Andrew Garfield Says Starving Himself Of Food & Lovemaking Led To ‘Some Pretty Wild, Trippy Experiences’

Method acting is frequently in the news because Hollywood insiders seem to be equally divided on whether they like it or not. Andrew Garfield belongs squarely in the first group. Garfield recently said that method acting gave him ‘some pretty wild, trippy experiences.’

Andrew Garfield has been very busy for the last year with his acting. Not to mention, he has worked in several super hit movies in the past decade. On his show “WTF,” Marc Maron had a lengthy talk with the Emmy-nominated “Under the Banner of Heaven” actor.

Garfield spoke about a screen test he performed with Ryan Gosling for a potential adaptation of Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Garfield, who was appearing to promote his Emmy-nominated performance in FX’s limited series Under the Banner of Heaven, brought up the issue.

I’m kind of bothered by the misconception, I’m kind of bothered by this idea that ‘method acting is f-cking bullsh-t. People are still acting in that way, and it’s not about being an -sshole 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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He was alive, he didn’t care about doing it the same way over and over again. He was listening, he was very present, he was spontaneous, he was surprising, he wasn’t trying to be those things. 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. And you hook into that, and you’re like, ‘Oh, I want to follow whatever that is.’

I had an incredibly spiritual experience. I did a bunch of spiritual practices every day, I created new rituals for myself. I was celibate for six months, and fasting a lot, because me and Adam had to lose a bunch of weight anyway. It was very cool, man. I had some pretty wild, trippy experiences from starving myself of sex and food at that time.

In Martin Scorsese’s 2016 film Silence, Garfield used a method acting style to portray a Jesuit priest from the 17th century. He disclosed that in order to drop weight for the role, which paired him with Adam Driver and Liam Neeson, he abstained from sex for six months. Stay tuned to Thirsty for more stories from Hollywood.

What’s your take on Method acting? Do you agree with Garfield? Sound off in the comments!