Andrew Garfield Promotes ’99 Homes’ With An Interview (Sorta)

Actor Andrew Garfield made headlines recently with an “interesting” approach to an interview with the press.

According to Vulture reporter Kyle Buchanan, the 99 Homes star apparently did not hold back his honest opinions about any topic raised during their discussion – including his strong feelings about having to do an interview in the first place.

“Coming in today to do interviews, I’m like, Why? I know that I’m an actor and it’s part of the job, and I feel lucky I get to do that, but with the interviews, it’s such a weird thing. What do I have to say?”

99 Homes allowed Garfield to break away from his former superhero role as Spider-Man by playing a poor laborer whose family lost a home during the housing crisis. His journey eventually leads him to become the newest “student” of a twisted real-estate developer played by Man of Steel actor Michael Shannon.

In the film, Shannon’s character convinces Andrew Garfield’s character that the only way to prosper in life is to take it away from other people – a concept that Peter Parker would have quickly rejected and even fought against in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

However, Garfield apparently feels comfortable with playing more intense roles of this nature since he no longer has to worry about starring in another movie as the costumed web-slinger.

As a matter of fact, Andrew did not even hesitate to share his honest feelings about playing Spider-Man on the big screen during the same interview.

“Yeah, something shifted with the Spider-Man stuff. It was a character that I wanted to play my whole life and not one part of me was indifferent… but I got incredibly uncomfortable with the attention that just came with that job. It was nothing to do with me, it was to do with this idea of celebrity. Hopefully I’m just more myself as I get older and as I grow, but in our culture they’re telling us to be something totally fucking different.”

Garfield later mentioned that he does not feel as if the “culture” accepts him. Based on his expressed opinion, Garfield only feels that people are accepted if they fit a particular description that goes a little farther than just race – even though he made it clear that being white is important.

“Handsome, charming, charismatic, thin-enough eyebrows to be beautiful, but thick enough to still be masculine. We are told constantly we’re not enough, we’re told constantly that we don’t have enough, we’re told constantly that we’ll never be enough. It’s that dangling-carrot thing.”

Garfield further expressed that he, at first, thought that getting the lead role in The Amazing Spider-Man was going to make his life much better. However, he apparently believes that was not the case after all.

“That was my experience with the Spider-Man thing. It’s like, ‘Oh (expletive) my life is now great! But in fact, I’m still fucked up in my own ways, and insecure, and scared, and don’t really know who I am. Celebrity is the new religion, as far as I can see, along with money, power, status. It’s all the same umbrella — the seductive forces of evil, really.”

This is not the first time this year that a promotional interview has taken a unique turn away from actually promoting a film.

For instance, Robert Downey Jr. (another star actor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) made headlines back in April when he walked out of an interview with Channel 4 journalist in the UK, Krishnan Guru-Murthy.

Instead of focusing on the movie that was being promoted (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Guru-Murthy shifted the focus of the conversation to Robert Downey Jr’s personal life and his troubled past.

During an interview with Howard Stern about his decision to walk out, the Oscar-nominated actor made it clear that he regretted nothing. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he only wished that he had left the interview sooner.

Instead of simply walking away or refusing to answer questions, though, Andrew Garfield seemed to take a different approach. The 32-year-old actor apparently decided to use blunt honesty without any hesitation to answer each of the interviewer’s questions – regardless of consequence.

[Image Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]