ANDREW Garfield talks about why his role in Never Let Me Go was too good to turn down because of the strength of the material and why he treats each role as if it were his first day at school and his last. He was speaking at a press conference held during last year’s London Film Festival.

Q. Why did you love this book so much?
Andrew Garfield: I think it’s very rare that you find a script that is so full of what it is to be alive: to be human and the struggles that we collectively go through, and this massive existential question mark. I think as actors you search for that kind of meaningful material and when it comes along you feel it immediately. There are terrible scripts, there are good scripts and then there are scripts and stories like this one… I don’t think that any of us hesitated in being part of such a beautiful story.

Q. How much did you rely on Alex Garland’s script? And how much did you keep going back to the book to find what you needed?
Andrew Garfield: I think across the board everyone was particularly reverent to the source material. I think Kazuo Ishiguro gets a little bit sick of how reverent we were and are still [smiles]. It’s fun for us to watch. But I think collectively we all had the same intention and that intention sprang from Kazuo’s story.

Q. How challenging was this material emotionally for you?
Andrew Garfield: I think it’s easier to cry than to make people laugh. It’s much easier to just go on set and cry a bunch than be funny.

Q. How does your process differ across the various films that you do… from blockbusters to independent ones such as this perhaps?
Andrew Garfield: No, I don’t think so. Not for me anyway. I think it’s pretty safe to say that we all approach every job as if it was our last… and our first. It’s the first day of school and the last day of school and we’re all never going to work again! I don’t think it’s about taking on the perspective of: “Oh, here’s a big film, or here’s a small film, I’d better be really good in this!” I just think you work hard at what you care about.

I think Carey [Mulligan] and Keira [Knightley] are people I respect greatly because they do projects that mean something to them. I’m speaking for them right now but I’m pretty sure they don’t discriminate in terms of size or any of that. I don’t think that’s an issue. I think we’re colour blind to that sort of thing.

Read our review of Never Let Me Go

Read our interview with Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan

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