WE LIVE IN TIME Star Andrew Garfield Covers ESQUIRE’S October/November Issue

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Andrew Garfield has big ideas about life and death – even a theory about the nature of time. Over an afternoon at one of his favorite New York City haunts, the actor lets us into his world. “The Confessions of Andrew Garfield” by Rachel Dodes is on Esquire.com now and in the new October/November issue, available everywhere by October 8.

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On whether he would reprise his role as Spider-Man: “For sure, I would 100 percent come back if it was the right thing, if it’s additive to the culture, if there’s a great concept or something that hasn’t been done before that’s unique and odd and exciting and that you can sink your teeth into. I love that character, and it brings joy. If part of what I bring is joy, then I’m joyful in return.”

On his intimate scenes with Florence Pugh in We Live in Time: “We had to do the most intimate things I think human beings have to do—you know, [Pugh] had to be on all fours, then on a toilet, naked. And we have to have my face where I have my face, my hands where I have my hands, and the sex scenes have to be incredibly intimate.”

Co-star Florence Pugh on working with Garfield in We Live in Time: “We truly felt held by each other, and I felt like my abilities were respected and given back in his abilities. When we finished the job, we both felt like, What an amazing partnership we have created and what an amazing thing to know that we will do it again.” [Though there are no immediate plans for them to do it again, Pugh says she hopes “with every bone in my body” that it will happen.]

Lin-Manuel Miranda (who directed Garfield in tick, tick…Boom!) on Garfield’s work ethic after seeing him on stage in Angels in America: “If you just said the words, without any acting, [Angels] is an endurance test—basically you’re onstage for eight hours a day, living and dying and living. It takes everything out of you. I remember watching him and kind of clocking whether he had any resemblance to Jonathan Larson, because I just thought, This guy can do anything. I don’t know if he can sing or not, but I know that he’s doing an incredible feat in front of me right now. So I’m pretty sure he can do whatever he feels like.”

Laura Dern (friend and co-star in 99 Homes) on Garfield’s process as actor: “It’s beautiful to watch his process, in that he always knows instinctively what he needs to do. It’s not that he doesn’t weigh options, but he doesn’t make choices based on moves on the chessboard.”

On his brutally honest interview with New York Magazine in 2015 and the ensuing tabloid coverage: “It felt like, ‘Hey, let’s all gather round for this guy’s mental breakdown.’ In reality, I was nowhere near that. I was honestly just asking questions that everyone asks about life and existence and what matters and what doesn’t.”

On wanting to buy a farm: “I’m craving . . . a closeness to the earth and nature and other people, local community.”

On his late mother, Lynne, when she was asked by Jack Black at a pre-Oscar party whether Garfield’s talent was nature or nurture: “She gets up in Jack Black’s face in the middle of dancing and tells him, ‘It was me! It was all me!’ Oh, it was a riot. It was so beautiful.”

[Photo Credit: Mark Seliger/Esquire Magazine]

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