Andrew Garfield is starring in Netflix adaptation Frankenstein, directed by Guillermo del Toro
(Picture: Reuters)With his cheeky grin and boyish but bouffant quiff, it is hard to imagine Andrew Garfield as a monster, and yet this is exactly what he has been cast as in Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming Frankenstein movie for Netflix, based on the 1818 gothic novel by Mary Shelley.
Along with last year’s announcement that he was to play Richard Branson in six-part series Hot Air, the Frankenstein casting marks something of a return to the spotlight for Garfield, 39, who is best known for having immortalised Spider-Man in three films. However, he was replaced by Tom Holland after disappointing box office takings and lukewarm reviews from critics.
But in between bouts of Spandex-wearing – he reprised the role in 2021 alongside Holland in Spider-Man: No Way Home – Garfield has kept a relatively low profile, which in Hollywood terms means not cranking out four big screen blockbusters a year and doing endless publicity junkets.
Aside from his Oscar nomination and Golden Globe win for his role in musical biopic Tick, Tick … Boom! in which he played Rent playwright Jonathan Larson, Garfield has chosen to focus on smaller projects including stage productions.
It’s in keeping with what might be described as his private persona. He once said “that’s all I really want, to keep losing myself”. Garfield doesn’t live in Tinseltown, instead home is New York and he refuses to get involved with social media.
In March 2022 he told the New York Times: “If I wanted to have the life of privacy and protection and freedom and wholeness, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to be exposed to all of the faceless, voiceless, nameless people on social media”. His lack of online presence does not stop his digital popularity: he has more than nine million followers on Instagram.
As far as A-list actors go he is understated. He was born in Los Angeles and moved to the UK at three, where his mother was from. His seems like a blueprint for middle-class childhood: raised in Surrey, he went to private school, did extracurricular swimming and gymnastics and started acting as part of his A-level studies. He initially wanted to work in business and his first job was in Starbucks.
But then he got into the Central School of Speech and Drama and, promptly after graduating in 2005, got a job on teen-favourite TV show Sugar Rush. He has worked steadily since – always choosing roles that challenge him and once said: “I hope I’m always struggling, really. You develop when you’re struggling.”
His first major role was in The Social Network, about the dawn of Facebook, and played Mark Zuckerberg’s business partner, Eduardo Saverin.
In 2021 after meeting on the set of The Amazing Spider-Man, he began a four-year relationship with actress Emma Stone. Although they broke up in 2015, Garfield has since said that there is “so much love between us and so much respect. I’m her biggest fan as an artist”.
He is now said to be dating Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor, 27, (who is also the daughter of Sally Dynevor MBE who plays Sally Webster in Coronation Street) following “an immediate attraction” at last November’s GQ awards.
However, he recently he hit the headlines for engaging in some overt flirting on the red carpet with journalist Amelia Dimoldenberg on two separate occasions. In once exchange Garfield cheekily accused Dimoldenberg of calling everyone “special” while Dimoldenberg claimed his image was the wallpaper on her phone.
Quite what she’ll – and we – will make of him as the world’s most famous monster remains to be seen but one thing’s for sure: Garfield’s stock is rising.
