Andrew Garfield recalls starving himself of sex and food as prep for Silence

Andrew Garfield played a 17th-century Jesuit priest in the 2016 Martin Scorsese film Silence. He underwent a remarkable physical transformation for the film.

Andrew Garfield recalls starving himself of sex and food as prep for Silence

Andrew Garfield ventured into the world of method acting with his 2016 film Silence, directed by Martin Scorsese. In the film, Andrew played a Jesuit missionary and he got into the skin of his role with some extreme practices such as remaining celibate for six months, fasting till the point he began losing weight, among others. The actor also defended his process in a recent interview.

Andrew is best known for his portrayal of Spider-Man aka Peter Parker in the two Amazing Spider-Man films as well as last year’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. He also appeared in films like The Social Network, Hacksaw Ridge, and Tick, Tick… Boom! Silence was his first collaboration with Martin Scorsese and widely regarded as the first role that got him noted as a ‘serious actor’ by critics.

Talking about his process for the film, Andrew recently told WTF with Marc Maron podcast that he would starve himself of food and sex for long durations to prepare for the character. “It was very cool, man. I had some pretty wild, trippy experiences from starving myself of sex and food at that time,” he said.

The actor also defended method acting and said it is often misunderstood. “People are still acting in that way, and it’s not about being an asshole 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,” he added.

Silence was a historical drama, which also starred Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano, and Ciarán Hinds. It follows two 17th-century Jesuit priests, who travel from Portugal to Edo-era Japan via Macau to locate their missing mentor and spread Catholic Christianity.