Original-Cin Q&A: Andrew Garfield on channeling Jonathan Larson's spirit in Tick, Tick... Boom
Who needs Spider-Man when you have Lin-Manuel Miranda in your corner?
Andrew Garfield wields his theatrical super-powers in his latest lead, the musical, Tick, Tick.. Boom. Directed by award winning writer, producer and singer Lin-Manuel Miranda (in his film directorial debut), Garfield shines as Broadway theatre composer Jonathan Larson who tragically died of an aneurysm at age 36, on the eve of the opening of his ground-breaking, career-making musical, Rent.
The film centers around Larson on the cusp of his 30th birthday as he navigates love, friendship and the pressures of life as an artist in New York City.
Our resident theatre geek Bonnie Laufer spoke with Andrew Garfield about taking on the role, and his dedication to learning to sing.
Andrew Garfield and director Lin-Manuel Miranda check the footage on location in New York.
Tick, Tick.. Boom starts streaming on Netflix on November 19th.
CLICK HERE to watch Bonnie’s interview with Director Lin Manuel Miranda
CLICK HERE to watch for Bonnie’s interview with Vanessa Hudgens and Joshua Henry
CLICK HERE to watch for Bonnie’s interview with Alexandra Shipp and Robin De Jesus
ORIGINAL-CIN: Andrew, your hard work in this movie has truly paid off. What was it like to channel theatre genius Jonathan Larson? This movie was such a joy to watch, how much joy did it bring you to play him?
ANDREW GARFIELD: Beyond joy! I’m the luckiest man I know in the sense that I got, as you say, to channel him, to let him work through me.
I was the vessel that allowed Jonathan to follow his impulses from the spirit world. There's no better way to spend a day than having your space set up by the genius that is Lin-Manuel Miranda. To have been able to let Jonathan loose in that playpen and to play was a gift.
A lot of it is due to Lin, because he set it up as a place of joy for us to explore and play. We rehearsed for a long, long time and created a community out of the company, which is very rare to do when you're making a film. Usually you're kind of in and out and kind of isolated. But we're all theater people in this project so we know what that means, we know the value of community.
That also linked it back to Jon who was someone who valued community, maybe above all else. And that's what drove his work.
O-C: He certainly took from his own life and showed it in all of his work. He wore his heart on his sleeve.
GARFIELD: Absolutely, community was at the heart of writing Rent. He was fighting for a remembrance of an extended human family, and a remembrance of treating each other with love and dignity and to see each other deeply.
PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN
It's evident in his work and it's evident in this film. He goes through a big rite of passage with Tick Tick… Boom, where he realizes that life is real. He realizes that he has to sing his song while he has the time to sing it.
O-C: Speaking of singing, it blows my mind how fantastic your voice is that you had to take singing lessons. Come on. You're a liar - there’s no way you just learned all of those complex songs and made them sound that good!
GARFIELD: Thank you. Thank you so much. That means so much to me. (laughs) I promise you, I'm not lying. I worked for a year and a half with a voice coach in her studio workshop in Chelsea, Manhattan.
I felt like Jon Lawson. I was walking around lower Manhattan, listening to Tick, Tick, Boom, and Rent. I practiced my scales on the subway. I had a perm and all I could think of was, this is the life I want to live. I loved it so much and just got so into it.
I got to access a part of myself I honestly didn't know existed. Lin-Manuel Miranda made a dream of mine come true that I didn't even know I had. I repressed it so deeply because of fear and terror, because as you know, it's the most vulnerable thing in the world to sing, especially in front of people.
So with this, I was given the space to really kind of let it flow out of me and I'm just eternally grateful for that.
O-C: There's so many stand-out scenes in the film, but my personal favorite is when you are sing the song, Sunday in the diner. Without giving anything away - because it is glorious to watch it unfold, but were thinking, this is just surreal?
GARFIELD: it was overwhelming and it was a strange thing. So two things about that scene. That scene was a real Lin-Manuel Miranda galaxy brain explosion of imagination and beauty. That sequence was Lin honoring Jon Larson creating this kind of Broadway galaxy kind of chorus all the time for Jonathan Larson's music.
I think it’s an absolutely beautiful thing that he's done, and for me it was surreal. Here I am surrounded by a bunch of (famous) people that made me just want to be on my knees, bowing for hours on end.
But then I had to direct everybody in that scene. I had to be the one that was in governance. I remember saying to Lin that I was struggling with the lyrics because the lyrics are, ‘Sit the fools who should eat at home.’ Here I am dissing my patrons. It didn’t feel right singing those lyrics to these legends.
SO I asked Lin, ‘Do I know who I am talking about or do I not know who I'm talking about?’ He was like, ‘No. no, they're just annoying diner customers, so treat them like that.’
So, that gave me the go ahead to treat them all like I loathed them and I needed to puppeteer them. That actually freed me up. And thank God because otherwise, I would have been crying and sobbing and on my knees for like three days straight.
O-C: I am guessing that your next stop for you will be a lead in a Broadway musical. I can guarantee I will be in the front row!
GARFIELD: (Laughs) I would love to do it. Thank you. Thanks for the encouragement.