So what was your process?

Gosh, um, yes, it was about two or three months, including preparation of listening and watching him footage of him every like kind of day in day out every morning and trying to find my version of that character.

And in in kind of collaboration with Simon's script and obviously with Luca and his intentions for the film, it's very, very difficult to talk about because there are so many aspects in terms of preparing for something like this.

And there's such a heavy responsibility, not only playing a live person who's, who's, I don't know where he is, but he's probably pretty close right now.

And I have a lot, you know, it was spiritually, um, metaphorically in the air, but I, um, I feel a tremendous amount of compassion for what that must feel like or being on the inside of, um, his soul going, well, this is not me.

Of course, it's going to feel confronting, I imagine.

I would feel that way.

you? Did you add scenes? Yeah,

Yeah.

Deadly pandemic, Black Death, plague, that wiped out half of Europe.

Um, and it's a kind of a society of huge inequality where a, a small group of very, very powerful oligarchs are hoarding all of the wealth and the resources and are deciding who gets what and when, and a very, very over-taxed, over, kind of extended, almost abused group of ordinary people whose petrol prices are far too high.

Yeah

... from, from ord- ordinary people at a very extraordinary time, and it felt like, oh, if I'm resonating with this, then I think other people are gonna resonate with this.

And it's, and it, and it's, like, a group of people who are marching for basic, as we would say in modern times, human rights.

Like, they're, they're not asking for anything excessive.

They're asking to make a living.

Good night, y'all.

It felt like a really exciting and terrifying prospect.

What is the image of the future that you see?

Getting to enjoy this ride alongside Monica.

She's a wonderful actor.

She's so talented.

I've been a fan of hers for so long, and she brings this kind of mysterious enigma of a person in this film to life.

No, no, I want you to be yourself.

Okay.

I agree with you fully.

Cool.

Elaborate, though.

I was in Berlin recently.

Shout out to the Wild Things crew in Berlin.

The horse, I go, fuck.

[laughs]

And at that time, this is what's crazy, at that time, and it wasn't metaphorical, it was literal, the king was the messenger of God's word on the earth.

So anything that the king uttered was literally treated like it was sent from heaven above.

There was...

And any equivocation of that meant you were a treasonous and traitor to the throne.

So anything that this boy decides, this 14-year-old boy, who is being governed a lot by these-

Mm-hmm

... of the Worldwide Orphans Foundation, and I was really nervous to meet you 'cause I'm just a huge fan of yours and I just think you're just so wonderful.

Mm-hmm.

He's tell, he tells a story about Paul Newman I think, or he, yeah, he tells a story about Paul Newman in, what was the movie they made together? It'll come back.

But he's like, Paul Newman came with wh- and he did the scene and, um, s- Lumet was like, "Okay.

I think we're gonna reshoot this tomorrow because I think you need to, you need to fi- find out what this scene's about inside yourself." And he comes by the next...

And, and, and, and there was something very personal that he was referring to.

[laughs]

And at that time, this is what's crazy, at that time, and it wasn't metaphorical, it was literal, the king was the messenger of God's word on the earth.

So anything that the king uttered was literally treated like it was sent from heaven above.

Speaking of uprising, I mean, the, it's the origin story of Robin Hood

HoodI mean, is it? No.

Well- I mean, I mean, ki- kind of [laughs] Kind of.

Is it not? Well, I mean, yes and no.

It's, uh...

I think he, he crops up in English kind of folklore when there's a real period of ordinary people having their power stripped from them, having their dignity stripped away from them, and he kind of, he kind of emerges as a archetype, as an energy.

Mm.

[laughs]

Um, before we get into, um, you know, your own personal spiritual life, and I know this relates, can you tell us a little bit about the movie and your character?

Sure.

I see it as a very spiritual film.

Um, i- it's set during the Peasants' Revolt- of 1381 in England, which was a huge popular uprising that happened in that period of time.

And it was a period of time where it was coming straight out of the era of the plague, the Black Death.

So 50% of Europe had been killed by this terrible pandemic, and it was arguable that the, the, the kind of the ruling forces of the United, United Kingdom [lip smack] were misappropriating, misusing the funds at their disposal in, in recovery.

There was a kind of oligarch class that was surrounding this young famous king, Richard II, who was 13, 14, and they were kind of manipulating him to be kept as the, the only wealth hoarders and status hoarders in, um, in this era.

So Andrew Garfield, here's the question: How do I transform my pain to stop transmitting it to others?

Yeah

... and the forever-changing nature of our world? And, and, and how do we as, as creative people, artists, kind of speak to the, uh, the current issues that we're facing? And, and when I read this, it felt like a, a bit of a cry of the soul.

It felt like, oh, this, this feels like the closest I've, thing I've read to being, to, to feeling like it's a very long, long-distance mirror of, of where we are now and how out of joint the world is and how difficult it is to say how out of joint it is.

And, and, and, and, and, and then what do we do about it? I wake up every morning and I'm like, "Has anyone been held accountable for corruption or-

[laughs]

Um, but, but there's something, I think particularly for young men, and I, I'm, I'm not, I, I mean, but, but I think there's something...

I know for me, if I, if I can bring my wounds and wh- and my pain in a, in a kind of self-owned way to a group of people that I know love me for who I am, not for what I can do for them or, or any kind of status or any kind of power or any- anything like that, then I feel connected to life, connected to the world in a way that feels eternal, and it doesn't feel like it can be taken like that.

That, that-

Physically, how was this for

you? Yeah, it was hard, but I think it was hard for all of us and everyone in the crew.

But in that sense of you feel like you're doing God's work.

You know, it's like you're at the wheel of...

You're pushing something forward that feels righteous.

It's like being on a march for something that you really believe in.

It's like you go home at the end of every day and you're knackered, and you can't wait for your head to hit the pillow, but you're invigorated.

We've given you enough!

Yeah

... and the forever-changing nature of our world? And, and, and how do we as, as creative people, artists, kind of speak to the, uh, the current issues that we're facing? And, and when I read this it felt like a, a bit of a cry of the soul.

It felt like, oh, this, this feels like the closest I've, thing I've read to being, to, to feeling like it's a very long, long-distance mirror of, of where we are now and how out of joint the world is, and how difficult it is to say how out of joint it is.

And, and, and, and, and, and then what do we do about it? I wake up every morning and I'm like, "Has anyone been held accountable for corruption or-"

I said it.

Um, but, but there's something, I think particularly for young men, and I, I'm, I'm not, I, I mean, but, but I think there's something, I know for me, if I, if I can bring my wounds and wh- and my pain in a, in a kind of self-owned way to a group of people that I know love me for who I am, not for what I can do for them or, or any kind of status or any kind of power or any- anything like that, then I feel connected to life, connected to the world in a way that feels eternal, and it doesn't feel like it can be taken like that.

That, that-

I'm really curious why this was one for you, other than, of course, probably the Paul Greengrass of it all.

Yeah.

I mean, it could be selective.

It could be, you know, like not being offered things.

No, I...

Yeah, I feel like I have a weird responsibility...

To try to make choices that feel, I don't know, connected to my soul, so that I can sit here and talk to you and not feel like I want to crawl out of my skin.

But I definitely think that we as a society are at a point where it just feels like we are, like you said, being squeezed to the point that it does feel like we could be in danger of getting into that territory i'm curious how you and paul talked about making sure that it was communicated properly to the audience that yes this is historical in that this actually happened but we are also not trying to rouse anybody up to take to the streets and also you know go about this in a violent manner

Rated PG13.

Very, very hard to, to feel right now in our current, um, culture.

I feel, I think it's very hard to find stories and pieces of work that, um, speak directly to our current moment in a very direct and kind of unequivocal, visceral, emotional way.

A kind of a soul cry, you know? And it f- the, the, the film feels like that.

It feels like a, a soul, a universal cry of the soul that I think we're all feeling to some degree no matter where our position is, um, whether, whether we're in the more privileged place or, or less.

I think that we all know that something is terribly wrong, or that e- everything is terribly wrong.

And then, um, yeah, you, we, we, we're seeing it play out in, in, around, around the world.

Good question

Do you do you also see those parallels?

I do, and I think what the film and what the story is showing or is saying is that this period of time, looking to political leadership, those in power for some kind of true recalibration and restoration of justice restoration of meaning uh belonging is um what the film is saying about that period of time is it's a fool's errand yeah and and that actually change is it's burgeoning it's emerging it's it it deeply is beginning and must in the individual.

And I think we're in a time right now where the world has lost its center.

There is no center anymore.

There is a falling apart of systems.

There is a falling apart of culture.

There is a destruction in nature that we're experiencing, obviously, in such tragic levels.

didn't hear

Mm-hmm.

Um, but, um, yeah, I mean, but what was interesting... 'Cause I thought, you know, Dan Jones was our consultant and our historian, and he's written, um, numerous books, one being Summer of Blood, which was about the Peasants' Revolt, and he's such a brilliant, ugh, storyteller of history and a kind of contextualizer of history, and he's so kind of, he's like Paul in a way, 'cause Paul obviously tells a story with such emotional vitality and, uh, vividness.

D- Dan is cut from the same cloth.

So to, to have Dan as a, as a kind of, uh, an ally and a friend and, um, someone who can just pull the most incredible pieces of information out of his, you know, back pocket in terms of what it was like to live in these times, it was a, a g- just a rare gift.

But for me it was, what, what I realized very early on, I was like, "Oh, I don't actually need a lot of information, and it's better if I don't have a lot of information about the political context, the, the, the grander themes of the time."

Yeah.

But those that, those that the system does serve, um, are, you know, uh, uh, create and manipulate, uh, a narrative where each m- small, smaller group of downtrodden people are, are seeing each other as the enemy and seeing each other as the reason why they're suffering.

So it's, it's, it's, it's the same thing again, as we can see.

Right, right, right

... stop.

Um, just it, it probably won't stop when I die.

I, I don't know.

I f- I found that quite, quite touching and quite beautiful.

And yeah, I guess like, I remember like being a young actor and looking up to certain people and wanting them to be as real as possible in the world, not just in their films or in their plays or in their music.

I wanted, like, to feel like it was okay for me to be as kind of fucked up as I was in the head and in the heart and in the body.

Yeah.

What's the next song?

[gentle music] Oh, Bill Withers.

There's a theme that's developing for me here as I listen, and it's about a purity of spirit and a purity of voice and a purity of generous expression.

And I think you look at Parcels, you look at Bill Withers, you look at George Michael, there is some pure, uninterrupted, unfiltered transmission.

Cat Stevens, like Cat Stevens, uh, a lot of his music and lyrics are, like, so naive and innocent, like, almost for children [laughs] in a-

This is the kind of stuff you're listening to.

Yeah.

There's a specific song called January Man.

Do they love our stuff as much over there?

I mean, you guys, you know, I remember, like, when you guys had...

Y- you guys get everything before we do.

You had, you had MTV before we do.

Y- y- you had the Game Boy before we did.

You had all these amazing things before we did, so we're always kinda playing catch-up with you.

But I've w- but there's something about, uh, British nostalgia and our way of telling kind of, like, family stories-

Tell us a little bit more about this role.