ANDREW GARFIELD
MORE THAN JUST SPIDER-MAN
By David Crow
Andrew Garfield and his legacy as the Amazing Spider-Man is back at the forefront of pop culture.
With characters from his tenure appearing in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Andrew Garfield’s contributions are getting reassessed.
But he’s demonstrated a superpowered talent long before, and well after, Spidey.
An American-born English actor, Garfield got his start at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
An early acting break saw him feature in the Doctor Who episodes “Daleks in Manhattan” and “Evolution of the Daleks” in 2007.
That same year he played a repentant killer on Boy A, which netted him a BAFTA.
Soon cinema started calling, with starring roles in Channel 4’s Red Riding trilogy and Hollywood’s Never Let Me Go.
Never Let Me Go
But his real breakout on the big screen came in David Fincher’s The Social Network, where Garfield played Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook and emotional heart of an otherwise cold film.
Sony, which produced The Social Network, took a liking to Garfield and soon picked him to be their new Spider-Man.
But around the same time, Garfield returned to his first-love of theater when he played Biff Loman in Death of a Salesman opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman on Broadway.
He would get a Tony nomination for his performance, and would later win one for Angels in America in 2018.
And while his Spidey work was checkered, it paved the way for leading Hollywood roles, including in Martin Scorsese’s Silence in 2016.
He also starred in Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge in 2016, which earned Garfield his first Oscar nomination.
He’s up for awards consideration this year for his first musical performance in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s tick, tick… BOOM! In that film, he plays Jonathan Larson, the creator of Rent.
So whatever you think of Garfield’s Spidey, he really is doing amazing things!
tick, tick...BOOM