-screen persona. Origi- nally a theatre actor, his graduation to the silver screen over a decade ago has seen his transatlantic, cerebral allure shine in a slew of mainstream and avant-garde roles that have pushed his physical and mental limits. Few roles, however, have touched upon his own sense of social responsibility and commitment than his latest film, Hacksaw Ridge – the true story of American 2nd World War hero Desmond Doss whose pacifist tendencies saw him emerge from the battle of Okinawa as a celebrated hero and a peaceful warrior. After presenting the American drama 99 Homes with co-star Laura Dern in 2014, Garfield returns to the Venice Film Festival with Hacksaw Ridge this autumn – and he is “more excited than ever”.
L’Uomo Vogue: How does it feel to be a part of a wartime story like Hacksaw Ridge in 2016?
Andrew Garfield: Right now in my life I feel I need to contribute myself to stories that are reflective of the times we’re in, and asking questions about what kind of future we’re going to create together and the choices we have to make right now as people. But that’s just me, that’s who I am suppose. I know I struggle to be a part of things that don’t feel personal and urgent and relevant to the struggle I see human beings going through in this very moment.
L’U.V.: What attracted you to this project in the first place?
A.G.: What drew me to doing the project and playing Desmond is that there’s a cold war happening in our modern world right now. Even though there’s no draft to sign up to the armed forces, there’s absolutely a big crack and many wounds that I see, more and more, in our culture, in our world, in the divides between countries, within countries. There’s great work to be done. There are great battles to fight. There’s something very numbing about our culture, very numbing about how we’re constantly advertised to, how we’re constantly predicated and appeased with consumerism and lifestyle marketing. We’re kept very inactive and dulled and made sure we’re kept as happy and good consumers. Be a good consumer. It’s everywhere I look. It makes it so much harder to actually fight for a more meaningful life because I think all those things in part are trying to distract us from the horrors that are being committed in our name by our world leaders every day. There’s something about this man, about Desmond, that was purely called to serve in the way that he wanted, not by anyone else’s rules.
L’U.V.: How would you compare working on Hacksaw Ridge to the more contemporary issues faced in other films you’ve done like 99 Homes and The Social Network?
A.G.: The times we’re in change, our behavior changes, the way we dress changes, the social rules shift according to time and culture and where you are in the world, but luckily for story tellers and actors and filmmakers and theatre makers, the essence of what it is to be human doesn’t change. It’s a ‘forever mystery’. For me, one of the purposes of being in the creative arts is that you get to constantly try to go deeper and deeper into the mystery of being alive and understand what it is we’re all doing here. I have been more drawn to contemporary things throughout most of my work so far but actually this story hit me in the gut. My character Desmond Doss was a strangely pure being that slipped through the cracks of a very sick, corrupt world.
L’U.V.: How did you prepare to work with such sensitive subject matter? Did you meet Mr. Doss’ family?
A.G.: His family wasn’t reachable, however there’s a few great books that I obviously read, and a great documentary called The Conscientious Objector by Terry Benedict which was the main source material that I had. It allowed me to try and get to the essence of who he happen, these superhuman endeavors. He was definitely being helped by something divine, some divine power. Call it whatever you want, I’m not going to put a name on it.
L’U.V.: How was working with Mel Gibson?
A.G.: Wonderful. He’s so ‘in the scene’ with you, as the director. You can hear whether or not he believes what’s happening in the frame. He wears his heart on his sleeve. You can hear it because either you hear rustling and a bit of grunting and groaning, or you can hear a pin drop. He’s so respectfully honest with actors and is totally with you in every single moment, just working so hard to create the right environment for you to live the character you’re playing. It’s not just because he used to be an actor himself, I think he’s just a great team captain. He’s all heart, all love, he wears it on the outside of his skin. He’s a wonderful man.
L’U.V.: In terms of becoming that character for you, would you say it’s the most physical role you’ve done to date? Did you do anything to prepare physically to play a soldier?
A.G.: What Desmond did during the war, no man can do. The fact that he healed and dragged and carried 70 of his fellow soldiers across this rugged, impossible terrain and then lower down this escarpment from such a great height. I’m not in bad shape but after about one or two guys I needed to lie down. Dragging a full-grown man, it’s ridiculous, I have no idea how he did it. No matter what preparation I did I could never match up to what he did, who he was.
L’U.V.: What about the experience of shooting the film in Australia?
A.G.: Sydney was our base for four or five months. We were at Fox studios and in locations around New South Wales. I absolutely loved Au- stralia. It was beautiful, unparalleled to be honest. I absolutely loved the Australian crew in terms of how they work. They’re just so brilliant. It’s a great place to work, I was very pleasantly surprised.
L’U.V.: What are your thoughts on the red carpet circuit and the promotion of films as opposed to the process of creating them?
A.G.: It’s nothing to complain about. I think it was Michael Kane who said something along the lines of ‘I’ll do the acting part for free, but all the waiting around in the trailer and the promotional stuff, that’s what I get paid for.’ The work is pure joy, between action and cut you’re in heaven. It’s all right though; you want people to see the film. If you believe in what you’ve made you want to offer it to people, you have to give it away and that’s a beautiful part of it as well. The only time when it’s tough is when one starts to take oneself too seriously and take anything personally. Accept the failures, let it go, carry on, and make something new. Go onto the next piece of work. Be focused on that – it’s where the joy is.
L’U.V.: And what is next?
A.G.: Later in the year I will start rehearsing for Tony Kushner’s pièce Angels in America that will play at the Royal National Theatre in London, directed by Marianne Elliot with a really exciting cast of co-stars like Nathan Lane, Denise Gough, and Russell Tovey.
Some sweet girls from Japan, I believe, would give me pictures of Bambi the deer. And I didn’t really understand what that was about, but I think they were thinking that if there was ever a live-action version of Bambi, that I would play Bambi. - Andrew Garfield for BuzzFeed by Jon Premosch (September 2015)
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