Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Andrew Garfield

Episode Date: June 3, 2018

Andrew Garfield captured Hollywood’s attention in “The Social Network,” and he became a star when he was cast as a blockbuster superhero in “The Amazing Spider-Man.” In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” the Oscar-nominated actor chats with Willie Geist about his complicated relationship with fame and why he has always felt more comfortable on the stage than as a global movie star. He opens up about his current role in the theater, the demanding lead in the iconic play “Angels in America” on Broadway. The show is nominated for a record-breaking 11 Tony Awards, including one for Garfield, and he talks about that positive response and why he feels the play’s themes are resonating today. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist back here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Thanks so much for clicking. Subscribing this week, my guest is the Oscar-nominated actor Andrew Garfield. We're talking about him because of Tony nominations, not Oscar nominations for the most part. He stars as Pryor Walter, the lead character in the iconic show Angels in America. He's nominated for lead actor for Tony, and the show has 11 nominations breaking a record for a play. It's incredible. It's a two-part show.

It's seven and a half hours. You go for three and a half hours in the morning. You go to have dinner, you come back. It's four more hours after that, or you can split up the days. But it's a show, obviously, that was first on Broadway. 25 years ago was a huge hit. It became an HBO miniseries. And now it's back with Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane, among many others.

It's an incredible piece of work, an incredible show. And Andrew says, despite all he's done from Hacksaw Ridge, where he's nominated for an Oscar to being Spider-Man to breaking through in the social network where he played one of the co-founders of Facebook. This for him is the most important role he's ever played, and I think that comes through as you listen to our conversation. We got together on one of his rare days off, so he was nice. If I were him after doing seven and a half hour show a few days a week, I probably would be napping on my days off. But we sat down, and he wide open about everything. He was great talking about his movie career, about how could he be able to be. He was good.

inflicted he is actually about celebrity and fame and while he's grateful for all the opportunities movie have given him it's changed his life obviously he's at a very public relationship with emma stone that made him even more of a spectacle for paparazzi and things like that so he's sort of a he's a very smart kind of understated guy i think you'll enjoy listening to him he's also got a movie coming out it's called under the silver lake we talk about that a bit he calls it a mix of stand by me the Goonies and a David Lynch film. Above all, he tells me, it's weird. Enjoy this Sunday sit down with Andrew Garfield. Thank you for doing this, Andrew.

Thank you for having me. It's late and I'll love you to talk to you. And this quiet little room we've put together for you, brother in the flowers. We need to keep it humble. We need to keep it, you know, keep ourselves grounded, so I really appreciate this. We went big. I was just asking you, I'm curious, what you do on a day off like this? This, having... I sit in an empty restaurant with you, Willie Geist. This is this is... This is pretty much... Well, that's very sad then. But how do you even get out of that character those days?

Oh, that's a really interesting question. Someone was saying the other day, like a psychologist friend of mine was saying, I imagine it's easier to get into character than it is to get out of. And I think that's true. I think there are certain ways that I've designed or the actors designed. Also, there's a longing, right? The biggest thing is the longing to fully... inhabit this other person, their struggle, their circumstances, their highs, their lows,

their joys, their agonies. But then the question of becoming yourself again is a really, really, I don't know, a really important one. And, you know, there are these, you know, famous stories and myths of, you know, actors losing their minds and, you know, Val Kilmer thinking he became Jim Morrison, which he kind of did for that film. You know, those kinds of things. So there has to be rituals and ways back into yourself. I think Humphrey Bogart used to go sailing. I mean, it's okay for him to like go. I'm just going to go sailing to refine myself.

But apparently that reminded him of, you know, for me it's people. For me, it's like there are a few people that I can, you know, use as anchors back into who I am. I also do a little ritual every night where I'll write a letter. I'll sign out of the character and sign back into my... It's all the woo-woo. You do that every night? I do, yeah, because I really like being myself as well.

Even though I love, like, Pryor Walter, the character I'm playing in Angels in America is one of the greatest characters in theater history, strangely enough, in a modern play, you know, that doesn't really often happen. When we talk about theater history and the classics of theater, we think about Shakespeare or George Bernard Shaw or Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams,

especially for American theater, but the fact that Tony Kushner is still alive and well, and he's written this masterpiece, this modern masterpiece that will be remembered for centuries, I believe. It's kind of wild playing this part. So even though I love being Pryor, and he's maybe the most remarkable person I'll ever play, I like Andrew's all right.

He's a bit more boring, but he's not going through as extreme a circumstance, but... I hope not. No, no, no, no, thank God, you know. But what a privilege it is to get to have a little taste of, you know, attempt to understand the experience that prior water and all the other prior waters of that time in history in the LGBTQ community were going through during the AIDS crisis. What an incredible opportunity and privilege that I get to suspend my very privileged life and attempt to inhabit a crisis. crisis, a life and death crisis, not just within myself, but within a community that I love. So that's, you know, it's hard to sign back into myself because all I want to do is serve this

person. So what was your reaction when you were first offered the role in London, where you played it a year ago? Because you can't walk into this part lightly. You know you're in for a seven and a half hour show and it's emotionally grueling and physically grueling and all those things that it's going to be. And it's such an important play to so many people to carry

that character, as you said. How did you react when the idea was first floated? It was an immediate, yes. And I confess I hadn't read the play at that point. I'd only seen the fantastic HBO series that Mike Nichols directed with Meryl Streep and

Al Pacino and all the other incredible actors. But it was a seminal film. It was a seminal piece of work that I would watch with my closest friends from drama school. We were training to be actors altogether in London. I was, I think, 18 when I saw it. And we would just watch it on repeat in our house.

We had a few things that we would watch on repeat. That labyrinth, the dark crystal. Like, you know, kind of, you know, ridiculous kind of college, you know, stoner films. Oh, yeah. I know them all. Yeah, right. And then Angels in America. Because it was really this seminal piece.

and not just the writing, but the acting, the directing, the cinematography. It was this, for an acting student, it was like, oh, this is what's possible. So I had a body memory of that when Marianne Elliott and Tony had asked me to play prior. I immediately said yes, and then I very quickly said, let me just read it, and then I'll say a definite yes. So I got a bunch of friends together, and we read it over the course of a day. Wow, and that was the first time you'd read through it. Yeah, yeah, since ever. And I kind of looked at them all, I was like, how the hell has anyone ever done this ever?

Like, I understand that maybe doing it on screen is a little simpler, but doing this every night. And we still feel that. The whole company on a two-show day, because sometimes we do both shows in one day on Wednesdays and Saturdays, every time those days come along, we all, like a few of us warm up on stage together, and we all have that same look. We all like, oh, my God. It's like we open our front door, and Everest is there. like snowstorms and, you know, like wildebeests waiting on certain crags and, like, you know, monsters. It's, it's...

And you've got to go climb it again. Yeah, every Wednesday and Saturday we have to climb Everest, and we always do it. That's the craziest part, is that somehow Tony has created this thing which is impossible and possible. And by design, it's... you're being human as an actor, your being human as a human, is interwoven into the impossibility, if you know what I mean. It's never possible to have a perfect show.

You have a great show, a terrible show, and an average show all in the course of one show because it's seven and a half hours. And there's something really beautiful about that because I think a lot of actors, myself included, have a kind of perfectionism and we want to hit every single emotional beat just perfectly, like the perfect golf swing or whatever.

And by design, you can't do that with a show like this. It's not possible. So there's something very liberating about that. But anyway, I read the play, and of course it was one of the... It is one of the greatest plays I've ever read, and I believe it has ever been written. And it was a very, very easy thing to say yes,

because I love being challenged. I love the feeling of an impossible task. So that was very appealing to me. Is it different playing it here in New York City on Broadway than it was playing it in London? This is where the setting is. You're in New York. It's obviously 30 years later.

But does it feel like a different show here in New York than it did in London? Definitely, yeah. We had an amazing time in London. And I didn't think that we would have such a great time there. To be honest, because it is such a New York play. It is such an American play,

and it's an American play of this moment, and of that moment, of course, back in the mid-80s. But we had a beautiful response in London, and then we came here, and it was just like about 15, 20% even more beautiful somehow. And I think the simplest way of explaining that,

see, you guys just know all the references. Like, you know who the Koch brothers are. You know, you know, You know, there are certain jokes that didn't get any laughs in London, and there are certain jokes that get, like, huge laughs here. Like, I think Denise Goff's character Harper-Pitt at one point says, nothing good ever happens in Washington. Like, it gets, like, a huge, like, response in the United States,

whereas in London, it didn't really. So it's that kind of thing. And also, here in the city, you know, one of the most moving things is that we have people in the audience. who lived through the crisis in the city. And not only that, but saw the first production that George C. Wolf directed here with Stephen Spinella. And they've seen countless other productions of the play.

And the play means so much to them. It's like a new, a new testament of the Bible in some way. And it really is. The theology in the play is really, really interesting. And full of hope and light and inclusion. and the lines that prior gets to say at the end are a, I don't know, like it does feel like a new chapter in some spiritual text, a very hopeful and inclusive one, as it should be,

as Jesus probably would have really, really loved, not the bastardized version that we get a lot of the time here. So, yeah, it's been very, very special to have these, you know, know, grown men now who are looking back on a very traumatic time and are feeling, for the most part, incredibly grateful to be here, to be able to witness this play being delivered to a new generation of people, of LGBTQ people, but of people generally. And I think it is a play for everyone, even though it is absolutely predominantly for the LGBTQ community, it does feel like a very universal story. And I think that's the beauty of Tony's writing, he's that he's, he's, he's,

He's made this, the character that I play, this ex-drag queen, this universal hero. You know, that's a remarkable thing. It's interesting. You could ask people what this play is about, and they usually start by telling you the backdrop, which is 1980s, New York, and the AIDS epidemic. But to you, what is this play about? And why does it still ring true today? because I think one of the great tributes I could pay you

and obviously Tony is that it doesn't feel like a dated show. You sit there and you go, yeah, this still means something. Yeah, it's a big question. Because I think what we were talking a little bit before, it's this play has everything, it has the whole human experience in it. And I think it's very hard to sum up what it is about. It's about politics. And you know, in terms of where we are now,

and everything that we're seeing and experiencing and living through in politics in this country and all around the Western world is a sickness, a lack of ethics, a lack of decency that kind of defined that McCarthy era, that kind of defined the Reagan era in terms of how the Reagan administration was treating homosexuals and this.

I don't think Reagan used the term AIDS, until I don't know how many years into the crisis, but it was a shameful amount of time into the crisis. And I think what we're experiencing now, obviously in our political life, is this seeming lack of basic human decency and truth-telling. And there's an ethical sickness.

I think if anyone denies that, they've drunk the Kool-Aid. So that's just one thing. On top of that, this puritanical religious indoctrination that has, I feel in certain ways, and I think that the play is speaking to it, poison the water in terms of inclusion of underrepresented, maligned, ostracized groups

in our culture, in our society. I had a very close friend come in see the show on Saturday. His name is Father James Martin. He's a Jesuit priest. And he's my spiritual director, but he's also written this incredible book called Building a Bridge,

which is about making reparations between the Catholic Church and the LGBTQ community. It was very moving, having him in the audience because I was very concerned at first because I have this, at the end of the play, I won't give it away, but I have a big,

I get to say, screw you to God, or this idea of God. this idea of the Puritanical Christian God that I prior have internalized as an abandoning, kind of careless, homophobic father. This is the idea of God that I think the majority of the LGBTQ community have been indoctrinated with,

especially when you have the vice president of the country right now who I don't think it's alleged, I think it's proven that he was absolutely for conversion therapy and, you know, those kinds of things. How can a community have a sense of itself while, and a sense of its own belonging on this planet when the culture is constantly telling them that they are not welcome? And then during the crisis, of course, there was this false narrative that this was somehow some kind of punishment. Right.

That the AIDS crisis was a punishment for the gay community. What nastiness created that? That's not God speaking through these people. That's maybe the other guy. So there was something very beautiful about having Father Jim in the audience because what I realized is that prior, my character, he rejects an old idea of golden, an old story that has poisoned the water for so long. And he decides to create a new story for himself

and for his community, which, you know, I realized as I was doing it, oh, that's what God actually, you know, it's love. It's so simple. It's love, it's acceptance, acceptance of the whole garden, the diversity of the garden, how two men love, how a man and a woman loves, how a woman and a woman, how a, you know,

there's so much mystery to celebrate. And I get to say you are all fabulous creatures, all of us, everyone in this room, no matter what your beliefs, no matter what your sex, no matter what your orientation. It's a message of inclusion and I think, you know, from a community that experience such a lack of inclusion, it's a beautiful healing journey that this play takes an audience on and that these characters go through. So it's a very long-winded answer to a big question that's kind of, you know, hard to answer. And it sort of takes the judgment away from God because I think there's a perception that God loves you unless you're a sodomite or whatever the term they want to use. And to me, what the play takes out is that element of God, that he's not judging you based on who you love or what you believe. Yeah, I mean, I mean, this is a huge conversation, obviously.

But this idea that any human being, any creature, as they were created, is somehow wrong. I mean, that's dicey circumstances. I mean, we can get into, you know, that there's obviously, that human behavior is a really tricky thing. Human behaves terribly. Human beings behave terribly a lot of the time. We have an example of that, I believe, in the leader of our country right now. There's, there's, and I think that that being normalized and that, that terrible behavior being accepted in that respect is, is sickening. But I think in terms of how we are created, how we are created to love, how we are created to express love and the diversity of that, I don't.

The idea that that would be deemed wrong in any way, shape, or form, unless you're harming another, I think, is a fallacy. I think it's something that we need to really deeply look at. I think we need some drinks to go into this. We're going to go deep theology. No, I know. It's a lot for, you know, whatever morning we're on. Well, it's a Sunday morning, so I think it might be okay.

Okay. So 11 Tony nominations for the play. 11 Tony nominations, incredible reviews across the board. They had to extend the play a couple of weeks to accommodate the crowds that want to come see it. I have to imagine a Tony nomination and the response you've gotten has to be incredibly gratifying

given what you all have put into the show. Yes. Definitely. You know, I think as artists, we try to not care about those kinds of things. We just all... We all try to be as pure as possible and we go, well, we get to do this. We get to offer it up and if people like it, people like it. If they don't, they don't.

But it's hard to avoid enjoying when something is received so warmly. And it doesn't get warmer than this. And I think it doesn't often happen this way. And yeah, and we broke a record with the Tony nominations. It was the most Tony nominated play in Broadway history. That's really hard to comprehend and very hard to kind of integrate as a thing to celebrate. But it is a very exciting thing to be a part of. And I think when you're in it, for me anyway, all I can see is the problems.

All I can see is where we're falling short or where we need to speed up a moment or where we didn't go as deeply emotionally as we could have, where a laugh was slightly less than it should have been. And so it's very interesting when you're, because it's a hit, I suppose. You know, it is one of those hits, one of those things that I've heard of. A hit. But when you're in it, all you can, all I can see is the stuff that doesn't, that we need to keep working on. I think, I don't know who, I think it may have been Barbara Streisand, who famously would give notes every,

I can't remember what show she was doing, but she would give notes every night to the company. And insofar as on their last performance, she gave. notes to the company. It's like, we're... On closing night. We're not doing that again, Barbara. So, like, but I feel like, I understand that. There's something about...

I think the play, there's something about, you know, if we were doing something lighter and a little bit easier, I don't think there would be this kind of intensity around it in terms of us as performers. But I think because the play is so demanding and so rich, and we know the effect it has on people, that we go, well, we need to make sure that we're honoring it, and what a beautiful thing that we get to do.

And, you know, right now, again, politically, as actors, you know, it's very hard to just go, oh, I just want to go and act right now. It's like, it's a very, it's a, I think the majority of conscious people are going, what can I do to change the world that we are in right now that is incredibly dark, and it's falling apart in so many ways, you know, the amount of school shootings that have had, happened in the last two weeks, you know, the recent story that Chris Hayes did on immigration and the separating of mothers and children, it's, you know, as to very big examples of, of, you know,

amidst multiple other examples of how we are losing our center, I think any citizen of the world right now is going, what can I do? What can I do? What can I do? And, you know, telling a story and putting on a play, even though it's absolutely the right play to be putting on, it's not going to change the world, but it's something. It feels like direct action, you know, this is what Tony always says. It's like, you know, if this play can inspire others to go and do direct action in their communities with their representatives, then we're doing our, we're doing our job, And I think as an actor, I couldn't hope to be telling any better story for the time we are in. It does feel like we are on a march every night.

We are on some political march on that stage every night. And everyone in the audience is on the march as well. So it feels, it doesn't feel like enough. Definitely doesn't feel like enough. But it feels like something. That's what you can do. Right now, yeah. Yeah.

Just listen to you talk about acting, particularly acting on stage and in this play. Am I right to assume that you get more gratification for from being in a play that has an impact like this and that is so well received, even than being in some big blockbuster movie? Well, no offense to movies and filmmaking. I love movies were my first love when I was a kid and they changed my life.

I think as an actor, it's harder to feel that impact when you make a film. There's a lot more separation between you and an audience. That's the simplest way I can put it. there's a screen between you, there's like a piece of glass, or there's, you are projected, so therefore there's lots of projection that happens onto you. So there's a real separation in a strange way

between the story in the audience, that's my experience, or the actor in the audience anyway. And the interactions that I usually have with people who have seen a film that I've done are very, very different to the ones that I have with people after the play. Because whenever I've done theatre, it's, I feel much more personally involved in people's lives.

I feel much more on a level playing field. I feel like I'm a neighbor rather than something that's been elevated and made large. I much prefer being a neighbor. I find that much more comfortable. And I feel like I'm having much more of an actual impact on other people's lives rather than, you know, that separation of being on the big screen.

It's a weird thing. I do love movies, though. I love movies, I love making films, and I've been lucky enough to make films that I feel are medicine in certain ways. But I will say, theater is my home. It is, and it always has been. It was the first place I discovered acting, and it will always be my home. I think whether I like it or not, it's where I belong, where I feel most of use.

You've said you're not comfortable with the word celebrity, and perhaps not with being a celebrity. How do you reconcile the fact that you're famous, everybody knows your face and your name, with the opportunities it gives you, like to be hired for Angels in America? Well, I mean, I think celebrity has become a dirty word. I think it's been co-opted by people who are exploiting it for, for, for, financial gain for, you know, commercial gain and in order to wield power over a mass of people that will give them money. I, that's obviously, you know, that's not, I, I can very easily say that's nothing to do with me, and I can have ideas about it, and I can have some judgments

about that, and I can see the effect it has on young people, and I can go, that, I can see that's not healthy. This isn't healthy. This isn't good for anybody. No one's getting served. You're going to be the richest man in the graveyard or woman in the graveyard. And you're not going to live your life because you're wasting it, looking up to people that don't deserve being looked up to. So I have a pretty strong opinion about that breed of celebrity. I don't want to, I'm not going to name names, but you know, you know, what I'm talking about. And then hopefully, you know, I made some spy. Spider-Man films.

I heard, yes. And now there are people who have never been to the theater who are coming to see a seven and a half hour play as their first play, possibly because they saw me in a Spider-Man film. I mean, that makes me so happy. And it means that that was a worthy enterprise. And yes, doing those films, even though they were actually real passion projects for me, they did create an opportunity for

for me to be very discerning about the stories I wanted to put into the universe from then on, even before that, and even during that, you know, but the thing with a superhero film is that you get to, they are modern myths, they are, they are, when I was doing those Spider-Man films, I felt this opportunity to speak to millions of young people and give them a myth, give them a myth about their lives. And that was an incredible opportunity that I got to do that, about being ordinary, about being extraordinary, about being extraordinary simultaneously,

and how do you balance between those things? How do you know your worth? And how do you know that you are part of something much greater than yourself? And how do you dance through adolescence? That's a, those are, you know, with the framework for me is always come from story. So to give, to have the opportunity to give that,

to a young generation of people was a real amazing thing. So, yeah, so no, hopefully, I'm fine being known for things like Angels in America. I'm fine being known for the work that I'm proud of. But for me, it's,

it has to be authentic. It can't just be a one-sided thing. It can't just be what I see so much in celebrity culture is, look how pretty I am. look how successful I am, look how many friends I have, look at how perfect my life is, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me, please look at me,

and tell me I'm enough so that you can feel not enough. That's the kind of dynamic that I see. It doesn't lift people up as much as keep a distance. And I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in everyone becoming who they are. And I think for me, that's through story, through story and art and music, and that's where I feel close, and nature.

That's where I feel closest to who I am. So I'm fine with being known for being an actor and being a storyteller. That's great for me. I'm very, very happy with that. But I guess on some level, you don't get to decide, right? If there are fans out on the street in New York when you walk out of this room who loved you in Spider-Man,

they're going to run up and want to take a selfie with you, and they may not even know you're in Angels in America. Do you remember when your life changed in that way? Was it social network or was it Spider-Man when you said, oh, this is an entirely different life I've stepped into? It was Spider-Man. Like with the social network, it was still people saying really calmly, hey man, love that movie, you were great.

Thanks, great. What's your name? You know, there wasn't that separation. The Spider-Man thing created the separation, which was alarming. And yeah, I have it every day. I have at least one experience of that every day. And on a good day, if someone asked me for a picture, I'll offer them a hug.

And it's amazing how little people want to hug me. They don't want a hug. They just want proof that we met. Right. Put it on Instagram. Yeah, but then I'll force them to hug me. They'll be like sweating and shaking. And they'll have no interest in being touched by me.

Do they get the picture and the hug or just the hug? How does it work? They just get the hug. The hug is enough. Like, I'm a good hugger and like I have a lot of love to give. And I, and I, and I, and it is my way of going, well, first of all, it's like, I don't, I don't, I don't, it's amazing. I don't have any pictures on my phone. I don't take pictures of things anymore.

And I think it's a response to, you know, cameras, like how many cameras are wrong with right now? You know, but it's like we're in a, we're in a, we're in a narcissistic age and it's a little, it's a little, I just want to balance, I just trying to balance. that out as much as possible. But no, it's a sweet thing, you know, like with young people coming up and talking about Spider-Man, I love that. But, yeah, no, I don't, you're right, I don't get a choice.

I chose to do those films, and I'm so glad I did, because I love that character so much. But did you see, did you see the thing that happened recently with the immigrant in France? Le Spider-Man. Le Spidee, yes. Le Spudor, Hom.

Yes. But how, I mean, like, it turns out Spider-Man is an immigrant from where was he from? Mali. From Mali, yeah. Was that incredible? I mean, but that is the point of Spider-Man is that you can't see any skin color. He's, I think he's one of the only superheroes that's covered head-to-toe, so it could be anyone under that suit. And it turns out it was, you know, an immigrant from Mali that, I mean, you know.

It was unbelievable. There we are. There we are. So if Spider-Man can be related to acts of altruism. and self-sacrifice and heroism. And it's, you know, I mean, busting the myth of the, of, that people are being sold right now, of the dangerous immigrant, you know, that's beautiful.

So he's the real Spider-Man? It's fair to say? Turns out. Yeah, I guess so. What do your parents think as they watch others? Your father, you've talked about a cinephile, American-born. Can he believe what his son has become? I don't think so.

I don't think so. But I think it's, again, it's like it's inside, it's like the inside job thing. It's like it's the same way that we feel within our play. We can't feel the success. We can't acknowledge it. We don't know how to. I think it's the same thing within my family and within my friends. We, you know, it doesn't add up.

Like we can't, thank God, because otherwise they start acting weird towards me. Right. Like they'd ask me for selfies. And you'd give them a hug. And I'd give them a hug and then reject it, which they do anyway. No, like, no, I mean, I have a very good relationship with my parents and my family. And I have a core tribe of people in my life that... And thankfully, you know, it's all about the work.

It's all about, you know, squeezing every last ounce of juice out of this life. and yeah we'll celebrate some things but we'll very very quickly move on to what's next that was always my thing as a kid as well it was like what's next what's next what's next what's next when we go to Disneyland when we go to Disneyland it's like I was never satisfied with anything and they know that about me

but I think my as my father's getting older I think as he's slowing down as he's surveying the horizon a little bit more from that you know, elder standpoint where he was a very ambitious man all through his life. And he was just so driven and it's in me. And now I'm noticing as he sits back in his chair and really kind of absorbs what's

happening, I can feel he just cries more often. And he, you know, joyfully. And he looks back on things in a very kind of romantic, reflective way and he can see things clearer now so I think he's much more able to celebrate things so I think he's uh I think he can see he can see what's happening with me clearer than I can so I I like entering his perspective occasionally I can tell you they do get more emotional as they get older there's no question about it and it's kind of beautiful I love because you didn't know I didn't know you felt that way until now right when you when you when you when you when I guess I mean it's related to the play and what prior goes through when you know that it's all finite, when you know that it's not, um, that it's not always going to be here, that we're not always going to be here in this incarnate state, God knows where we go, God knows what happens. But I think as soon as that awareness

starts to seep into our consciousness, I can say, I think that's what's happening with my father. And if you're lucky with, with, with everyone, as they get older, they, they, as they accept death as they accept that they're not going to remain forever, then I guess, gratitude and appreciation and a kind of a tenderness, a kind of this more open, porous attitude towards every moment, every breath and seeing the miracle of life in a much more vivid shape, I think that's beautiful. And Prya obviously goes through that as a 30-year-old man and so many others. went through that around, you know, around that time in that community. How do you incorporate that?

That's the amazing thing about these men, is that how on earth do you incorporate death so young, happening to so many, within hours of each other? How do you begin to comprehend a universe that will allow that? That's the beauty of this community, and how they turn to you? into how they turned it into something healing and beautiful and communal.

My favorite piece of art is the AIDS Memorial quilt. That Cleave, I think it was Cleave Jones that he kind of started and created. I find that ceaselessly moving because it's got everything in it, that quilt. It's the best of us, you know, and seeing it spread in Washington in front of the Washington monument. You know, that's the best of humanity to me. How we grieve, how we appreciate life, how we remember each other, how we create art and beauty out of loss, that's the best of us. And seeing it spread over that place that's now inhabited by eye, I'm not going to go into it,

but it's the best of us. Beautifully said. Are you comfortable being... I imagine it's a responsibility, I don't want, Burden's not the right word, responsibility of carrying the torch for a new generation of gay men and women who say, he's playing the lead role in this play that is iconic to us

and that says a lot about who we are and where we come from. What does that feel like to you? Well, I, I, I, I can't, that's a really hard question to answer because, On the one hand, yes, I feel that responsibility and I'm happy to hold it, even though I feel the weight of it. It's not a light thing to me. It's the most important thing about doing this play is honoring the LGBTQ community and honoring more specifically the men and women who went through the crisis and who had to fight for their lives. who had to fight for their right of belonging on this earth.

That is a heavy burden and one that I'm very, very grateful for. And I get to try to honor their memory, honor the memories of those that didn't survive the plague every night. I get to attempt to do that every night, and I have friends who obviously live through that time, gay men who lived through that time, some who are living with HIV now, some who and the majority of whom lost countless people that they and they stopped counting after a

certain point and i you know i'll receive i i received you know i had a friend that came in for the two show day on wednesday and he said just so you know i may not have the the strength to come back afterwards i may not have the strength to sit through the whole thing and i and of course i said oh my goodness whatever you can whatever you can handle you don't got to come to any of it just know i'm doing this and it's and I'm doing it for you. I'm doing it for those that you lost. And he said, well, I'm going to be bringing in a bunch of,

there's lots of ghosts in this city for me. And they will probably all be coming into the theatre with me. And I said, bring them, bring them, bring them, bring them. Because that's what we're doing. We're healing. That's what we get to do. We get to do some healing, I believe, not just for those that are here with us incarnate,

but for the souls that passed. And I really, really do believe that. That's what a big part of this play is. It's about remembering and about letting them know that we love them and that they are remembered and that they didn't die for nothing. And, you know, it's a beautiful, beautiful responsibility. It's, and this particular person did come backstage

and he managed to sit through the whole thing. And it was, um, it was, um, It was just, I could feel he was surrounded by his friends and it was stunning, stunning. We get to do that every night. We get to, we get to, we get to, we get to do a church service every night. And it just so, it just happens to be a gay fantasia of a church service on national themes. It's, it's the privilege of my artistic life, maybe just my life generally, that I, that this gets to be my calling. And so yeah, I feel very grateful for it.

And all I can do is give my whole self to it. And that has to be enough. I can see how much it means to you to play this part. If you're remembered for this role, will you be happy with that? Sure. Spider-Man will always be there. If people want to selfie because of Angels in America, we'll do it. But I think more likely they'll want a hug.

So yeah, it works out for everyone. Well, before I let you go, because this is your day off and I've monopolized your time, I want to ask you about Under the Silver Lake. Oh, sure, yeah. I love a film that you've described as Stand By Me Me Meets Goonies, meets David Lynch. I've seen clips of it, and I sort of get what you mean.

How do you describe the movie? It's weird. It's a weird film, and it's so unique. It's David Robert Mitchell, who's made a couple of films before, young filmmaker. Myth of the American Sleepover, and it follows, which is a big hit. And he's just this realuteur, he's this very creative, uncompromising of his vision, you know, unique, surreal filmmaker. And he's made a film about an imagined subculture of Los Angeles in Silver Lake

and a kind of a mystery, a mystery thriller, a little bit long goodbye, a little bit, bit after hours, you know, that kind of sexy, noir, dark kind of travel through the underbelly of Los Angeles. And it's just, it's a very weird film. It's a very cool, very surprising, totally creatively unique and wild ride through this imagined underbelly of Silver Lake. And it's a really fantastic cast and it's visually, very strong. striking and studying, the music's amazing, and it

it gnaws on your unconscious for days after you finished watching. And I love it. I think it's a really, really fun and kind of wild ride, yeah. I can't wait to see it. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks so much for time, Andrew. I appreciate it. That was awesome. My thanks to Andrew Garfield for a great, great conversation. Angels in America currently running on Broadway. Thanks to all of you for checking out this week's podcast. And for listening to Sunday sit down every week to hear more of our full-length conversations with all my guests. Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every Sunday on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We will see you next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.