Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield on living ‘We Live in Time’

TORONTO, ONT – In “We live in time”, Florence Pugh and andres garfield It represents a lifetime of relationship: a range of dating, falling in love, having a child and facing cancer. So when Garfield recently went on a six-day retreat to the woods without his phone, one of his first text messages was to his co-star.

“I went out and texted Florence. “I just felt obligated,” Garfield says. “When you reconnect with yourself, you reconnect with a lot of things that matter to you. And I was like, man, I haven’t let Florence know for a few months how much this movie and this time with her meant to me.”

“We Live in Time”, directed by John Crowley ( “Brooklyn” “The Goldfinch”), written by playwright Nick Payne, is the kind of movie that provokes an emotional response, even for its two stars. Interpreting its characters, Almut and Tobias, over the course of a decade, “We Live in Time” poignantly condenses and remixes a broad spectrum of life into a non-linear narrative. Side by side are sex and heartbreak, stolen and life-changing moments, birth and death.

It was enough to count together as actors that Pugh and Garfield, when they spoke on the morning of the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, we are still mourning.

“This has never happened to me like this before. We’ve literally spent the last two days trying to unpack it and everyone wants us to. And we don’t know,” Pugh says. “As we finished the movie, as each scene got closer and closer to the end, it became harder and harder to process that we weren’t going to be able to do it anymore.”

As two of the most in-demand actors of their generation, Pugh, 28, and Garfield, 41, have transformed themselves into all kinds of roles. They’ve donned Marvel costumes and joined in with period ensembles. Pugh was memorably dressed in an elaborate floral dress. for “Midsommar.” But “We Live in Time,” which A24 releases in theaters Friday, is a particularly stripped-down look at two of the best actors at work. It is the first film in which Garfield uses his real voice.

“They are two very beautiful creatures to look at, and they have looked incredibly beautiful on screen; and by the way, they look very beautiful in this, but not in a glamorous, aspirational way,” says Crowley. “They are both also British actors who have made significant strides in American cinema and, for some, people may only know them for that. Having them speak with their own accent allowed those roles to become much closer to them.”

Chemistry can be a tricky thing to pin down. Crowley, whose 2007 film “Boy A” was Garfield’s film debut, chose Garfield first. After that came Pugh. Crowley prefers to keep dress rehearsals low key to save energy for filming. But there were, he says, “glimmers of something very special” between them.

“Like two championship tennis players warming up, they couldn’t occasionally hit the ball in an extraordinary way and have the other person hit it back,” Crowley says.

In a joint interview, the connection between Garfield and Pugh became very clear. Your reaction to the meme that emerged from the first image of the film (in which a carousel horse appeared to be his uninvited co-star), It was, in itself, a viral video that hinted at his natural comic pattern. But whatever the chemistry, Garfield is more inclined to attribute it to staying present as actors.

“You can’t predict it. I knew Florence was a magnificent actress. But that’s all I knew. I didn’t know if we would work well together. None of us did,” Garfield says. “But for me, honestly, it exceeded my expectations. It is something incomparable. There is no way to compare my experience with Florence to any other experience I have had.

“I said this to Florence last night and I thought, ‘It’s strange, in a way, one performance.’ It’s like we’re sewn together.’”

For Pugh, chemistry is about showing up with the right intentions.

“We were willing and wanted to do that for each other,” Pugh says. “There are many times when you are willing to do it and someone is not. And that’s okay too because I guess you can create your own chemistry with yourself too.

“But it’s a lot more hard work and a lot less fun,” Garfield adds, smiling. “Just like personal pleasure.”

In a way, Garfield and Pugh lived alongside “We Live in Time” and experienced some of its life chapters with their characters, although from different perspectives. When Almut is diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer, she is forced to make difficult decisions between having children and her ambition as a chef.

“If you want to be successful, if you really want to give your career a good shot, you’re going to be in the most optimal time to have children,” Pugh says. “These are things that I now have to resolve since we made the film, since it will be released. “It’s for women of all ages trying to navigate this incredibly complicated dilemma.”

Some of the challenges Almut and Tobias faced were deeply familiar to the actors. Garfield’s mother died of cancer in 2019. Others used more imagination. Neither Garfield nor Pugh have children, but a long birth scene, in a gas station bathroom, is the film’s most spectacular moment. To experience Almut’s cancer treatment, Pugh was convinced she needed to cut her hair. Crowley filmed Garfield cutting Pugh’s hair for the scene.

“I wanted this to go away now so I know how she feels in these scenes that I read in the script and thought about, but I can’t imagine how she felt yet,” Pugh says, pointing to her hair. “I loved that day. “It was a very powerful day.”

The experience has left both actors trying to hold onto some “We live in time” thing. Garfield began the interview by opening a book, offering a poem, and then reading aloud. “Being a slave to intensity” by Kabir.

“I guess just to remind myself that I’m a person,” he explains. “And because this movie is about being as alive and vital as humanly possible. I think sometimes it’s really hard to remember how to do that, a lot of the time. In fact, everything is against us doing so. That’s why we need practices that keep us in touch with that.”

If “We Live in Time” is ultimately about making peace with the fleeting nature of all that is precious and trying to appreciate those moments when they’re happening, Garfield is doing his best to maintain that mindset and be grateful. for the time that passed. and Pugh had together.

“Every relationship is sacred. Every deep intimacy is sacred,” says Garfield. “And I think it’s an incredible, brave thing to step up to and say, ‘This is over. Let’s put an end to this now, much like what Tobias and Alma have to do. That’s why I believe that everything becomes life, art, imitation, in any sense.”