Andrew Garfield revealed that in order to prepare for his role as a 17th century Jesuit priest in the 2016 film “Silence,” he abstained from sex and food.
“I did a bunch of spiritual practises every day, I made up new rituals, I was celibate for six months and I fasted a lot,” Garfield said on Monday’s episode of the podcast “WTF with Marc Maron.”
“It was really cool, man,” he added. “Starving myself of sex and food at the time gave me some pretty wild, trippy experiences.”
Garfield eventually spent a year studying under Jesuit writer Father James Martin, whom he referred to as his “friend and spiritual director.”
Martin, 61, assisted Garfield, 39, in researching Catholicism and leading the Oscar nominee through a series of spiritual exercises in preparation for his role in Martin Scorsese’s historical drama.
Garfield stated that he and Martin used the same rituals that Konstantin Stanislavski used to develop method acting over a century ago.
While the “Amazing Spider-Man” star defended his acting style, he admitted that it can get out of hand at times.
“I think there’s a lot of misconceptions about what method acting is,” he said on the podcast. “People are still acting in that manner, and it isn’t about being a jerk to everyone on set.” It’s really just about living truthfully under fictitious circumstances while also being really nice to the crew and being a normal human being and being able to drop it when you need to and stay in it when you want to.”
However, the rigorous technique may have taken its toll on Garfield, who recently revealed that he is leaving Hollywood to be “ordinary for a while.”
In April, he told Variety, “I’m going to rest for a little bit.”
The much-needed rest appears to be doing the “Tick, Tick… Boom!” star good, as he was recently spotted looking ripped while on vacation in Bali.
Photos of a shirtless, buff Garfield quickly went viral on social media, enthralling his fans.
