Twitter Reacts to Andrew Garfield’s Nostalgic Interview on His Past Roles and Rise to Fame

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In a recent article with The Telegraph, actor Andrew Garfield looks back on his career and rise to fame. Garfield discusses how he lived in a rat-infested apartment and what it was like when he scored his first role in a Doritos advertisement, the first time he was paid for acting. In the interview, he discusses different portions of acting and his career and focuses on his most recent project: “Tick, Tick…Boom!” In this Netflix film, Garfield depicts Johnathon Larson, who wrote and composed Rent, a musical known for pushing boundaries, and died before he can see the fruits of his labor. The film, also a musical, follows Larson’s journey and was inspired by Larson’s autobiography meant to be a one-man show.

Garfield also discusses his first major role at 22, where he played an “all American frat boy” in “Lions for Lambs” which he believes landed him the role in the film “Boy A” The interview explores Garfield’s most known roles, from his iconic performance as Spider-man and 2012 and his return in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and joked that the only misgiving he had about returning as Spider-man was being in spandex again. During this time, Garfield was a “2000’s heartthrob” similar to Robert Pattinson, Eddie Redmayne, Jamie Dornan, and Tom Sturridge, but he says that they were more of a “band” than rivals.”

Overall, the lookback of Garfield’s career was not just nostalgic for him, but viewers as well. Towards the end of the interview, however, he is asked if straight actors should play gay people or gay characters. This question comes up in reference to his role in “Angels in America.” In this, he plays a gay man diagnosed with AIDS. Recently, many have been debating if LGBT people or characters should be played by those not in the community, dividing many people. Garfield’s response was that it is “two different conversations getting conflated.” He goes on to explain that in one conversation, people are discussing “equality in opportunity.” He says that he absolutely believes that there should be a fair chance for everyone, no matter what gender, sexual orientation, or race. The other conversation is “empathic imagination” and if “we only allow people to be cast as exactly who they are, it’ll be the death of it.”

https://twitter.com/dcurachel/status/1505879092301910017?s=20&t=fkKY5dfp7D_ErSA9O4LeTw

On Twitter, some were upset with this, as it seems that part of his quote was taken out of context. But, after many were to see context and the entirety of the quote, many agreed with Garfield, especially seeing that he clarified that people should be given an equal chance when auditioning for a role, and how the two conversations should not be confused but fused together. Overall, fans enjoyed looking back on his prior roles, and of course, many commented that they wished for Garfield to be able to play Spiderman once again.

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