Andrew Garfield recalls ‘starving’ himself of sex and food for movie ‘Silence’
As well as discussing the new limited series, his early acting career and the death of his mother, Garfield spoke about working with Martin Scorsese for “Silence,” a movie about two young Portuguese priests (Garfield and Adam Driver) who undertake a treacherous mission to Japan in the 17th century.
The 39-year-old also opened up about method acting, saying there had been “misconceptions” around the technique.
The Spider-Man star said he studied Catholicism with a Jesuit priest, went on a 31-day spiritual retreat and gave up “sex and food” before filming the movie.
“You end up in a pretty deep space,” Garfield said. “It’s a transformational process.”
“I was celibate for six months … and fasting a lot,” he added. “I had some pretty wild, trippy experiences from starving myself of sex and food for that period of time.”
Garfield said he took inspiration from method acting while researching the role, adding that he was “bothered about the misconception” that exists around the technique.
“It’s not about being an a**hole to everyone on set. It’s actually just about living truthfully under imagined circumstances, and being really nice to the crew simultaneously, and being a normal human being, and being able to drop it when you need to and staying in it when you want to stay in it.”
It encourages actors to use their “physical, mental and emotional self” to create a character while drawing on their own life experiences for the role, the institute adds.
Actors including Marlon Brando, Daniel Day-Lewis and Robert De Niro are known to have used the immersive technique, which can see stars staying in character during a project.
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