Andrew Garfield on Playing Sam Altman: A Portrait of Responsibility and Dissociation

Andrew Garfield is breaking his silence about his role as OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman in Luca Guadagnino's upcoming biopic Artificial. In a candid interview with Esquire, the 43-year-old actor discussed his approach to the character, which he describes as a deep dive into a psychology he finds both fascinating and unsettling.

Garfield, who starred in The Amazing Spider-Man and The Social Network, was quick to clarify that his portrayal is not based on a personal acquaintance. "I don't know this person, to be clear," he told Esquire. "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."

Despite that distance, Garfield offered a sharp observation about the man he plays: "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."

A Role Close to Home

The five-day leadership crisis at OpenAI, when Altman was fired and then rehired, serves as the backdrop for Artificial. Garfield admitted he is drawn to the psychological complexity of Altman, particularly after missing out on a role he long coveted. "I think I've been fascinated since I missed that opportunity (of playing Zuckerberg)," he said, referring to his near-casting as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, a part that ultimately went to Jesse Eisenberg. Garfield was instead cast as Eduardo Saverin, a role he says shaped his understanding of tech-world power plays.

"With Sam, everything's a game," Garfield observed. "It's a game and everything gets very, very simple. It's, 'I know I have to win this game, because I am the most good person, and if I don't win this game, Elon Musk wins this game.'"

Wrestling with the Character

Garfield acknowledged that playing Altman forced him to confront parts of himself he'd rather avoid. "I'm not typically drawn to playing characters like Altman because, in order to relate to the character, I have to access parts of myself I don't like," he said. "There's something there for me to integrate, because I'm so afraid of being it."

He drew a broader societal parallel, arguing that a reluctance to acknowledge less admirable impulses has consequences. "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," he said. "Whereas if we go, 'OK, interesting — where am I in a wannabe fascist, grifter, opportunist, power-hungry, ethic-less, spineless pig?' We can identify that this is the bad part of us."

Life Beyond Altman

The interview also touched on Garfield's other recent projects, including Guadagnino's After The Hunt, in which he plays professor Hank Gibson, and The Uprising, where he takes on the role of a medieval ploughman. After a busy period, Garfield expressed relief at returning to a normal life. "I'm knackered," he said, adding that he plans to "rest, be normal, go to Disneyland, play basketball, swim."

Garfield, whose breakout role came in the 2007 TV film Boy A, also addressed questions about his reported relationship with actress Monica Barbaro with characteristic directness: "It's not something I will ever talk about," he said. "Maybe if I'm married with kids and 10 years into the relationship I might feel comfortable saying 'my wife and my kids.' Maybe. But maybe fucking not."

The Film's Journey

Artificial has had a turbulent path to the screen. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film was originally set up at Amazon MGM Studios but was dropped after the studio announced a $50 billion partnership with OpenAI. The project was later rescued by Neon, after Netflix, A24, and Focus Features reportedly passed. Neon plans to release Artificial later this year, in time to qualify for the Oscar race.

Garfield's interview appears in the September/October issue of Esquire UK, which hits newsstands on August 26.