Marvel star Andrew Garfield admitted he starved himself of both “sex and food” in order to get ready for his role as a 17th century Jesuit priest in “Silence” in 2016.
During the 39-year-old actor’s appearance on the “WTF with Marc Maron” podcast Monday, the host talked to Garfield about method acting, and the star shared that he had some “trippy experiences” when he went celibate for six months ahead of his part for the film.
“I did a bunch of spiritual practices every day, that I created new rituals, I was celibate for six months and I was fasting a lot,” Garfield shared.
“It was very cool, man,” he added. “I had some pretty wild, trippy experiences from starving myself of sex and food for that period of time.”
Andrew Garfield on working with Ryan Gosling: "There was a zen quality to it, but it was like being in a scene with a wild animal where you don’t know whether he was going to kiss you or kill you."https://t.co/TjY9yulWlY
— Variety (@Variety) August 22, 2022
“The Amazing Spider-Man” star explained that he spent a year studying under “friend and spiritual director” Jesuit writer Father James Martin for the part, Page Six noted.
The superstar actor said Martin helped him understand Catholicism and led him through a series of “spiritual exercises” to prepare for his role in the Martin Scorsese film.
Taking on the role of a character with religious background is not completely unfamiliar to Garfield, who famously played real-life World War II hero American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who was a conscientious objector as a Seventh-day Adventist, in 2016’s “Hacksaw Ridge.”
Doss “served during the Battle of Okinawa,” refuses “to kill people, and becomes the first man in American history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot,” a description on IMDb reads.
At one point, “The Social Network” star defended method acting and the “misconceptions” of it.
“There [have] been a lot of misconceptions about what method acting is, I think,” Andrew explained. “Because people are still acting in that way, and 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.”
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