With two high-profile movies hitting theaters this month, and the fact that he was just tapped to be the new Spider-Man, 25-year-old British actor Andrew Garfield’s life is changing, to say the least. But with everything taking off around him, Garfield would rather slip away from the Hollywood scene and debate religion. Metro sat down with the genial actor to discuss his latest film, the adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go.”
Were you a fan of the book prior to doing the movie?
Well, I’d read the book and the script simultaneously before I’d auditioned. You just can’t argue with it. It’s just such a well-crafted musing on what it is to be alive.
You have some of the most intense scenes in the film.
What kind of challenge was that?
I’d go nuts if I didn’t exorcise certain of my own demons. It was painful in a controlled situation, which kind of gives it allowance. Whereas in my real life and in all of our real lives, we try to avoid pain at all costs, right? One of the themes of this film is our need as human beings to keep death out of reach, to prolong our lives, to continue our seed going into the future. Because the idea of death, the idea of the nothing is terrifying. Unless you have a deep-rooted spiritual doubtlessness about what happens after life, which I don’t feel like we have very much in our Western society.
You also star in “The Social Network.” How are you celebrating your big autumn?
Maybe I’ll go to Portland or something and hang out, just bury my head in the sand. I’m aware that these two films are coming out, and it is exciting because I’m so happy to be a part of them and to talk to people about it. But once filming is over, that’s kind of the end of the real fun stuff for me.
