Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh's Unexpected Encounter with the Iconic Horse

I literally have no idea. So sorry, but do we know each other? Yeah, no, um... I ran you over. Hello everyone, I'm Niki Novak, and welcome to Fandango's big ticket interview for We Live in Time. And I'm here with the divine Florence Pugh and the equally divine Andrew Garfield. I love that! That's a very British polite clap, isn't it? How are you? Good, thank you. So good to see you both. Really, really well. First question I wanted to ask is, I grew up in Canada, so Weetabix was like a rite of passage growing up. It's something that we grew up with. Is that something you grew up with? And what is the proper way to eat Weetabix? Because there's always a debate. Yeah, yeah. Tell me something that's a staple in the UK. I was never a Weetabix guy though. Even though I play a Weetabix guy in this, I never ate Weetabix growing up. That's like the best character description ever. I play a Weetabix guy, but I'm not a Weetabix guy. It's a stretch for myself. They released different types of Weetabix when I was like 12, and they had the Weetabix minis. They had chocolate chip, raisin, and all those good bits. So I actually did like the minis. They were great. That sounds good. And I would have a very specific way of eating them. Okay, which is? The milk had to be so cold, I'd put an ice cube in there. No way. And then I'd let them sit for about 30 seconds, 40 seconds, and then I'd eat them really fast before they got soggy. But they were like just... Like an operation. Yeah, it was amazing. It was amazing. It was a good time. I love that. So I wanted to ask, because I had a very... I love the film, and it's so beautiful. It's exquisite. When I watched the film, there's so much love sort of building. But I want to know for each of you, because I have a specific moment that I thought Tobias fell in love with Helmut. Oh, yeah. And I'm probably wrong, but I want to know for each of your characters, what was that moment that you feel like you fell in love? For Tobias, I think when he's coming to in the hospital hallway, he doesn't know if he's dreaming, or if he's alive, or if he's dead, or what's happened. He knows he hurts, and he knows that everything feels quite surreal. And he doesn't know what's happened. He has no idea. So I think there's something that happens in that moment, seeing this person opposite, where he knows there's something happening that's spectacular, but he doesn't know what it is yet. So it's possible that the love was just there waiting to be discovered. I don't think it's like a love at first sight. I think it's more just like, this is a person that I know. How do I know this person? Do I know this person? There's a recognition there. But I think the conscious falling in love, I wouldn't even know if I would describe this as falling in love, but I think it happens pretty quick for him. I think he sees the way that she's handling those eggs, and making art out of the mundane of life. She's making the ordinary extraordinary, and I think it makes his head swim. And he's like, I have to now kiss you for some reason. I don't know why, they're just eggs. And then I think he gets very scared that he might be falling in love with her. So I don't know if I have a specific moment. I think it could be any given moment. I think our conscious minds play catch-up with our hearts in that way. And then I think for me, I would agree with Angie that I don't think she's necessarily aware, but there's definitely something happening physically. And I reckon it's in the day where they just walk and talk and roll around naked, and then they say goodbye to each other on both sides of the door. I mean, she's definitely clocking that there's something that has woken up in her because of this person. And physically and energetically, there's something that's now alive. That first feeling is the door opening to the possibility of having love for someone. I thought it was when he tastes her food and his back is to her. And it's not the food, but it is the fact that this person has so much passion for what they do, clearly. Because I already think I could be feeling that way, but that just takes it over the edge. I love that moment too. And I think there is something mystical that's happening in that moment. I think it's beyond words for Tobias, where he's like, yeah, I don't know. I think that's beautiful, yeah. I love that, I love that. I think there's so many beautiful, unspoken words in this film. And I think that is sort of what sets it apart from other love stories, is that you both clearly had so much abandon in your performances, and you were allowed to have that abandon in your performances. So I'm wondering for each of you, what was a moment of nuance that when you watched the film back, because I love the biscuits on the belly, that just told me she had so much, she's so comfortable with him, that you'd be that comfortable with somebody, and it's just a slice of life. Getting unchanged. So obviously when I'd have my bump put on, it would take like three hours of the prosthetic to go on, and then they would paint it so that it would look completely smooth around me. And it was heavy, so by a certain time, my back would be hurting, my knees would be hurting. And the scene where he's undressing her to go to the bath, it was just so intimate and quiet, and there was complete silence between us, and we would pause in between each item of clothing coming off. And it was just completely delicate and total love. And that was really beautiful to do. And also watching it, it's such a tender moment, and it's just them before the baby comes, before they need to go. It's just them living in that moment and enjoying all of it. Yeah, I feel like you could talk about any scene, really. Yeah. And the quiet in the midst of it, the possibility of each moment is so ripe. There's two lines that sort of stand out to me in this film. One is, there's a very real and distinct possibility I'm about to fall in love with you, and for her, it's, I can't bear the thought of being forgotten. So I'm wondering, when you see those lines on a page, is that a big moment that you go, okay, this is a big day. I know this is going to be in the trailer. I know this is going to be one of those iconic lines. And how do you approach a line like that? Try not to. Try to treat it as, you know, forget it. Just forget about it. That can be such a curse to go, to be too aware. I think one of the beauties of working on this is that, and you used the word abandon earlier, which I think is such wonderful, like a sense of abandon in the performances. And I think what we were able to find was the freedom and the trust with each other to be able to, you know, lean into that abandon and let a scene be what it is, not what it may be expected to be conventionally on the page. And just let each take show us what it wants to be, rather than us kind of trying to control it or, you know, colonize it. Like let it move through us, be available and open. That was one of the great gifts of doing this film, I think, was that it just required us to be so essentially these characters without any of the frills or the accoutrement or it's like a stripping away of any artifice or anything that could get in the way of these two hearts knowing each other deeply and therefore an audience knowing these two hearts deeply. That's beautiful. For me, when I watch this, you know, when you watch a film and you're like, I have things to do later today, I can't ugly cry, I can't let the tears fall because once I do, it's going to be... What are the films for you both, the iconic films that have made you cry the most? E.T. Really? E.T.'s great. E.T. at the end, yeah, really, really makes me cry. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, that made me weep at the end. Just love, mom love, dad love. Those make me weep. What else? Do you have a few? It's Wonderful Life kills me. Automatic. It's just automatic. It just gets me. It's so crazy. The end of Paddington 2, where his grandma comes home. They've surprised him in London. So many things make me weep. Sleepless in Seattle always gets me. There are so many. It's too many to count, to be honest. Oh, Monsters, Inc. I remember watching that as a kid and crying and that was the first. That and Charlotte's Web. I cried when I was a child watching them and I remember thinking, wow, I'm so grown up. I just cried. And I really remember feeling very, very, very, like I clearly just aged quite a lot. I was crying in a movie. This film reminds you to live in the moment. You're both living in the moment as actors, but it's that message of not looking too far ahead. And I read, Florence, that you said, this is that film that makes you want to run out and do all the things that you've been meaning to do that you haven't done. So did you do anything after wrapping this film? And if not, what are the things for each of you that you always say, I'm going to do this? Like, I'm going to learn a language. I'm going to do this. And I haven't done it yet. I did. When I finished this movie, it was a lot bigger things than I'm going to learn a language or I'm going to take up skipping. I really, really. It's still time for me. Yeah, it's still time. But no, I had a big, lovely wake up life change, which was great and huge. And I think I'm probably still trying to do that now. But it was an amazing time. Also, I was like turning a certain age where I was trying to think about things as well in the future. And it was great. There was great momentum after finishing this movie to actually not put my head in the sand anymore, which is a lovely feeling. And once you're awake, you're awake. You can't really turn back around. Otherwise you keep on falling into the same traps. So that was a really lovely thing. Sure, I definitely feel like I'm someone who every day tries to live that way and to varying degrees of success and failure, very, very deeply imperfect with it. But I do feel like every day is some new birth. And yet I'm still not dancing as much as I want to dance. I'm still not speaking Italian. I'm still an average surfer. And I'm still, you know, that's the issue. It's like never ending, the longing to live and the longing to try things and explore and experience things, the deep, deep longings that stir in all of us. That if we own them, it's like you have a responsibility to your dreams, you know? And dreams unfulfilled will end up feeling painful if they're not fulfilled. But again, at the same time, I think at the end of our lives, we are an incomplete book, you know? I don't think we ever fully do everything that we thought or feel. There's not enough time to read all the books I want to read. There's not enough time to learn all the languages, to visit all the places, to know all the people. There's not enough time. And I think that is just a universal truth and it's the setup. And I think as long as we accept that, it'll propel us towards the things that are most urgent. So maybe just dance class is not as urgent as certain other things right now. Okay, so I have a gift. A couple of gifts for the both of you before we wrap. That's kind. You're a gift giver. I'm a gift giver. That's very nice. I'm a gift horse. We know where this is going. Where is this? So first of all, I want to know, my first thought the first time you saw this. Yeah, I thought, I wonder if anyone else is going to notice that that's a pretty weird thing to have at the front and center of a very romantic image. I was wondering, am I overthinking this? Or is that a crazy thing? And then I went away for a six day retreat and I turned my phone off. And I was like, I'm probably fine. And I come out of the six day retreat and I'm like, yeah, I guess my instinct was right. Because suddenly he's coming through the wall and the shining and he's like breathing on Sigourney Weaver's face, an alien. And he's, you know, he's everywhere. Everything all at once. He is the multiverse of horse meme. He is the best third wheel ever. And the best horse in a film since Notting Hill's Horse and Hound. So I have one for you. That's going to go. You love this horse. Yeah, where's this going in your house? I know exactly where this is going. Oh, where's it going? This is going. I have my favorite room in my house, actually, is a closet in my bedroom where I put all of my favorite memories of everything ever. So it's just all a personal place where I go and like, like, you know, like the first, the third place ribbon for the gymnastics competition I did when I was seven or like pictures of my nephews, like really sentimental stuff that I just want to like be private with. This is going to go next to like a signed picture of Robert Redford and Michael J. Fox. So honored. Yeah, we need to have someone, you need to get him to sign it though. We do, we need to show the premiere. Wait, where's yours going to go? Mine's going to go in my everything toilet. Your everything toilet. I have a downstairs toilet that has lots of mad framed on the wall. Amazing. So that's going to go there. I love it. And I have more. Biscuits in commemoration for the film. My favorite. Chocolate digestives are the best. And not a plain rich tea. It's a digestive. And I think this is your favorite tea. That is my favorite tea! That's very sweet. And I think this is your favorite chocolate. And it is by who? Shout out to who? Thank you so much. Wow. We actually have something for you as well. Which is? Biscuits, if you would like some. We have this Omega watch. I need earrings. We have lights. Thank you so much. I think it probably works a little bit more expensive than the biscuits in the picture. Thank you so much. That's very kind. Thank you. Oh my gosh. It was such a pleasure to speak to both of you. Congratulations on the film. Thanks for being so sweet. Yeah, it was lovely to chat to you. Yeah, you too. Thank you very much. And I want to remind everybody that tickets for We Live in Time to see these two extraordinary individuals and this guy, Nene Horse, are on sale now at Fandango. Fandango, baby! Oh, this is going to be very exciting.