Andrew Garfield Reads ‘We Live in Time’ Script Amid ‘Midlife Crisis’
For Andrew Garfieldthe script for We live in time couldn’t have come at a more perfect time in his life.
“When I read [the script]I was thinking deeply about the meaning of life. As always, but maybe more pronounced at that moment,” Garfield, 41, said at a film festival in San Sebastian press conference on Saturday, September 28. “I thought about life, death, love, meaning, time. … at ages 39 and 40, kind of a midlife crisis, looking forward, looking back, looking exactly where I am, and thinking, ‘What’s next?’”
“This script arrived and it was as if I had written it from that place,” he continued. Garfield remembered having to ask himself, “How did I write this so well?” I’m not a writer. ”
Garfield noted that he and were a playwright Nick Payne had similar thoughts: “These things, there must be something going on, something universal in this story.”
We live in time follows the love story of married couple Tobias (Garfield) and Almut (Florence Pugh) who are brought together through a chance encounter and learn how to cherish moments while navigating parenthood and a medical diagnosis.
Garfield explained Saturday that he knew he was considered for the film after reading a scene involving an ambulance, traffic and a gas station bathroom. “It felt like the central action scene, the Indiana Jones action scene of this movie,” he said.
Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh
MovieStillsDBDuring the press conference, Garfield was asked a question that labeled him and Pugh’s characters as heroes. For his part, Garfield noted that he “struggled[s] with that word right now in our culture.”
“Anyone in my life who has experienced something similar to what Tobias and Almut experience would reject the idea of being heroic,” he explained. “People in my family and close friends who have experienced things of the most horrific nature, the kind of things that make you wonder if the universe has any justice in it, those moments when you think, ‘What is the design here and how should should I continue?’ Those who do find a way to carry on would reject the idea of heroism outright. It is a necessity.”
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He continued, “What I love about these two people is that they represent this strange, mysterious, eternal, inexplicable desire to live despite the most horrific heartache and loss. And how we as humans find that strength, that desire, that little flame of desire to live again and again. There are probably people in this room experiencing something not too different from these characters, facing death and choosing to live anyway. I find that remarkable.”
When Garfield first read the script, he explained that he did not consider the film to be a romantic drama. “I thought, ‘This is a great story about death,’” he explained. “It’s really fearless and funny, and it tries to get at some of the mystery of what it means to fall in love, get married and have a child with someone.”
We live in time will be released in US cinemas on October 11.
