Andrew Garfield has revealed that he felt pressure to have children by the age of 40.
The Spider-Man and Tick, Tick… Boom! actor, 39, said that he “always thought” he would be the first of his friends to have kids and settle down.
“All my high school friends, we’re all celebrating [turning 40] together,” he told GQ of his impending 40th birthday next August.
“But it’s interesting – I always thought I would be the first to have kids and settle down, and they’re all shacked up and a couple of kids deep, for the most part. And I’m like…”
He added that releasing himself from the “societal obligation of procreating by the time I’m 40” has been “an interesting thing to do with myself”.
“It’s more about accepting a different path than what was kind of expected of me from birth,” Garfield continued.
“Like, ‘By this time you will have done this, and you will have at least one child’ – that kind of thing. I think I have some guilt around that. And obviously it’s easier for me as a man…”
When asked whether he’d want to be like actor Anthony Quinn and have children in his seventies, Garfield said: “I’d rather not.”
“Life seems to be a perpetual practice of letting s*** go,” Garfield continued.
“Letting go of an idea of how a thing should look, or be, or feel. And that one’s a big one [to let go of], because of course I would’ve loved my mum to have met my kids, if I’m going to have kids. And she will. In spirit. She’ll be there for it. I know she’s there, for all the big ones.
“But, yeah. Life, life, life. Life is in charge. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens. I’m curious.”
Garfield’s mother, Lynn Garfield, died of pancreatic cancer in 2019.
Earlier this year, Garfield told Jackie Long on Channel 4 that losing his mother felt “lonely and precise”.
He continued: “It feels just like a precise agony and for a period of time I didn’t want to, and I wasn’t able to, do anything. I was kind of wasted and the world didn’t make sense, and it still doesn’t, because I miss her greatly, and I hope it never makes sense because I always want to miss her.”
