Audience: You said recently that you accepted Spider-Man because you were broke?
Andrew Garfield: It’s true ! I was 24 years old. I struggled. I no longer wanted to relive that period when, when I was 17-18, I was shooting commercials in Spain. During those years, I did a lot of stuff that I didn’t like and that didn’t bring me a penny. I worked in a supermarket in the suburbs of London. I worked as an assistant to a… cricket teacher! I was a server at Starbucks. I have very bad memories of that time when, to fill the fridge, I was also a telemarketer in a marketing company. Hell. Not only did this job not suit me but, in addition, it was at the very moment when I had just broken up with my first love. I can see myself hiding in the toilet, just to sit and cry.
And Spider-Man has arrived…
When I was offered to play Spidey, I probably had to sign without reading the script, I was so in trouble! This role, I needed it. The first Halloween costume my mom made me when I was 3 was for this superhero. So it was also like a sign for me. A sign and a huge life changer.
“Confined, in the evening I cried while calling my family in video”
This hero that you embodied from 2012 to 2014, what did he bring you?
An obvious notoriety but there were less funny aspects. When I played Spider-Man, I wanted to delve deeper into the mythology of the character I had sincerely loved since childhood. I had proposed to interpret a Peter Parker more in questioning. But there was a lot of money to be made for the studio that wanted a different movie than what I had in mind. I found that the final cut did not reflect my work. I had nurtured a real hope that young people could identify with this franchise, and not just a commercial product. I had to fight a lot for my freedom during the production of these films. it got me in trouble because sometimes I said things I shouldn’t have said. And then there was of course to manage the success, the popularity, the loss of the limits between my public and private life, the permanent representation… After Spider-Man, I set limits for myself.
“Ado, I was very shy. I looked at my shoes”
Can we see you on Netflix in Tick, Tick… Boom!, a film whose shooting was marked by a heavy loss for you?
Barely eight days after the start of filming, in November 2019, my mother died of pancreatic cancer in London. My film was being shot in New York. And around the same time, in China, the Covid broke out. The months that followed were very difficult. I spent the beginning of 2020 confined to Manhattan, far from my father and my older brother. I was alone in my apartment and I was watching the series The West Wing over and over. In the evening, I cried and I connected in video with my family, confined to Europe.
Was it your dad who gave you the love of cinema?
My dad is a movie buff. It always has been. He likes all kinds of movies. Including those with Steven Seagal! I was introduced to a wide range of cultures. My mother, on the other hand, was 100% English. She was from a working class background and was quite versed in music, poetry, nature and art. When I was 12, my dad went bankrupt, so he was at home watching movies non-stop.
What teenager were you?
I was very shy. I looked at my shoes.
You said one day that you were still torn between two countries, two homelands, two different mentalities…
I was born in Los Angeles! From an American father and an English mother. When I was 2 and a half years old, my mother said to my father: “We’re going home!” of course, in the UK. Then she clarified to my father: “Either you come with us or without us. I want to be able to raise our boys near their grandparents.” So I was brought up in Britain by my parents. Hollywood is a weird place to me. I often feel like a fish out of water in this industry. But when I’m in my beautiful home in California, I can’t help but tell myself that I’m one hell of a lucky person, who was conceived in a Holiday Inn in New York! (Laughs.) It must have been a very hot summer night, my father Richard Garfield must have probably drunk too much!
I also thought I understood that you weren’t someone who likes social outings…
I hate social events. The first ones, I only go there if I have no choice. Charity galas, the cause defended really has to be worth it. There are actors and actresses who are attracted to sunlights and cameras, I’m the opposite.
It seems that at some point in your life, you put your career on hold?
Yes, in 2018 I chose not to work, not to tour. For six months, I decided to participate in a boot camp with 90 guys, die-hards who couldn’t care less about my fame. It gave meaning to my life. I finally understood that having a spiritual approach prevailed over everything! My mom’s death opened my eyes and only revealed this conviction. I have since had an acute awareness of the ephemeral nature of things.
Key dates
1. August 20, 1983
He was born to an English mother and an American father in Los Angeles. Very quickly, his family moved to Great Britain in the Surrey region.
2. 2012 to 2014
He takes over from Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man for three episodes. The last one, panned by critics, will be a failure.
3. February 28, 2022
After being Emma Stone’s fiancé until 2015, he now lives with model Alyssa Miller.
4. March 2022
He is nominated for an Oscar in the category of best actor for his role in the biopic Tick, tick … Boom! (Netflix) He plays the songwriter of the musical Rent who died in 1996.
see also: Andrew Garfield: Completely Stone, he spends a crazy day at Disney with his darling
Interview by Frank Rousseau, in Los Angeles