Focus Features
Andrew Garfield has played many types of heroes in his career
The saying goes that we’re all the heroes of our own stories. That’s literally the case for actors such as Andrew Garfield, who’s now played all different sorts of heroes over the course of his acclaimed Academy Award-nominated career.
When you parse through his filmography, you realize there’s virtually no type of hero that Andrew Garfield has yet to play, his latest of which being a peasant revolutionary at the heart of the 1381 Peasant Rebellion in England in Paul Greengrass’ The Uprising.
He’s played iconic superheroes like Spider-Man and war heroes such as Desmond Doss — a doting husband in We Live in Time and a Jesuit priest willing to risk his life for his beliefs in Silence.
There’ve also been characters who, at the very least, *believe* they’re the heroes of their own stories, most famously as Eduardo Saverin in the modern classic The Social Network and as billionaire OpenAI founder Sam Altman in the upcoming film Artificial.
Speaking to BroBible’s Post Credit Podcast ahead of the release of The Uprising — releasing in movie theaters in the United States on September 10 — Garfield detailed what goes into portraying various shades of heroism, particularly as it relates to Ploughman in The Uprising, Spider-Man, and Altman.
Playing different types of “heroes” in The Uprising, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Artificial
ERIC ITALIANO, BROBIBLE: You have a fascinating professional relationship with playing a hero. You could play a hero that everybody knows like the back of their hand, in Spider-Man. You’re playing a sort of vaguer hero that nobody’s ever heard of in THE UPRISING. And then you’re playing somebody like Sam Altman, who thinks they’re the hero of their own story but is more likely the villain — again, my words, my words!
How are those different shades of hero? How does that work for you in terms of bringing those to life?
ANDREW GARFIELD: Yeah, it’s a cool question. I hadn’t really thought about that before.
Peter Parker is obviously a reluctant hero, but very known, very famous in that way. And then Ploughman — again, a very reluctant hero. There’s no doubt he would never identify himself in any way as heroic. He’s just doing what his soul requires. He’s being led by his soul.
And then there’s Sam, who I do believe feels like he is the right leader for this moment. I feel like that’s a genuine self-belief. And you hope there’s healthy questioning in there.
The Ploughman is someone who has the humility accessible to him, so he feels like he shouldn’t lead — which makes him a great leader. And then you have Sam, who has chosen the position. Or maybe he actually perceives it as having been thrust upon him as well, I don’t know.
But it’s very interesting to consider the responsibility — to go back to Peter Parker — of the power that is either thrust upon us or that we choose to adopt.
Alongside Garfield — who has earned Best Actor nominations at the Oscars for his performances in Hacksaw Ridge and Tick, Tick… Boom! — The Uprising also stars Jamie Bell, Stephen Dillane, Tom Hollander, Cosmo Jarvis, Thomasin McKenzie, Jonny Lee Miller, Woody Norman and Katherine Waterston.