"Andrew Garfield"

i think i'm just gonna talk how long do they actually fucking talk for hey everybody um this is andrew garfield and i am this week's guest on a podcast that uh we can all debate whether it needs to exist but um i'm waiting here um as most guests have to do and i didn't realize how long you have to fucking wait but at some point in the near future i will be talking to the guys who do smart list it's a welcome to smart list jay how was the boat ride yeah um the world wants to know respond publicly how is the boat ride there was so many and then i guess i was saying i think schumer posted like a bunch of photos amy schumer not chuck um although chuck schumer's threatening to post some photos of you too i don't know what that's regarding yeah there were many many many many pictures um being taken um it was it was nice what do you mean i mean it was like incredibly you know it was nice you're in the middle of directing you got a little time off and it was nice to get a time time yeah but it was i listen these are all high class problems you know i i just you can't really relax because i'm not i'm not done i gotta leave in freaking 48 hours to go back to iceland for a week of shooting and another 11 hour flight and another nine hour time change or more like it's just my body's like what are you doing right chill right listen again i hate to go back to it but according to the shots off the back of the boat your body looks like it can handle just about anything yeah okay speaking of which uh willie i saw some nice shots of you uh you had your own little european boating vacation eating grapes with a hard body of yours christ everything's and shawnee i saw you posted a picture of you and scotty on the beach uh just keeping it real up the up the up the north coast of california yeah you know in the malibu yeah yeah yeah well you know will calls will facetime me working out with no shirt on just regular conversation hey what's going on doing dumbbells i'm like what can you do you want to wait or do you want to talk now no i gotta get it in i gotta get it in and then you went no no the phone call do you want to wait on that no because as soon as i lifted a dumbbell i was like oh sean you know i gotta call sean joke yeah it's a good it's i was gonna say it's victimless but it's not entirely victimless but you know i got this so by the way uh i went a couple of weeks ago because it's been a minute since we've all been together i went did this thing with our pal uh dave letterman who we all adore up in montreal oh yeah i saw the pictures of that that looked rad yeah yeah it's really fun it's super fun and we all adore him and revere him yeah the best and and sean he he started we spent i told you this but we spent maybe 12 minutes talking about sean uh jay you got like 30 seconds like a passing glance what oh yeah but sean got and he's like when you lost the audience he's like what about the thing that you get that you um sean takes a lot of hits on the podcast yeah which we've discussed before and i'm like i said i said dave sean and i've had this conversation if i didn't make fun of sean he'd think that i was mad at him and he'd think that i was mad at him and i'd think i was mad at him totally we had this conversation a million times here and then i told him the story jb of when we went to see sean opening night of hello oscar at the tabasco theater and he said talk about a show hello oscar and and how you know we joke around and blah blah blah and then sean gives this performance and jason turns around i'm sitting right behind jason he's got tears in his eyes and he says he's ruined the podcast yeah because he's so talented respect him too much now we can't make fun of him we can't make fun of him he's too good and i told that story to sort of whatever a couple thousand people in this theater with dave uh and uh i said so just so you know we all are in awe of what sean does that's very nice don't blow it off sean let take it we've talked about this ad nauseum but i appreciate it we talked about with dave and dave has your back dave loves you i love dave too he walked in he saw goodnight oscar in london he walked in i go do you want a sandwich something and he's like and he goes oh my god i'm so sorry i'm so sorry he goes he goes i have diabetes so i was like oh shit i had no idea and i'm making fun of his weight wait truly he had he does or no yeah yeah oh no way yeah and then scotty were like scotty and him were like look i got the pat the pod on my shoulder he's like me too and they were like you know speaking of scotty what about that article i sent you yesterday the crisis going on in the gay community now with people who love bears like the problem with glp-1s now that the bears are shrinking yeah i think it's a big problem i think it's a big problem i think it's a big problem skinny bears they're going extinct yeah we gotta protect the bears the skinny bears are called otters you know now they're otters yeah oh my god oh yeah now they're turning into otters if you see a bear don't shoot you know i mean we gotta keep unless it's going well we gotta keep um unless he asks for it all right anyway well so much other stuff to talk about but we should probably get to it is this yours today shawnee this is mine you guys are gonna be so excited really what if we were like no it's yours no that's happened before i think i know it has you fumble through your notes uh guys my guest today was born in los angeles and raised outside of london oh i've got it who no uh he was a competitive gymnast how about that no and a swimmer as a kid but quit gymnastic after his 200 pound russian coach sat on his back during the splits and he thought quote this is not a childhood he worked at starbucks until they fired him for sitting down too much his mom made him a spider man costume for halloween when he was three years later he got paid to wear one in three movies it's the uber talented and very charming andrew garfield garfield i was just talking about you the other day we've never met nice to meet you were you saying nice things about him i was i was showing off i i there's a photo of you that came up on instagram or something and you were wearing and because i was i find myself defending some of the stuff that i wear and you were wearing a phenomenal zip up from alessi which i own a different one and i get a lot of shit for and i was like look at andrew garfield this dude is cool he looks so good and he's wearing an alessi zip up so shut it was it like a vintage one yeah it looks so good you know the one i'm talking about it's so good yes i do yeah we were in high shorts too now i wasn't wearing the high i can't pull off shorts generally but particularly not it's really nice to be with you guys i really love you guys i love this show so much and yeah will we haven't met i know i know jason a bit sean i don't think we've met ever either but i feel like we should have because we're of the theater yeah yeah yeah we will we will we'll do something thanks for having me i felt like my intro was a bit ominous i feel like you guys got so sad like the russian guys the list of losses of my life i mean when i read that that made me laugh so hard when you're like when you as a child you go this is not a childhood i have to leave i was 13 with a very large russian guy you know on me and and williams i'm such a huge fan of yours as well i'm just a fan of all of you and i'm sorry i'm a little overwhelmed to be right back at you where where where are you you're in a hotel room somewhere what are you doing you assume this is a hotel room but i designed my house to feel like as familiar as a hotel that was a little bit of a faux pas early on there jason but um i know this is it's the crosby street hotel room 601 if anyone's interested wow this is live wow doors unlocked ass up doors open by the way i really like i i hope you guys keep in all of the very platonic homoerotic intro that you've been doing for a long time and i hope you guys keep in all of the you guys it was like the most homoerotic you guys have gone in a while i feel like it's been a minute it's been a minute it's coming there's more coming yeah but it's it's it's a service you guys are providing i think for men around uh around the world you just reminded me of my buddy of speaking of homoeroticism my buddy who was on one of these these dating sites the uh not a grinder but a different one that's even more just immediate hookup thing yeah yeah and and he got on and the guy sent him a picture of himself with his butt in the air winking winking and he just wrote howdy my buddy's like no howdy swipe um all right so if you're in new york you are promoting something what are you promoting um right now i'm promoting a family film called the magic faraway tree which is an enid blyton book that was made into a film by simon farnaby who made the wrote the paddington movies okay but i'm also something very different i'm promoting is a paul greengrass movie called the uprising which is about the peasants revolt in the 1300s and has a slightly different tone to it. Holy shit. Yeah. I read a few Enid Blyton books and as a kid I don't remember any peasant uprisings. Yeah. Wait, that sounds like a very uncomfortable shoot. A peasant war film. I'm not imagining a lot of luxury on that one. Walk us through the pain, please. Jason's just thinking at the end when you rap are you going to shower in the trailer? You don't want to use the water in the trailer. So now you've got to do the ride back to the hotel with the guy with the. The heavy fabrics. Oh, this fuck. Yeah, stinky, stinky fabrics. Chuck Schumer is definitely not waiting for me on a yacht in any kind of court at the end of a shoot day. Where did you shoot that? We were in Munich. We were in Munich. We were shooting because there's a lot of medieval architecture still in Germany, weirdly. So we were shooting around. We were mostly in one field in Munich that was being doubled for a lot of different peasants' fields in Munich. It was miserable. But in that way of the best possible misery. Yeah. And you guys love Paul's movies. Yeah, of course. I mean, good. Captain Phillips and the Bourne movies and News of the World. He's just like an incredible filmmaker. Yeah. And he's one of those team captains that kind of makes you want to suffer for him. You know what I mean? Where it's like, oh no, I want to suffer as much as possible for this man. Because he's going to. Because he's driving, yeah? Yeah. And he's. I was going to say, Jason, would you say that Woody and Sam are saying that they're suffering for you right now? Is that a fair assessment of what they're going through? Yeah. They're just trying to keep me awake. You know? Sure. No, no. But he's. Yeah, Paul Greengrass does seem like one of those guys who it's an all-in venture. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was an amazing. It is a really good group of actors as well. It's Tom Hollander who's incredible. Oh, man. And Jamie Bell and Cosmo Jarvis. Amazing. Catherine Waterston, Stephen Delane. Like a kind of murderer's row of great British actors. And it's like a proper ensemble. And it's like this historical drama but he's shooting it like he shoots which is all handheld. You're in the action. You're kind of viscerally with the characters and it's powerful. And it's like it goes like a freight train. It's like a very fast-paced historical drama. Can I just say another sort of can I just you mentioned Stephen Delane and I've said this before. This is one of the most underrated actors of our time, Stephen Delane. 100%. He's an incredible actor. Where would I know him from? I mean, a million things. I'd know his face if I saw him. 100%. 100%. He's breathtakingly incredible, right? Andrew, am I right about that? Yeah. No, he is one of the greats. And it's one of those careers where you're like, oh, man, that's kind of the dream where Jason Bateman doesn't exactly know who I am. Yeah. Do you know? Where it's like, he knows that I'm great, but he doesn't know anything about me or my personal life. Yes. But he would definitely cast me in a really How are we spelling that? Stephen Delane. D-E-L-L-A-N-E. D-E-I-L-L-A-N-E. Jay, you know, your wife loves him, late-breaking. And he was in that English, English, he was in the English version of when they did The Bridge, that Swedish-Danish show, and they made it called The Tunnel. It was a UK-French co-pro. I like saying co-pro. It makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about. For sure. And I remember talking about him with Amanda and just both of us just going like, this guy is I mean, he's amazing. Did you find him, Jay? The Tunnel, the TV series? Yeah, because your spelling on Delane was terrible. How much more time do we have? No, it's like Dill Pickle. Guys, welcome Stephen Delane. here he is Andrew how good is your Stephen Delaney impression there he is oh no I'm not much of a fan of this guy no could you imagine after all that see guys I had to make it worth it no he's a rock star I see what you're saying yes this is a guy you see him in any project you're like oh we're in good hands here I was going to wait to the end to talk about this Andrew but since we're talking about projects we are at the end now after all of that Stephen Delaney in Google search no but two projects I thought are really really cool one is by a friend of mine called Wild Things where you play Roy of Siegfried and Roy John Hoffman are you friends with John yeah John Hoffman you just finished working with Jude yeah we just did you played Siegfried and Roy which is awesome yeah it's I'm excited about it it's as you imagine and more it's like more is more is more is more with those two you know with the gay German magicians in the desert and with the tigers and the lions that old story that old classic tale that old myth that's been told time and again but fucking hell these guys were truly not well the guy I play was truly insane Roy Horn he was the tiger magician but literally believed and was convinced and maybe truly did have some spiritual connection to his tigers to animals generally did you use real animals no no no we're not legally allowed to to do that I did feed a tiger with my hand yeah I don't know that's pretty good but you're awesome didn't was was one of them mauled forgive me yeah of course yeah no you're forgiven you're forgiven we don't say mauled we don't say mauled though well we say there was an incident there was a thing that happened there was an event was it your character that had the event yeah Roy Roy yeah the guy who had the the guy who had the magical connection Jason Jason Jason Jason Jason he ate his face off or something oh Sean oh sorry I just read I just read that he ate his face off he's creating new myths no sorry there was an incident so what's remarkable about it is I don't I of course I'm defending him because I feel like I am his representative on this earth he so 40 years he worked with these animals and there was no incident with him ever and there was one night in 2003 where the tiger went tiger and decided for whatever reason that night that he he was gonna bite down on his masters his neck and drag him to his cage and there's lots of different kind of theories about why the how do you a tiger is a tiger how can you you know you have no idea but there are lots of theories and the and one of the things that the show explores is why on this particular night did things go wild but he survived it his face is intact and but he then he died during covid he like he like recovered he did lots of rehab he kind of like they got back on stage with the tigers they were savage they were like just these incredible kind of like gay german warrior magicians they were like some of the strongest roy particularly was this kind of i don't know monster he was an amazing amazing man wow oh i can't wait to see that wait but andrew you're also playing and then by the way then we'll be done because you have 18 other projects which is really exciting but you're playing artificial you play sam altman yeah in a movie was he on the yacht with you jason was he on the yacht he was on a boat nearby yeah so for tracy sam altman created chat gpt he created open ai and so that's really cool man i mean that's going to be a really great story that's the uh uh luca guadagnino you got it yeah yeah yeah i'm nervous about that one i'm really scared about about that one what about the about the about the backlash well yeah i mean like you're playing one of arguably you guys take a point of view on it i mean one i hope we've taken a point of view on it and it will be you know seen and people will have their own opinions about it but yeah i mean like i playing one of the arguably the most powerful people on this planet right now or interpretation of whoever this person i have no idea i've never met sam altman i don't know any anything about the interior of his soul i just had to do some you know i had to interpret what i what i understood what i saw what i read what i you know what my imagination gave me what the script gave me but it's like he could definitely he probably has hacked my phone and he probably is observing every move i make does the does the film take a position that uh this is something either ominous or something that is positive or um what what what what what what i think it focuses on him getting kind of ousted from the company and then back in to the company and then back in to the company and then back in to the company What a woman once tweeted about your laptop smashing scene. I'm happy for you to share this. Okay. I mean, it's something like she wanted you to smash your laptop on her tits or something. Oh, yeah. Wow, I got to re-watch that. Yeah. Is that it? Hang on, let me pull that up real quick. I mean, that's insane. I don't know how fast you are at Google. My dial-up service is not what it was. Wait, she tweeted that she wanted to smash her. She was serious, and then you met her. No way. Yeah, that's crazy. Come on. She showed up at a Q&A, and she was holding a sign saying, I'm the one that wants you to smash a laptop on my tits. Wow, and did she ask a question at this Q&A? Nice, nice, nice. Guys, it's low-hanging fruit, still fruit. Low-hanging fruit is still fruit. And we will be right back. And now, back to the show. So, wait, so that is a particularly. Now, Social Network is one of my favorite movies. Me too. I don't recall a particularly memorable level of hotness while you're destroying a laptop. Was there? Did you do it in like a hot way? I guess it's subjective. And I guess it's not something that you're into, Jason, and that's okay, but. Was your top off or something when you did it? No, it was just full of a powerful, like, justice-seeking. Fincher didn't say. Fincher wasn't like, hey, you're going to smash the laptop. Hey, let's go tarps off on this one, huh? Hey, Garfield, you're going to go tarps off on this, eh? Can you get your nips hard real quick? Yeah, let's roll. Let's roll, eh? Can we get some ice for Andrew? Yeah, let's roll, eh? Let's get this. Let's get this fired up here. Let's go tarps off on Garfield on one. Let's go tarps off. There's no way that David Fincher would have been as successful as he is if he was Canadian. There's no way. There's no way. I'm realizing that in real time. Wait, what about. But, Jason, have you not seen the outtake of Andrew doing. And I'm not even kidding. How many takes and how many laptops did you smash? No, I haven't seen that. I think it was, I don't know, 30, 40. I don't know. It was a lot. 30 laptops smashed. 30 laptops. Yeah. Yeah, have you ever been to those rage rooms? Have you ever done like a rage room where you get like a baseball bat and you get given a bunch of shit to smash up? No. Wait, where are those? You have, Sean? Cool it, dude. No, I mean, I know of it. I have never. I want to smash stuff. It's a. Yeah, it's a great. It's a place that you can go. Sean, would you like Andrew to come over and. You have a couple laptops that need smashing up, don't you? And I have tips, so I'm all in. The hard drives need to be erased. All right, but you did a family film. You did a family film that you're promoting now. And what. Do you. Do you got any little. Oh, wait, I've gotten into trouble asking this before. I was going to ask you if you have any kids. Am I allowed to ask that? How dare you? Yeah, honestly, how could you? What are you going to ask next? My age? What is this? I didn't think I was coming on the patriarchy podcast. Maybe some people don't. The Handmaid's Tale fucking. It's my bad. I apologize. I'm 42 and I'm childless. And I'm not. I'm not entirely proud of that. Like, I would love. I would love to have kids. I would love to start a family. It's just not. You offered that. I didn't ask that. Well, you kind of did. You kind of did. But so. Because usually you hear about folks doing a family film because. Well, you know, I do stuff my kids can't see. And so I want to finally do a movie that my kids can see. That's usually the story you hear. Sounds just like me. Right? Yeah. This, you just. You love this book. Well, no. You know what? I love Simon Farnaby. I love those Paddington movies so much. Yeah, me too. And I've been, like, an advocate for the. I love those films. And Simon is just a great, heartfelt comedy writer. And I had been wanting to do something a little easier, in a way, to be honest. Is that okay to say? Yes. I just kind of wanted to have a nice time. Instead of throwing potatoes at peasants and stuff, you want to do something on a soundstage, right? I needed a break from throwing potatoes at peasants. Thank you, sir. It's the first. The first time I feel really understood, Jason. Yeah, no, I. It was really lovely. It was just a lovely time. And it's heartfelt. And it's about, you know, getting kids back in touch with themselves, with each other, with nature, with their own nature, with the family unit, with community. And, you know, it's not anti-technology, but there's a kind of, like, a kind of awareness around how technology may or may not be screwing things up for us. And it's just lovely. And I have nephews and I have godkids. And there was something very sweet about making this film and having my friends who have young kids come and see it. And it was, like, the best reviews I've ever had in my life. It was, like. Wow, that's great. Yeah, honestly, Will. It was, like, voice note after voice note after voice note of just raves from the seven, eight, nine, ten-year-olds that I have a connection with. It was honestly, like, why have I done anything other than. than this up until now? Because this is so much more pleasurable. It is. I have had that experience. You guys have, too. When you do stuff that is more sort of family-oriented and whatever, the response is pretty rad. And when you meet a kid who's, like, super into something that you did, it's so much more gratifying. Just watching their minds get blown when they're introduced. Like, Will, I'll bet a million times you've done, like, Lego Batman voice for a young kid and they're like, wait, what? I don't understand. Like, their mind kind of breaks a little bit. Yeah. Sometimes people, you know, come up to you and you're with your kids and you're getting ice cream out here with my kids or whatever and somebody comes up and wants to say hi. You're like, hey. But when it's a kid who comes up in that way and is, like, a big fan of, like, as you say, like, Lego Batman or something, it is very gratifying, really, in a different way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or, like, when a kid comes up and says, I don't know, I have no idea who you are. Yeah, I don't know who you are, mate. Andrew, when you did, um. You were a kid. Who do you think they thought you were? Right, Jason? Yeah. Jason one time burned me in the greatest burn that I'm super jealous of. I told this huge story about. We were on stage with Matt Damon and I told this story about Brad Pitt, you know, complimenting this thing and how psyched I was, blah, blah, blah, and I was, like, gushing like a little kid. And Jason paused. Jason goes, who do you think he thought you were? After getting a compliment from Brad Pitt. Yeah, which was so good. I was so jealous of that burn. So, Andrew, tell me about growing up. You were born in Los Angeles, but how did you then grow up in England? Because you were born here. Yeah, my mom. My mom was from Essex, from England. She met my dad in London. And then. Yeah, my dad's from LA. It's a longer story, but. We don't have time. We don't have time after the Stephen Delane thing. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. We, um. We, uh. Yeah, so they met in London. My dad was from LA. He moved back to LA with us. He lived with her, had me and my brother. And we were living in Marina del Rey in the 80s, which was not Marina del Rey now. Yeah. And my mother was a kind of small-town girl from the outskirts of London. Now, suddenly, in the middle of gang warfare in Marina del Rey. You're right, right. And the Cheesecake Factory. Let's not forget about that. Has the Cheesecake Factory been there since 83? And there was a Jerry's Deli, too. There was a nice Jerry's Deli there. Oh, wait. She painted a much more. A much more kind of brutal picture of Marina del Rey. Are you calling my mother a liar? Is that what you're calling my mother a liar? We've heard. Jason, you pantsed me once in the parking lot of that Jerry's Deli. Well, you're gonna wear sweatpants, you're gonna lose them. And I was wearing sweatpants. We were going to work. We paused outside the restaurant and then he pantsed me in the middle. Your luck didn't tip you over afterwards, either. What year was this? When was. How old were you guys? This was 2004. We were 34, 35. We were all hopped up from K to K. From the cheesecake factory. And you weren't losers. You were like cool guys. I don't know if we're cool guys. And then you did. When you got into gymnastics, I was in gymnastics too. I did the. I was good at the pommel horse and like the floor events and stuff. You're a pommel horse guy. Yeah, I didn't. But I didn't stick with it. Wait, wait, wait. But Sean, in a pinch, could you do like a backward handspring, like a flip right now? I can do like a round off a cartwheel. I can do like a cartwheel now at this stage. But I could do all that stuff when I was younger. Yeah, just for a little bit. Andrew, gun to your head right now. Would you be able to do like a half-ass floor exercise? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 100%. No way. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd throw my back out. My knees would be fucked and I'd be ruined. I'm sorry. Just paint me a picture. Why is the gun to the head to do this? What is this? Some oligarch? Some oligarch is like, I have Andrew Garfield. You, boy. Do something. Get this. Do an exercise. Do it. Fucking what? How did I end up in this scenario? I'd lose my head. I would not be able to do much of anything. I don't think I'd be able to even do a somersault. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you could try. And then you left gymnastics. Your father became a swimming coach because then you were swimming. I mean, and then. But just, I'll finish the thing about. So my mom basically was like, I'm out. I'm not. I don't want to be here anymore in LA. Sorry to go back to that. I felt like there was like a. I have a weird thing where there's a thread undone I have to. She got tired of the 90 freeway and she wanted to get out of it. She got tired of the 90. And she said, are you coming? If not, don't worry. thing and my dad was like okay guys we'll we'll go back we'll go back to england so i was raising and then yeah gymnastics and i love gymnastics i really did like the first time i did like a back handspring or back somersault yeah i felt like i had unlocked some weird secret code to my body and to like fly it felt like flying it was very very cool yeah and then it became something you know you know what happens when you're a kid and you're like good at something and you have a father who you know is uh a quite uh a competitive uh animal um it starts to become less fun because suddenly it you know it's either a gold medal or you you know you don't get love no not not literally but like in some yeah i know what you mean the guys are just kind of like laughing at me like we're all thinking about our own fathers um wait so then uh so then you stopped doing that because it got a bit you know you're a little bit more of a father and you're like oh my god i'm not gonna do that bit too stressful yeah how soon after that did you find acting and was he supportive of that well yeah this is what this is what's kind of beautiful is that we so i was i was swimming for he was my swimming coach for a while and again that became another thing and i kind of just let everything go when i was a teenager because yeah it's like like one of my favorite movies like that it's like the truman show it felt like the truman show i was like if this is all there is that there has to be more and uh i was being raised in a kind of small small town in the south of england and i didn't have any kind of idea that a life in the arts was a was a life to be had i thought it would leave you destitute and because kind of on heroin that was the kind of like the horror stories that were being kind of um given to me and then uh i uh it was my mom my mom saw how kind of lost i was and thankfully i was that lost because without being lost i wouldn't have found the thing that really set me up for the rest of my life hopefully which was i i tried i tried painting i was painting and i was fine at them and i enjoyed them but then when i did my first acting class and i did my first play which was i played fat sam and bugsy malone at my local community theater and it was one of my favorite movies the alan parker movie is one of my favorite movies of all time yeah and i felt a kind of a close i felt close to myself in a way that i maybe hadn't felt i felt a sense of purpose and then i had a drama teacher that came into high school that kind of mentored me and saw me and said i think you have something to give here and that was kind of all i needed and then yeah i had to weirdly my dad was very resistant at first because he was just scared like any good boomer father would be of me not surviving as an actor right he was very very concerned with me just like having a roof over my head and like living well and also i thought that was interesting when i read to that point that you grew up with no money and then your your family started this business then went bankrupt and then yeah you know from there it was just like god what am i i'm sure that feeling that your dad had for you was partly because he's been trying to bring it up talk about the darkest time in your family's life and you're real quick uh so then was he was he really like a hard ass about well yeah fine you can do the acting stuff but you're gonna go to college you're gonna study a backup career yeah business he wanted me to go into business whatever that did you no no i did i did like an a level which is like an sat in business and in england and it was uh i got a b it was fine but but i'll tell you i'll tell you a cool story like so i go to drama school for three years and he he he kind of backs me he's like okay if this is what you want to do i'm gonna i'm gonna help you do it so i did three years after high school after high school three years university course in acting at a great drama school called central which i loved and um and then i started working in theater but i was still having to like do a bunch of you know odd jobs and starbucks and i was a cricket coach for a while i did a lot of you know waiting waiting tables the usual thing yeah but then you know there was a couple of moments on the journey on the way that he that me and him really started to connect one was getting spider-man obviously and i kind of i think i called him straight away i was like fuck that business degree motherfucker your boy made it kind of thing and he was like you don't have to worry anymore um and uh and then i did death of a salesman which is a great play that with philip seymour hoffman philip seymour hoffman and yeah mike nichols directing wow and he came and saw that opening night and it was like i was like i was like a lot of whatever dynamics we had to heal father and son dynamics we kind of started to really heal through me doing that play and him seeing me do that play and realizing that we had we had some wounds that we shared that the the that it's it is generational that it is handed handed down um generation to generation these the this not enoughness wound or whatever that i think a lot of men yeah have i i certainly do that i work with all the time but and then the kind of the third and and it was it kind of was revealed in my discussions with him that he had this unmet dream of wanting to be a writer he he's he's a very charming charismatic storytelling guy he's very he's into art and culture he's just it's just been a buried dream of his for a long time so it was super interesting and he would tell the story of driving past um fox studios when he was um he had a shipping company in la and a moving company in la he would drive past fox studios and just imagine driving past fox studios and he would drive past fox studios and he would drive past his dream and wonder what was happening behind those gates and there was um there was a night where he was out with my mom to visit me in la it was the night before the oscars where i i i was nominated for the for the for the first time i was nominated for an academy award and i said hey there's a party tonight i want to take you guys to and um yeah he's like where is it where we go i'm like i know we'll we'll you'll you'll find out and we're driving and he's like telling stories about la and his memories of la and we start pulling up to fox he's our fox studio and he's our fox this is where i used to dream and wonder and we start pulling in to um to the fox lot which is where that night before party is is is is held and he he looked at me and he just started bawling his eyes out and i was like well you're gonna find out that it's actually not that interesting what happens on the other side of these gates but at least you'll at least you'll you'll know and it was and we had a really beautiful beautiful breakfast the next morning the the day of the oscars because you know we are competitive people and we like winning stuff but it's also been very interesting and it's also been very interesting and it's also been very tied in with our sense of identity our sense of selves as kind of garfield men and we kind of healed a lot of that but still it was a beautiful thing to be able to like share like a big achievement of like an oscar nomination with my dad in that way incredible it's amazing what a great as a garfield man as you said as you said do you hate mondays no uh do you love lasagna um very good do you have a dog yeah um do you um i love that you had that moment with your dad and that he was able to express like in a really sort of real emotional unguarded way how he felt and what a great lesson to learn from your dad um even even you know you're you weren't a kid anymore but even just to see to get that kind of example of that i think is really really important and so meaningful man is he still with us and andrew oh very much so yeah he's in england yeah yeah he's he's writing and now he's writing like he's just writing for pleasure and uh he's really talented and he's yeah he's we have the like i think the proudest thing of my life is my relationship with with my dad and to see as you say wills like to see someone allow themselves to evolve in that later stage of life through their kid as as their kid is trying to break free and evolve and individuate and and free themselves of some something that's holding them back from feeling fully joyful in their life it's so i i i tip my hat and you being old enough to see your your father as a as a as a co-adult you know somebody like as we get older as a person parents become so human to us it's it can be off-putting at times but also just um uh you know obviously really enlightening it's amazing how we all become sort of equal as we get older yeah yeah yeah i think in in i've seen you you know you've been in a lot of situations where you've been in a lot of situations where you've And I've seen you speak on and I've seen sort of quotes of yours over the years talk about one of the things that I love about you is the way that you talk about how open you are about various things. You've talked about grief quite openly over the last few years in a way that I think is so admirable in the way that you're able to do that. And it really sets such a great example. And certainly just for me, John Q. Public, to read that and see you talk about it really touched me and allowed me to kind of go like, oh, I want to be that open. I want to be as in touch with my feelings about certain things. I think it's pretty awesome. That means a lot. That's great. Well, and you had now a famous quote, Andrew, about grief, which I love, which is you said grief is all the unexpressed love. Yeah. And I was like, oh. Yeah. When I think about that, I was like, oh, yeah, because I try to tell people how I feel now, even if it makes them uncomfortable or me uncomfortable. I don't want to save all that love and emotion for when they're dead or I'm dead. It's like now's the time, you know? And even with that, even with saying, my relationship is, you know, talking about my mother who passed away just before end of 2019. Even with, because I told her I loved her all the time. Even with all that, there still is this kind of chasm of grief that's never going to be fully, you know, the love is, that was the remarkable thing in that experience for me was like, oh, shit. shit, like, the love is truly never-ending. Like, it's infinite. It's like, it's infinite. And it doesn't stop. It won't stop when I die. I don't know. I found that quite touching and quite beautiful. And yeah, I guess, like, I remember being a young actor and looking up to certain people and wanting them to be as real as possible in the world, not just in their films or in their plays or in their music. I wanted, like, to feel like it was okay for me to be as kind of fucked up as I was in the head and then in the heart and in the body. And so, I don't know. I find it interesting to kind of try to deconstruct the rules of our culture. Like, it's like, why can't we talk about how fucking shitty it is to lose your mind? Like, why can't, why is grief a taboo thing? It doesn't make any sense to me in our culture. So, it was kind of fun to be able to have fun. It's kind of a light way of putting it. Like, I didn't expect so many people to feel a resonance or a kind of freedom because of that. But yeah, it was a very, it's a very, yeah, I find it very beautiful. Well, it's also, we're a little bit, I think as actors, we get the privilege, the opportunity to explore so many different parts of ourselves and emotions as well that, you know, you have to because the script says, you know, you're going through a break. You're going through a breakup or something like that. And you have to sort of like explore all that stuff. And so, maybe just the idea of dealing with that in your own personal life is not such a foreign and scary thing because we tend to be practiced at some of these kind of oddly shaped emotions and characters, right? Yeah, no, definitely. It's a nice part of it. And on that, Andrew, what, you know, you do so much great work and play so many different characters in different genres and different genres. What is it that, what is it that you like most about what you do to just ask you like the most base sort of simple question? I mean, there's so many different parts to it, but is there one thing that if you, the same guns to your head, you have to say, what is the thing that you have to say? I have this fucking Garfield at my disposal. One more question, Mr. Garfield. Why does he have so much access to me? How does he have so much access to me? How does he like, how is he always in the room? This guy, I own this fucking guy. Because you told him your room number. That's what it was. Fuck. We'll be right back. And back to the show. Is there one thing that gets you most excited when you open up your eyes to start your work each day? Oh, man. Yeah, I mean, it's hard not to be, oh God, he's sincere about these things. But it's like, it's a life-saving job. I think this job saved my life in the sense that like, I remember, do you guys read the Agassi autobiography? No, but I've heard I should. I hear that's great. Fucking hell. It's so good. And it's about an athlete and an athlete that hates the sport, that he hates tennis. Like the first line is, I hate tennis. And it's like him and his father and all this stuff. And he has this moment in the middle of the book where he's like, I played for the U.S. Olympic team and we won gold. And I'm stood there with my fellow U.S.A. players. And I thought to myself for the first time, maybe I love tennis. And I found that so deeply moving because for me, it's like, if I can be a part of a team, if I can be a part of a community that's doing something that is greater than each individual, and it's somehow observed, and it's a part of a team that's doing something that's greater than each individual, and it's a part of a team that's greater than each individual, Oh, my God. It was the worst feeling. It was so scary. That's called like a mini mental breakdown. That's like post-psychosis, I think. Totally. But anything in Angels in America or Death of a Salesman or anything? Yeah, I mean, yeah, definitely. I think it was one of the first previews of Angels in America that we did in London. And it's after, you know, it's a nine-hour show. And it's the first time we're doing, you know, all of it back-to-back on a Saturday. And, yeah, fuck. And I can't, I don't know how that, I don't know how any of us survived it, truly. Like, it's ridiculous. But there's a big climax at the end of the second part where I have to fight an angel on stage. And the angel is on a harness. And at one point, she goes up on wires and I'm like holding onto her. And I'm like pulled around the rafters, like off the ground during this very, very technical fight. And to get set, I have to put my hands through loopholes. I'm pulled by her waist with my, and I'm wearing like a hospital gown with my ass out facing the audience. And I'm like, okay, it's our first time doing this in front of an audience. And I get set. And I'm like right down at the front of the stage. My ass is towards the audience. And I'm like pretending to wrestle this angel. And I'm like set, set, set. And then nothing happens. We just stay on the ground. We're meant to be lifted. So we're just like on the ground, on the ground. And as we all know, like just the awful feeling of having to pretend like everything is fine. So I'm like continuing to wrestle. I'm just kind of like doing the worst continual wrestle movement with my ass facing the audience. And it's, I think it's about a minute and a half that I'm just doing this one impossibly awful move. The guy backstage is trying to find the right rope to pull. And the stage manager, who is this very sweet, nerdy, northern guy, comes out. And like the dramatic music stops. And I'm still doing this awful wrestle before I make it to the show. And the guy goes, I'm so sorry, everybody. We've had some technical difficulties. We'll be right back with you. After like eight hours of a show, the curtain comes down and my ass is still to the whatever. And the curtain comes down. And we fix it. And I get back in the position after like five minutes. I stick my ass in the audience again. And the curtain comes up. And I'm still doing the wrestle. And of course, like it works. And the audience go fucking crazy. Because that's what they want. They want the worst shit that could possibly happen to happen. And it to be recovered. And they're part of like something that could never have happened otherwise if they had come any other night. But it was, I'm sweating talking about it. Do you, actually you just made a really good point about the sort of, they're part of something that could never happen again the exact same way or otherwise. Is that part of the allure to you of theater? of those? Don't you think? I wonder what you guys think about this. I feel like, I mean, maybe this is a very obvious thing to say, but I feel like that's where we're heading now. We're heading back towards live immersive. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. It feels like the, like one of the last commodities that is going to be valued. The one thing AI can't do. Well, yeah, in-person experience. Yeah. Like an actual live. Whether it's comedy, or music, or theater, or storytelling. It's going to be huge. Yeah. And also, what about like orchestral music too, right? Yes. Which is what it used to be. Like there was no recordings of anything. I think so. You had to go to the opera house, or whatever it was, and watch, you know, Beethoven conduct his symphonies. Like, you had to. Buy an album and hear it. Gun to your head. Yeah. Right there. What symphony are you going to listen to? Hammer cocked. Wait. Compose something. Now, Andrew, you know, Jason will know, and people know, I love every once in a while, like having a gummy. Just because it, like, it's relaxing. A weed gummy. A weed gummy, yeah. And you once celebrated. Well, just like a regular gummy. Define every once in a while. Yeah. Yeah, what's this every once in a while garbage? Did you run out? Garbage. Yeah, I did run out actually. I need some more. You once celebrated turning 29 by eating pot brownies at Disneyland. Please tell me how that went. Yeah, it was, it was one of the old time great days. Because that sounds fun. Yeah, no, it was one of the old time great days. Yeah. It was like Duke. Yes. No, no, no, I did, and we didn't. One of us did, George did. George had to get off crew, like, what's that, California? Where you're kind of like. Oh, yeah, California Adventure. Flying over California. Yeah, he couldn't, we rode that a few times. He only, he could only manage two times. And yeah, so George had a tough, a tough run of it for a moment. We all had tough moments. It was like a group of like eight or nine of us, and we all kind of, at a different moment. So it was like a little bit like whack-a-mole. There was like a corn dog moment that we had where I was really struggling. Oh, hang on. But there was one really, I think the best moment, the best moment was the simplest moment of the day, weirdly, where we transitioned from Disneyland to the California Adventure theme park, part of Disneyland. And there's that song, California, here we come, right back where we started from. That was coming, emanating from the speakers in the trees. And one after the other, we all looked around and realized that we were all doing the exact same jaunty little walk dance to that song. Like Happy Bears. Like we were doing the exact same, and it was like, That's funny. It was like, Sounds like there could have been some caps and stems in this, in these pop downies. No. It was purely, it was purely weed. And, but we were so aligned. We were so aligned. We were aligned with the cosmos in that moment. And we, apart from, and we had, you know, we, we, it was fancy. It was like 29th birthday. So we pulled out all the stops. We got one of the, one of the guides to take us around, one of those lovely Disney guides. And, and her, and her name was Chantal. And she may have been an AI robot because she did not betray any knowledge of what was moving through our system. Your intoxication. She was just so like, she was like Disney adult, joyful. I think they're pretty accustomed there now. I mean, I don't know. I think they're pretty accustomed there now to folks just tripping balls when they go down to, it was like, there's two kinds of people. There's either like the wholesome family, you know, you've got the little kids and the strollers and all that stuff, or the people above. There's the shaggy haired actors. Yeah. With their buddies. If you're 25 years or older, you're probably on something. I can, I tried to do, I can't do roller coasters and stuff anymore. No, me neither. My equilibrium's gone after 50 years. I'm shot. Yeah. I get, I get nauseous. I think I might be the same. I went to, I was in Universal Studios recently with an old friend from high school. We went just, I don't know. We just went and we had a pop, a kind of little pot candy. And we had a guide as well. And I felt like she was cool enough because we did the Transformers ride, which is one of those, like it's a screen and it's 3D. It's like a motion ride. It's fucking hell. It's just pure fucking hell. It's like, it's Dante's Inferno. It's just horrible. And we came out and both of us, I was worse. I was like, I'm really fucked up. I'm really fucked up now in a way that's not pleasant in any way. I would blow chunks everywhere. And I turned, and I was too high and I was too dizzy. And I turned and I was like, I trust this girl. I'm going to see, I'm going to see what she says. I'm like, hey, I don't know if you're aware, but I, we did a little bit of, we got a little bit high before the Transformers ride and now I'm regretting it. And she was so fucking cool. She was like, I got you. We're going to go to Hogwarts. We're going to go and get a butterbeer. We're going to go and, we're just going to sit on a bench and we're going to have, I know a place where there's a really nice breeze. We're just going to ride this out. This ain't my first rodeo. I'm high right now too. She's like, check out this ride. It's called a bench. Yeah. Now, Andrew, I believe we've kept you way too long. Jason said something to me a long time ago, which I love. He goes, when, after he's worked his balls off on something like this movie or whatever, or Will's in the same boat and I read that you're kind of similar. Jay said, I want to aggressively do nothing when this is over, just for a little bit, for a day or a week or whatever. And you recently said your perfect day off would be a lot of lying down and looking out the window. Yes, correct. Which sounds incredible. What, how long can you do that for before you like up and, up and again, up and around again? I can do it for a couple of months. Like I like, Oh God. Yeah, I really can. This time, I've been working for like 11 months straight and it was so schizophrenic like doing the, I did like Sam Altman who's like an emperor and then I did the peasant, the peasant movie where I play the opposite of an emperor, someone who's getting kind of abused by an emperor figure and then doing Roy and, and like, and like doing Roy, doing Roy Horne from like 20 years old to 65 years old. Like we, we do the whole, the whole gamut. So I feel, you know, you get to the point sometimes where you're so, so deeply resentful of the work that you love to do so much and that's, that's kind of, that's kind of where I'm at. So I'm like, And then what is your version of looking out the window? Is it, is it watching dumb TV? Is it reading books? Is it hanging out with friends? I would like to say it's, I would like to say it's reading books but it is more watching dumb TV and literally looking out, I have a lovely window in my, in my house and it's, there's a beautiful tree that I just stare at. Again, it's like this kind of like the most valuable commodity outside of live performance is quiet and time and space and not having our attention snatched by the things that are always snatching our attention. But no, you have friends, I did a trip to Devon, which is a little seaside town in England with my nephews and my brother. I did a trip with friends to Greece. I did a little driving around Italy. Yeah, I mean, like, yeah, tending to that part of the garden, being with my family, it was simple shit. I love that. I think, like, one of the gifts of, like, being raised the way I was is it was made very, very clear to me by osmosis, I think, that there was no way that I could ever allow myself to drink my own Kool-Aid enough to lose myself. Like, that's why I keep my close friends close who will keep me accountable and, like, keep me myself. I love that. I love that, pal. Well, thank you for being here. This is a great episode. I laughed so hard with you. Thank you. I love you guys. I think you guys are so phenomenal. I'm such a huge fan of you guys, and I'm grateful for this podcast and for everything you do. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And everything you guys give to the world. I really, really, truly am, sincerely. Well, likewise. Well, right back at you. Keep it coming, please. Sincerely right back at you. And if you don't, we'll put a gun to your head and we'll say, keep going. Have fun in New York, Andrew Garfield. Pleasure to meet you. Much love to you. Yeah, it's so great. Love to you, pal. Great talking to you, man. See you around, I hope. All right. Yeah, cheers. Bye, pal. Thank you. Bye. Bye, bye, bye. That's, uh, that's, that's, uh, I like that guy a lot. I do, too, man. You know? I do, too. Me, too. A lot, a lot. Yeah, what a easy, breezy conversation. I love it. Do you think he'd ever consider being our friend? Yeah, let's ask him. He would be a good friend. Doesn't he? Could we send him, like, what do you, do you, how do you make friends nowadays? You just, like, send an offer? But we don't want to come on too strong, though. Send an offer. Yeah. You know, what would, you know, like, listen. Who's he repped by? This is just our starting point. Please feel free to counter. Is that how you start it? I just. I'm always amazed that actors like that go from job to job to job to job to job. When do you have time to create the character? Like, and get, and figure it all out. I don't know. Do the research and all that stuff? Or how about, how about this? How about, when do you have the time to, like, not be an actor and hang out and, like, maybe, like, meet some nice guys like us and create new friendships and, you know. Or, wait, you're still lobbying for him to be your friend? Yeah, I mean, Jesus, you know? You know what, Jay? You know what you do? He probably gets so many great opportunities. He can't stop, you know? Yeah. Yeah. You know how you make a new friend. You meet somebody. Jesus. You go really slow. You get to know them. This wrap-up is so short. And you go, you just take it slow and you take it day. Bye. Day time. Daytime. Daytime. Day by time. Oh, you didn't get it. Smart Less is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Rob Armjarv, Bennett Barbico, and Michael Granteri.