Andrew Garfield was relieved when he finished work on Artificial.
The 42-year-old actor stars as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in Luca Guadagnino's film and while he is always grateful to have the experience of playing more challenging characters, he doesn't "love it" because he's just a "cosy guy" at heart.
He told the new issue of Esquire UK: “I feel grateful to those experiences of playing those people. But I don’t love it.
"Ultimately I’m like, ‘Thank God that’s over.’ I felt that way with Sam and with Hank [from After the Hunt].
"Because I much prefer at least trying to be community-minded, a good friend. I love being a cosy guy.”
Andrew stressed his portrayal of Sam in Artificial - which takes place during a five-day period in November 2023 when the executive was abruptly fired as OpenAI CEO before ultimately returning to the company - wasn't based on any personal interactions with the tech boss.
He said: “I don’t know Sam Altman. I’ve never met him.
"I was going off of the script and court transcripts and interviews and research, and we were telling a story. But I think anyone who takes on that level of responsibility for a company or a technology that you know is going to do a hell of a lot of damage to the soul of humanity [must have] a certain ability to dissociate.”
When it comes to taking on a new role, the We Live in Time star tries to look for elements of his characters within himself, even those aspects he'd prefer to "disown".
He said: “There’s something there for me to integrate, because I’m so afraid of being it.
“But then the argument is, that if we weren’t all less rejecting in the first place, less ‘that’s not us’, then Donald Trump wouldn’t have been voted in twice, and Nigel Farage wouldn’t be anywhere near a position of power.
“Whereas if we go, ‘OK, interesting — where am I [in a] wannabe fascist, grifter, opportunist, power-hungry, ethic-less, spineless fucking pig?’ We can identify that this is the bad part of us. We know this in ourselves.”
Andrew had reservations about playing Sam in Artificial because he'd not long finished working with Luca on After the Hunt, but he put his trust in the director.
He said: “I was like, ‘This feels a bit quick.’ But Luca was like, ‘Darling, trust me. We do it, it’s gonna be incredible. It’s gonna be a masterpiece.’ I do trust him, so I said yes, and then it was: here we f****** go!”
The September/October Issue of Esquire UK is out now. Read the full interview with Andrew Garfield at https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/film/a73473247/andrew-garfield-interview-2026/
