Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh were so committed to making a good movie that they didn’t hear a director call “cut” while filming a sex scene.
During the Friday, October 5, recording of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Garfield, 41, opened up about filming a steamy scene for We Live in Time, out October 11.
“We do the first take of this very intimate, passionate sex scene,” he shared, according to footage shared on social media. “And it’s a closed set, which means it’s only me and Florence in a room together and the camera operator — who is our DP — a very lovely man called Stewart.”
Garfield and Pugh, 28, were focused on filming a good cut for production. “The scene becomes passionate and we choreographed it,” he continued. “And we get into it — as it were — and we go a little bit further than we were meant to just because we never heard ‘cut’ and it’s feeling safe and we’re like, ‘OK, we’ll go to the next thing and the next thing, we’ll let this progress.’”
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The actor recalled “telepathically” realizing with Pugh that filming should have stopped. He explained: “This definitely feels like a longer take. I look up, and in the corner is Stewart and our boom operator. Stewart has the camera by his side and he’s turned into the wall.”
We Live in Time follows a decade-long love story between Tobias (Garfield) and Almut (Pugh). A chance encounter brings the couple together but obstacles out of their control teach them to cherish moments while navigating parenthood and a medical diagnosis.
“When I read [the script], I was in deep contemplation of the meaning of life. As always, but maybe more pronounced in that moment,” Garfield said at a San Sebastian Film Festival press conference last month. “I was thinking about life, death, love, meaning, time. … standing at the age of 39 and 40, kind of a mid-life crisis, looking forward, looking backward, looking exactly where I am, and thinking, ‘What now?’ This script arrived, and it was as if I had written it from that place. These things, there’s gotta be something to it, something universal in this story.”
Garfield also explained why he didn’t consider We Live in Time to be a romantic drama. “I thought, ‘This is a great story about death,’” he shared at the event. “It’s really fearless and funny, and it’s trying to attain some of the mystery of what it means to fall in love, get married, and have a child with someone.”
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The subject matter spoke to Garfield, who reflected on how his loved ones went through similar personal experiences.
“People in my family and close friends who have been through things of the most horrific nature, the kind of things where you have to wonder if the universe has any justice in it, those moments where you think ‘What is the setup here and how am I supposed to carry on?’” he said. “The ones that do find a way to carry on, would reject outright the idea of being heroic. It’s necessity.”
He continued: “What I love about these two people is that they represent this strange, mysterious, undying, inexplicable want to live in the face of the most horrific heartache and loss. And how we, as human beings, find that strength, that want, that little flame of longing to live over and over and over again. There are probably people in this room going through something not dissimilar from these characters, facing death and choosing to live anyway. I find that remarkable.”
We Live in Time hits theaters on October 11.
