Andrew Garfield, Deconstructionist Extraordinaire: A Look At The Actor’s Faith-Based Roles
Is there anyone who doesn’t love Andrew Garfield?
The actor is beloved for his anti-celebrity celebrity, his thoughtfulness and generosity in public appearances and phenomenal acting — as Spider-Man in the franchise’s first reboot and Eduardo Saverin in “The Social Network,” no less.
Garfield’s unquestionable role type is devout religious characters, from admirable to more despicable. He’s Jewish on his father’s side but wasn’t raised in the faith.
Despite not practicing any one religion himself — he once described himself as “pantheist, agnostic, occasionally atheist and a little bit Jewish, but mostly confused” — he does it incredibly well. He’s a better and more diverse actor than a lot of categorically Christian actors are.
That’s because he approaches faith, and life as a whole, with a sincere and generous curiosity. He’s admitted openly that he despises the concept of celebrity and isn’t in the business for fame — he puts his money where his mouth is. Instead, the body of his work reflects someone who wants to understand people and their motivations, religious ones included, largely through deconstruction and study.
These are his major faith roles, unsurprisingly some of his career best:
‘The Amazing Spider-Man’
Okay, just hear me out. No, Peter Parker never goes to temple or reads the Torah. (If I’m wrong about that, don’t hesitate to attack me on Twitter about it.) Regardless, Garfield made note several times during his press tour for “The Amazing Spider-Man” movies that he believes Peter Parker is Jewish.
“Peter Parker is not a simple dude,” he told Time Out. “He can’t just switch off. He never feels like he’s doing enough. And Peter suffers from self-doubt. He ums and ahs about his future because he’s neurotic. He’s Jewish. It’s a defining feature. (I hope Jewish people won’t mind the cliché, because my father’s Jewish. I have that in me for sure.)”
Queens, New York, where Spider-Man was born and raised, is one of the most diverse locales in the country and is home to a large Jewish population. Spider-Man is also considered something of a “people’s superhero,” driven by a strong morality to help the people from his hometown first and foremost.
Personally, I buy it.
In regards to Spider-Man’s moral code, Garfield made one other comparison in his interview with Time Out: “I don’t mind the Jesus parallel for Spider-Man. Jesus is an awesome guy.”
‘Silence’
To prepare for his role in Martin Scorcese’s passion project about the story of two 17th century Jesuit priests, Garfield mimicked life as a Jesuit priest himself. He rented a small apartment in New York’s West Village to function as his monastic home and participated in a silent Jesuit retreat in Wales.
He also received training from Jesuit priest and author Father James Martin, who led him through the “Spiritual Exercises” of St. Ignatius of Loyola and more.
“God drew him into the exercises immediately,” Father Martin said in an interview with the New York Times. “At one point, Marty said: ‘I’m sorry you won’t be with me in Taiwan. We won’t have an expert in Jesuit spirituality with us.’ And I said, ‘Yes, you will, you’ll have Andrew.’”
That in mind, it wouldn’t surprise me to hear he’d read the entire Bible earlier in his life than Jim Bakker did.
“I have been drawn to stories that are attempting to turn suffering into beauty,” he said in an interview with America Magazine around the release of “Silence.” That statement feels particularly true for the rest of the roles in his faith-based catalogue.
‘Hacksaw Ridge’
Though “Hacksaw Ridge” released theatrically before “Silence,” it was filmed afterward — meaning Garfield had already completed his intense Jesuit training. That undoubtedly had a hand in his portrayal of Desmond Doss, the Seventh-day Adventist soldier who saved a number of people during World War II without ever firing a weapon. Doss is just as devout as a priest, if not more so.
The role scored Garfield his first Oscar nomination for Actor in a Leading Role. (The second, from this year, was portraying Jewish playwright Jonathan Larsen in “Tick, Tick … BOOM!”)
“Hacksaw Ridge” was the first movie directed by Mel Gibson in over a decade and considered his return to Hollywood. He’d been largely silent after a 2006 DUI arrest in Malibu, during which he erupted in an antisemitic rant.
Garfield said that before he took the role, he had to wrestle with whether he wanted to work with Gibson at all.
“When we met, I got to know the real Mel, the six-years-sober Mel, and I experienced a good soul, a man who has done a lot of work on himself,” he told The Guardian of his ultimate decision.
‘Angels in America’
“Angels in America,” the two-part play written by Tony Kushner, is an exploration of love, relationships and politics in the midst of the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. It’s imbued with a deep and somewhat tortured spirituality as characters grapple with the death of loved ones and the truth of themselves.
In the 2017 National Theatre Live staging of the show, Garfield played Prior Walter, an AIDS patient who receives frequent visits from angels who tell him he has the gift of prophecy and to advance “the great work.”
Prior’s journey, at times interlocking with other characters, involves learning about angels from the Scriptures and teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons. Fun foreshadowing for later, right?
Garfield was nominated and won several awards for his role in the revival, including Best Actor in a Play at the Tony’s.
‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’
In “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” Garfield plays infamous televangelist Jim Bakker in a biopic about the first rise and fall of the Bakker televangelism empire.
Sure enough, in interviews for the movie, he displayed a stronger spiritual maturity than Bakker himself, denouncing prosperity gospel teaching with references to the original Greek meaning of biblical passages.
As the title — and, some would argue, history — suggests, Tammy Faye is the real star. Garfield lets Jessica Chastain — who won Best Actress at the Oscars for her role — shine, and rightfully so. Still, he nails the “weird fundamentalist preacher turned charismatic televangelist” uncannily well.
Seriously. Are we sure he wasn’t secretly a Midwestern homeschooler who went to Bible college?
‘Under the Banner of Heaven’
“Under the Banner of Heaven,” the true crime murder mystery based on the eponymous book involving Latter-day Saints families and doctrine, is Garfield’s latest. He’s a sweet father, husband, cop and church member who cries often — most often when he hears about injustice his brothers commit. (Spoiler alert: the crying is very sweet, too.)
The show treats its audience like they’re hearing about Mormonism’s problems for the first time, so it comes off a little heavy handed. Garfield’s character, detective Jeb Pyre, is actually hearing about Mormonism’s problems for the first time during the show’s primary investigation, given how devoted he was to the church beforehand. His internal, teary deconstruction of the faith is the most important narrative, even above its crime element.
It’s lucky Garfield is more than up for the task of deconstruction.
Jillian Cheney is a contributing culture writer for Religion Unplugged. She also writes on American Protestantism and evangelical Christianity and was Religion Unplugged’s 2020-21 Poynter-Koch fellow. You can find her on Twitter @_jilliancheney.