He managed that “should straight actors play gay characters” conversation with so much more nuance than Scarlett “I can play a Japanese tree” Johansson. It’s the only thing that’s going to save us right now.” It’s what we need most as a culture, and it’s beautiful. Because I’m not willing to support the death of empathic imagination. So the two separate conversations have to happen simultaneously.
But the other is about empathic imagination, and if we only allow people to be cast as exactly who they are, it’ll be the death of it. Because we should want a world in which no matter your sexual orientation, your colour or your heritage, everyone gets a fair whack. One is about equality of opportunity, and I’m completely in on that. Whether straight actors can or should play gay roles: “I think it’s two different conversations getting conflated. But I personally feel pretty satisfied with the audience response. Sometimes those miracles overlap, and sometimes they don’t. Making a film that an awarding body loves is also a miracle. Making a film that a gajillion people want to see together is a miracle. Whether Spider-Man: No Way Home should have been Oscar-nominated: “I don’t know… I mean, it’s the sixth biggest movie in the history of movies. But I came to accept that playing it meant having one foot planted in the more mercenary side of the business, no matter how much I personally bumped against the values of it.” And taking the role honestly wasn’t just a money gig. Playing Spider-Man: “I love that character. And every time I thought that, he would come over and say, ‘You had a great show tonight.’ And I’d say I didn’t feel like I’d been on top of my game, and he’d reply, ‘Yeah, you weren’t. On Philip Seymour Hoffman & working with PSH on Death of a Salesman on Broadway: “It’s still really hard to talk about Phil, because on that play we were living out the archetypal father-son relationship together every night.” His fondest memories are of Hoffman approaching him “at the end of the nights when I felt like I hadn’t done enough, or it had just been a complete s- show. We’d wake up every morning and it would be ‘Where are we having breakfast?’ ‘When are we going to go to the beach?’ ‘When do you want to play ping-pong?’ We’d go to the Standard Hotel on Sunset Boulevard and order a single cocktail between us so that we could just sit there and swim in the pool.” Their collective social life, he says, “was proper Brits-abroad stuff. His British friends in LA: He came up with Robert Pattinson, Eddie Redmayne, Jamie Dornan and Tom Sturridge. “But do I think Olivia Colman gave one of the best performances of the year? Yes I do.” Then, after a pause, “I think they acknowledged some great people.” Another pause, and a twinkle. “Honestly, how people vote is none of my business,” he says. But if I’d grown up to be a murderer, she would have shown up at the prison with chocolate chip cookies every week.”ĭid he feel snubbed when he didn’t get a BAFTA nom? He starts laughing, then shifts into diplomacy mode. Of course she was proud of the career achievements I was proud of. His mother, who passed in 2019: “She was the embodiment of unconditional love.
Garfield chatted with the Telegraph recently about where he is in his career and it’s sort of a review of everything he’s done already, in his 17 years in the industry. To be fair, he’s equally proud of both, the film and the nomination. Anyway, he’s still hustling for Tick Tick Boom, and he’s still hustling for his Oscar campaign. I felt like he was actually a sleeper choice for just the nomination, but Oscar prognosticators have suggested that he might be a lot of Academy voters’ second choice after Will Smith. Andrew Garfield has been enjoying his first Oscar nomination this year.