Andrew Garfield says movies that explore grief like 'We Live in Time' give people a chance 'to be together in our sorrow'
"It hurts to attach because of the inevitability of the loss that comes with it, but it's the only way to live a life of vitality and fullness and meaning," Garfield told Yahoo Entertainment.
The love story at the center of We Live in Time is unconventional — not only is it told out of order, but it also begins when Almut (Florence Pugh) runs over Tobias (Andrew Garfield) with her car.
It’s also breathtakingly sad. Almut is diagnosed with cancer within minutes of the film’s start, and even as it showcases happier moments in her life and her deepening relationship with Tobias, the reality that she is running out of time hangs heavily over each scene.
But Almut isn’t just a wife or a dying woman. Pugh told Yahoo Entertainment that her character is “constantly wrestling” with the balance of pursuing her career as a competitive chef while also parenting a child.
“Many women in this day and age have to juggle that, and how tricky that is, but it doesn’t mean that to do one is giving up on another,” she said. “She’s still wanting to achieve all these things, and she’s now wanting to achieve them for her daughter.”
Pugh added that finding a balance between ambition and parenthood is something she’s “having conversations with myself about at this point” in her life, and she’s watching friends and siblings consider that as well. She said she’s “honored” to be able to portray that onscreen.
When Almut’s prognosis becomes more dire, she begins to prioritize her career even more as she considers how she wants to be remembered as more than a mother or a wife.
“I can’t bear the thought of being forgotten,” Almut says tearfully in the film. As she fights to establish her legacy, Tobias struggles to support her and contend with his own pain. They’re both grieving in different ways.
Garfield knows that the movie is sad, but that sadness is not for nothing. He told Yahoo Entertainment that tear-jerking movies present “an opportunity for us to commune — to be together in our sorrow and in our longings.”
Telling sad stories is a “healing art” that “connects us,” he said.
“It reminds us that we are all part of the same tribe, we all go through the same experiences, and that you are the other me and that I am the other you,” he continued. “And until we remember that, we will feel isolated, lonely, like most people do feel in this culture.”
Garfield spoke with audience members after the premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and they told him what parts of the movie caught their attention and how it made them feel.
“Friends of mine ... were watching it with each other, saying, ‘I’m just so happy that I found my person and we’re in love,’” he recalled.
Another couple told him, “We have four kids, and now we want to have another after watching this film.”
Garfield has been outspoken about his relationship with grief. In 2021 he appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to promote the movie Tick, Tick... Boom! in which he starred as Jonathan Larson, a playwright who died before seeing his most successful work, Rent, become adored by the masses.
During the interview, Garfield said that the role helped him process the death of his mother, who had pancreatic cancer. His statement about grief went viral.
“I hope this grief stays with me because it’s all the unexpressed love that I didn’t get to tell her,” he told Colbert. “And I told her every day. We all told her every day. She was the best of us.”
In We Live in Time, Garfield’s character faces the same grief of losing a loved one to cancer. That reminded him of his mother. But people shouldn’t let the fear of grief make us “lock ourselves off from love and from risk because it hurts to love fully,” he told Yahoo Entertainment.
“It hurts to attach because of the inevitability of the loss that comes with it,” he said. “But it’s the only way to live a life of vitality and fullness and meaning, and it breaks the kind of calcified, protected, hardened versions of our heart open so we can reconnect to ourselves.”
He added, “I just think grief is a really cool portal into our hearts, so then we can feel the love as well.”
We Live in Time is in theaters Oct. 11.
