Glass talks to Andrew Garfield about his upcoming project, Tick, Tick… Boom! – a film that compel you to look inwards and examine life, love and the ever constant passage of time
WHAT does the sound of a ticking clock mean, with its steady and determined rhythm? It makes you question. How much time have we got? How do we make our time worthwhile? What does love mean? What is more important? Love of self, a true calling or love for another? What does the sound of a ticking clock mean?
Andrew Garfield seems to know the answer to all of the above. And more. The American-British actor is what I would classify a walking encyclopaedia of human experience. A graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, the LA-born, London-based 38-year-old actor seems to push the boundaries of what it means to be human with each project. His Tony Award Angels in America (2017), Academy nomination for Hacksaw Ridge (2016), and BAFTA nomination for The Social Network (2010) are signifiers of his dedication to his craft and honest way of being.
This autumn, he’s featured in two of the most anticipated films of the year – The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Tick, Tick… Boom! Starring opposite Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Garfield plays Jim Bakker, an American televangelist and convicted fraudster. Of course, this isn’t uncharted ground for him. After Hacksaw Ridge, in which he played a pacifist soldier, Garfield has learned a thing or two about spirituality. And spiritual virtuosity. But more on that later.
Directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton fame, Netflix’s musical drama Tick, Tick… Boom! sees Garfield take on the part of Jonathan Larson, the American composer noted for exploring issues like addiction and homophobia. Larsson died suddenly at the age of 35 from a rupture of the body’s main artery, the aorta, on the morning his musical Rent’s first Off-Broadway preview performance in 1996. He received three posthumous Tony Awards and a posthumous Pulitzer for what would turn out to be a sell-out show.
Andrew Garfield. Photograph: Michael Schwartz
As I make my way from the lounge of London’s Mayfair Townhouse to the meeting room where I’m going to dial in with Garfield, I can’t help but think to myself “do we all have an internal ticking clock that we’re unconsciously aware of? And if we do, how do we make our time worthwhile?” These questions pop up, and Garfield is only on his morning coffee.
“What’s it like in London right now? You know, the feeling, the weather, the general demeanour of people?” He asks. At the time of the interview, he was in production in Calgary, Canada.
“It’s still rather eerie here, despite the easing of restrictions,” I reply.
“I don’t know; my relationship with death has changed a lot over the past couple of years,” the actor responds. We’re both gearing up for a light, surface-level conversation.
Andrew Garfield. Photograph: Michael Schwartz
Tick, Tick… Boom! is a film that looks like a lot of fun on the surface. But when you peel it off like an onion, one layer at a time, you weep a little. Here’s what you uncover: loss, love, heartbreak, death, grief. Each viewing takes you on a different tangent of human existence. Jonathan Larson was hyper-aware of his own internal ticking clock. What’s Garfield’s take on Larson’s story?
“Jonathan Larson was a guy who was so alive—turned up to 11 all the time because he had this visceral awareness – like we all hopefully do now – that life is short,” he says. “And how do we make it meaningful for ourselves? How do we follow our bliss? How do we let ourselves love what we love? And love in the way we love? And create in the way we want to create? And how do we encourage ourselves and each other to value the things that matter? How do we discover what those things are? How do we listen to the still, small voice inside of us? How do we make sure we’re adhering to our own destiny – to our own giftedness?
How do we live in community with each other? How do we take care of each other? How do we remember the sanctity of life? That’s what John was about.” This is also what Garfield is about – but he’s too humble to admit to it. At the end of the day, the light you see in others is the light within yourself reflecting itself back.
Andrew Garfield. Photograph: Michael Schwartz
What about that ticking? That proverbial, metaphorical ticking that’s splattered sonically across the entire narrative of Tick, Tick… Boom!? “The ticking just exists in him. And he spends his time trying to figure out what it is. He’s trying to define it rationally, which is impossible,” Garfield explains.
But is the ticking really metaphorical? “I think to a degree, but there’s something deeper that’s happening; meaning he knew unconsciously that he didn’t have a lot of time. It’s a concept that is hard for a lot of people to grasp. Because the idea that our unconscious – a thing inside of us knows everything already – is daunting for people who like to live in control and rationale.”
Andrew Garfield. Photograph: Michael Schwartz
As daunting as it might sound, most people tread through life trying to live in control and rationale. As children, we let life live us. As adults, we live life. And hopefully, one day, we will let life live us again and let go. “There was a line, in the original version that had to be cut after he passed away because it was too on the nose. And it was a line that he said – ‘sometimes I feel like my heart is going to explode’.
“And that’s ultimately how he eventually died. And the awareness of that has a witchy, woo-woo kind of quality. But again, it goes back to the fact that we already know everything. We already have this deep knowing that he was in touch with – he was in touch with that dimension, that spiritual kind of awareness.
Andrew Garfield. Photograph: Michael Schwartz
“At the end of the day: this is a movie about loss. But you can find some positivity in it because you cannot know love unless you know grief. In the same way that you’re not capable of experience something without having experienced the polar opposite. It’s the irony of life. Grief is the price that you pay for love.”
On a roll, Garfield continues: “As soon as you start a new relationship, especially if you start to feel that it could go somewhere, or you feel like there’s a real connection there, or there’s love that’s starting to bloom – with that love, I feel it physically that there’s also heartbreak blooming.
“But a broken heart is a bigger heart. The more we let our hearts break, the bigger they become. And I think if we let it happen over and over and over again, that by the end of our lives we’ll hopefully be on our deathbed – just a heart.”
Andrew Garfield. Photograph: Michael Schwartz
There is some comfort in knowing that once you’ve loved someone, they never leave you. They will always be a part of your being. And you find solace in it when grief swallows you up, he explains. You understand that those people will forever be with you.
“A lot of people, especially in break-ups, have a tendency to want to just cut off the limb. And it’s just not the way it works … I don’t want to dismiss any romantic relationship I’ve had or any love that I’ve had in my life. I find solace in it.
“The love connections we make whether they last forever doesn’t matter … They might just be for a day or they might be for 20 years, but they are the eternal things. And we do have that opportunity every day to have those moments of eternity.”
Andrew Garfield. Photograph: Michael Schwartz
So what does dedication, the theme of this month’s issue, mean to a man whose entire career has depended upon telling other people’s stories? “I love the word ‘dedication’ – it reminds me of sacrifice. And sacrifice means to make something sacred,” he says. “I’m a big fan of dedication in that way— dedication to the thing that we can’t help but be dedicated to. It goes back to that juxtaposition of selfishness and generosity.
“Because for something to be a purpose and a destiny feeling, it can’t just be selfless service. If I’m giving myself to you, I have to also be giving myself to me. We have to feed ourselves by what we’re doing just as much as we’re attempting to feed anyone else.”
And so, Garfield leads by example.
by Adina Ilie
Interview conducted at The Mayfair Townhouse
First published in the Autumn issue of Glass Man
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