Andrew Garfield ‘starved himself’ of sex and food for role as he defends method acting

Andrew Garfield has admited to “starving himself” of sex and food for a role as he has defended method acting.

The 39-year-old deprived himself of both in preparation for the role of Sebastião Rodrigues in the 2016 film Silence directed by Martin Scorsese, based on a real-life Jesuit priest.

Andrew revealed that he remained celibate for six months as he carried out the role and also fasted during this time.

The actor’s commitment to the film follows that of many actors who prefer the way of method acting to bring to life their onscreen characters, such as Christian Bale and Daniel Day Lewis.

Andrew method acting was for his role in 2016 film Silence (Handout)

While these stars’ notorious extreme acting measures have led to unsettling responses from fans, fellow actor Andrew defended method acting as he spoke on WTF podcast with Mark Maron.

The star said of his 2016 role: “It was very cool, man. I had some pretty wild, trippy experiences from starving myself of sex and food for that period of time.”

Andrew added: “There [have] been a lot of misconceptions about what method acting is, I think.”

The practice of method acting was introduced by Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski in the early 20^th century, and is where the performer looks to fully envelope their mindset, experiences and even accent into that of the character they are playing.

Jared Leto is infamous for going to extreme measures for his acting roles (Getty Images)

Hollywood legends Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando were taught to method act by stellar coaches Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner — three notable pioneers of the approach.

In recent years, the actors who have sworn by method acting have been Succession’s Jeremy Strong, Jared Leto, who was pushed around in a wheelchair for his film Morbius, Hilary Swank and the late Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix for both their roles playing The Joker.

There are those in the industry though, that aren’t fans of method acting, as Julia Roberts made clear speaking to Variety.

The actress said: “I mean, I admire people that do that. It looks exhausting to me and I secretly think: ‘Oh, I wish I could do that. I wish I could be that intense.’ I’m just kidding.”