Andrew Garfield’s favourite thing about being an actor
Andrew Garfield has gotten into an enviable position in his acting career. Not only has he played Spider-Man in three different films, but Martin Scorsese has also directed him in Silence, and Mel Gibson cast him in Hacksaw Ridge. For the latter performance, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
Garfield recently took part in the Hollywood Reporter’s ‘Actor’s Roundtable’ with the likes of Joseph Gordon Levitt, Dev Patel and Casey Affleck, in which he details the privileges of the acting profession. “My favourite thing about being an actor… God, I feel privileged to be such a fool for a living,” Garfield said. “You know, just to be a clown for a living. I like knowing everything that I can. I love the fact that I get to train for a year as a Jesuit priest and then train to be a carpenter and learn how to make a rocking chair and frame a house.”
He added, “I just want to know everything about everything, and that’s not possible, and it won’t be possible, but it’s that thing of knowing that I’m never going to be able to quit. I’m not ever going to reach it.”
Garfield then recalled a recurring dream that Neil Young once said he kept experiencing, in which he dreamt of the perfect melody. However, every time he woke up, he forgot it. “That’s kind of what it is for me,” Garfield said. “And sitting with these actors, there’s someone I aspire to always. There’s always somewhere further to go.”
It was at this point that Joseph Gordon Levitt chimed in agreement with Garfield. He said, “I would echo what he said; you get to sort of be different people, and that, I think, is inspiring because it shows you that you don’t have to be anybody. You can be whoever you want to be, and that life itself is sort of a creative process, and I really like that idea. It feels empowering.”
However, Gordon Levitt also acknowledged the downside to acting and the fact that so few actors in today’s society get to enjoy anything remotely resembling a private life. Gordon Levitt said, “There’s sort of been in the last 100 years or so, since the heyday of Hollywood, there’s been kind of a merging of actors and royalty into celebrity.”
He added, “On the one hand, it’s tough to complain because it’s a really privileged life I get to lead, but the whole celebrity thing is unhealthy, and I feel bad being a part of it and feeling like I’m perpetuating it.”
