Andrew Garfield defends Method acting: 'It's not about being an a--hole to everyone on set'

Andrew Garfield is speaking out against the notion that Method acting is "bulls---."

Following recent remarks from actors such as Mads Mikkelsen, Sebastian Stan, and David Harbour decrying the potential downsides of Method acting, Garfield opened up about his own use of the technique on Monday's episode of the WTF With Marc Maron podcast.

"There's been a lot of misconceptions around what Method acting is, I think," the Under the Banner of Heaven star said. "It's not about being an a--hole to everyone on set. It's actually just about living truthfully under imagined circumstances, and being really nice to the crew simultaneously, and being a normal human being, and being able to drop it when you need to, and staying in it when you want to stay in it."

Garfield told Maron that these misconceptions don't sit well with him. "I'm kind of bothered by this idea that 'Method acting's f---ing bulls---.' No, I don't think you know what Method acting is if you're calling it bulls---. Or you just worked with someone who claims to be a Method actor that isn't actually acting the Method at all," he said. "And it's also very private. I think the process of creating — I don't want people to see the f---ing pipes of my toilet. I don't want them to see how I'm making the sausage."

Michelle Faye/FX Andrew Garfield in 'Under the Banner of Heaven'

Later in the podcast, Maron asked Garfield about a specific time when he used the technique, for his part as a Jesuit priest in Martin Scorsese's Silence, alongside Adam Driver and Liam Neeson. For the part, he said he spent a year studying Catholicism, meditating, and learning from a Jesuit priest and writer based in New York, Father James Martin. "He became my friend and sort of spiritual director for a year," Garfield said.

"I had an incredibly spiritual experience," he continued. "I did a bunch of spiritual practices every day, I created new rituals for myself. I was celibate for six months and fasting a lot, because me and Adam had to lose a bunch of weight anyway."

Garfield said the experience overall was "very cool" and gave him "some gifts." "I had some pretty wild, trippy experiences from starving myself of sex and food for that period of time," he said.

Method or not, Garfield's techniques seem to be working well for him. He was recently nominated for his first Emmy for Best Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for his role as Detective Jeb Pyre in Under the Banner of Heaven. Earlier this year, he was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in Tick, Tick… Boom!

You can listen to Garfield's WTF episode above.

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