Andrew Garfield is opening up about his 'method acting process'. Image Source: The Telegraph

Andrew Garfield is opening up about his opinions on method acting..

Andrew Garfield appeared on a recent episode of WTF with Marc Maron to discuss his Emmy nomination for Under the Banner of Heaven and his performance in the 2016 film "Silence" while defending the process of method acting. Speaking about a screen test Andrew Garfield conducted with Ryan Gosling for a prospective adaptation of Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, the topic of method acting came up.

Andrew Garfield defended the style of method acting against misconceptions and revealed how dedicated and committed he was while preparing for his role in Silence, in which he played a Jesuit priest. The movie was an adaptation of Shsaku End’s novel about 17th-century Jesuit priests in Japan and was directed by Martin Scorsese and starred actors including Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, and Ciaran Hinds, along with Andrew.

The 39-year-old actor said during the podcast that he is kind of troubled by the misperception when it comes to method acting and it kind of bothers him that people think that the idea of 'method acting is fucking crap. Andrew added that people are still acting that way, and it's not just to be a jerk to everyone on set but it is simply about acting normally, being pleasant to the crew, and being able to drop it when necessary and stay in it when you want to stay in it while living honestly under hypothetical conditions.

Andrew Garfield added that if someone says that method acting is crap, it's possible that they don't understand what it is or that they have just worked with a method actor who isn't genuinely acting in the method. The actor went on to say that it is really private and he does not want anyone to see the fucking pipes in his toilet or how he makes sausage.

Adam Driver and Andrew Garfield in 'Silence'. Image Source: THR

The actor said during the chat that he studied Catholicism and spent time in New York with Father James Martin, a real-life Jesuit priest, to prepare for his role as a Jesuit priest on film. Father James Martin, according to Andrew Garfield, was his friend and type of spiritual director for a year. He went on to say that he had an amazing spiritual experience while engaging in a few spiritual exercises, making up new rituals for himself, and being celibate for six months. Since he and Adam Driver had to shed a lot of weight regardless, Andrew Garfield remembered fasting frequently.

Recalling the experience, Andrew Garfield described it as being extremely nice and said that there was a lot of prayer and meditation going on. He also said that during that time, he had some fairly bizarre, surreal experiences after depriving himself of food and sex. However, he said that it provides one with some gifts. The Stanislavski style of acting technique was directly based on spiritual exercises. The actor remarked that Stanislavski was able to develop this way of acting by mentally engaging situations to the point where it seems as though you have lived them to the fullest.

The "Social Network" actor, who exclusively revealed to IndieWire during an 2021 that he was practically living in his Manhattan apartment like a monk while practicing for the part and revealed that he ended up starring in Gia Coppola's "Mainstream," a an American comedy-drama film about the antithesis of spirituality in which played a character of a man who is living off the grid. He also mentioned that the monk like lifestyle helped him to "balance out" his "Spider-Man" franchise fame. The actor claimed at the time that people have been indoctrinated into believing that fame, wealth, power, and all of those other things will satisfy them and make them feel whole, and he wanted to investigate that in himself—the things he tried not to be lured by.

Andrew Garfield said he was living a monk-like life in his Manhattan apartment. Image Source: Twitter

Talking about his experience working with Martin Scorsese, Andrew said that he is an American master of cinema, and one would go into the project with everything they had imagined they would go in with, including excitement, trepidation, pinching themselves, and total awareness of how lucky they are to be working with such an incredible cast. Andrew said that Martin is just a fun, funny dude who is aware of a lot about Movies, history, culture, and people and just loves being a person.

After working on back-to-back parts, Andrew Garfield declared in April of this year that he wanted to take a vacation from acting and unwind. At the time, he declared that he was delighted and eager to spend some time simply being, while being very calm and silent. After putting forth a lot of effort, spending a lot of time in public, and devoting a lot of energy to causes he is extremely passionate about, Andrew said that he feels like a break is crucial right now. However, he needs to kind of refill the well so that he can continue in his authentic way without feeling like he must keep up with Joneses in some way. It's alluring to spend your life simply moving on to the next thing, the actor continued. However, he truly takes time, and he is aware that it is a privilege for him to even be able to think about it.