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Andrew Garfield is being praised for showing an “endless amount of empathy” after breaking down in tears reading one man’s moving account of being in love.
The 41-year-old Spiderman star was discussing his new film on The New York Times podcast Modern Love when he became emotional.
Promoting his new movie We Live in Time, which also stars Oppenheimer actor Florence Pugh as his love interest, Garfield read the essay “Learning to Measure Time in Love and Loss” by Chris Huntington.
“My wife hasn’t worn a bikini for six years and probably never will again; she says she’s too old, which makes me sad,” he read.
“‘She is a beautiful woman with grey in her hair. My parents no longer drive at night,’ sorry...”
Garfield, whose mother died of pancreatic cancer in 2019, then choked back emotions and wiped away tears as he apologised to host and journalist Anna Martin, who asked if he wanted to take a break.
“Can I ask you what’s hitting you so much in this section?” Martin asked.
“I don’t know, it’s mysterious,” Garfield explained. “It’s why art is so important because it can get us to places that we can’t get to any other way.
“It’s the preciousness as we’ve been talking about, and it’s the longing for more. It’s like we all pass with so much more to know, with so much more longing.
“[The Graduate director] Mike [Nichols] passed, and he was in the middle of prepping his next movie, and in the middle of his favourite pasta with his favourite person in the world.
“It’s hard to understand why that has to be the set-up. I don’t know, I don’t know why it’s affecting me so deeply.
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“But I feel this man’s writing, and it feels like for all of us, it’s tapping into something so universal, a longing to be here.
“There are moments in our film, when I watched it in Toronto with an audience, where all I saw – it was in the quiet moments – particularly after a diagnosis or something heavy, all I saw was two people that want to live, they’re not asking for much, they just want their fair shot at creating a life.
“I think that’s all of us, I think we all just want a fair shot at creating a life. I’m sad.
“I’m sad at losing anyone, I’m sad at losing anything. I’m sad at the transience of certain relationships in my life, I’m sad at losing my mother of course, I’m sad at the idea of losing my father.
“Of not being there when my nephews are my age or older. I’m sad at the concept of not having children of my own. But the sadness is longing, it’s true longing and there’s no shame in it.”
Garfield admitted he felt the “killer” impulse to chastise himself and say, “Come on now dude, pull yourself together” but said it was important not to “calcify the heart”.
Social media users praised Garfield for his “brave” and “honest” reaction”.
“I love this man and his gigantic heart and seemingly endless amounts of empathy,” wrote one person. “This is why he is an excellent actor.”
