The Spotlight: Andrew Garfield says the closest he's come to playing an evil sociopath was Mark Zuckerberg
Andrew Garfield is just too darn nice.
The Englishman has never played a villain on screen. When he was made aware of that fact in an interview with DP/30's David Poland, Garfield explained that it's difficult to land those roles because of how empathetic he can appear to be.
"I guess I'm overcompensating for my evil nature," Garfield joked. "I'm trying to find all the good stuff and bring that out. I don't really think about it in terms of good and bad."
For a guy best-known for roles as Spider-Man, a courageous priest and a Congressional Medal of Honor winning Army medic, Garfield's image as a good guy has been hard to shake. So much so that it cost him the lead in David Fincher's 2010 Facebook drama "The Social Network."
"Yes, I can't escape that," Garfield said. "The thing with [David] Fincher ... You spoke to me and Jesse [Eisenberg] about this. I auditioned for Mark, to play Mark Zuckerberg and I thought that was it. They gave me the impression of, 'OK, here we go. Let's do this. Not officially. They didn't dangle a carrot or anything. I just got that vibe.
"But then David called me and said, 'I want to talk to you about something.' He said, 'I don't want to waste all of that watery, emotional availability you have so I'd like you to play *this* instead. I said, 'Fine by me. I just want to do the film with you.' So I got close to playing a maybe borderline narcissistic sociopath, but that's definitely in me."
Garfield went on to portray Eduardo Saverin, former friend of Zuckerberg who served as the anti-hero's chief antagonist in the film.
"I'm not disinterested in the narcissist in me," Garfield continued. "And the sociopath and the psychopath and all those things. They exist in me, absolutely. The egotist and all that. But I think I struggle with that stuff in my life so much that I'd rather encourage the more humane part of myself to grow in the projects I do."
TOP STORIES
He would know. Andy Serkis says Tom Hardy will use performance capture in his next role, which would be "Venom."
Professional bad guy. Ben Mendelsohn is being eyed for the villain role in "Captain Marvel."
Next generation. The team behind "Logan" is developing a script focusing on an "X-23" standalone film.
Thriller. Director John Landis talks about working with Michael Jackson on his classic music video.
‘I’ve Made Some Poor Choices.’ Mark Wahlberg wants God to forgive him for "Boogie Nights."
Back to basics. Arnold Schwarzenegger explains how the next "Terminator" movie will fix the franchise.
MUST WATCH
New trailers ranked by watchability.
New BTS featurette for "Last Jedi."
Cinefix's top five horror films.
One does not simply meet Daniel Day-Lewis.
Andy Serkis takes us through his journey in motion capture.
Ricky Gervais on the recent Hollywood abuse scandal.
Cheapness = greatness.
Tim's a big fan of easter eggs.
AND THE REST
Feel better, Spidey.
How many have you seen?
Yep.
Everytime someone writes that I play 'strong women' what theyre implying is that most women arent. How about I just play well written parts?
— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) October 24, 2017
Clooney makes tough choices.
Unfortunate.
For real Franco has the phone with that number. https://t.co/y8MP8heYXu
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) October 25, 2017
"Big Mouth" is coming back for season 2.
How many takes.
Poor dear.
Never know who you’re going to run into on the Disney lot. @riancjohnson thanks for giving me this response when I asked for Last Jedi info. pic.twitter.com/NVVNlUgnWP
— Josh Gad (@joshgad) October 25, 2017
You monster.
I get off on pouring good milk down the sink. https://t.co/innOdmSjOj
— Conan O'Brien (@ConanOBrien) October 24, 2017