Actor Andrew Garfield. (Screenshot via YouTube)
Andrew Garfield has responded to the backlash he received for his “gay without the physical act” comment and says his words were taken out of context.
Garfield, who is starring in the London production of Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America,” was quoted as making some oversimplified remarks about being a gay man.
“Every Sunday I would have eight friends over and we would just watch Ru,” Garfield said earlier this month. “This is my life outside of this play. I am a gay man right now just without the physical act — that’s all.”
In the full recording, Garfield discusses how he prepped for the role and says he attended drag workshops, spoke with Kushner and other gay men and watched the film, “We Were Here.” He then goes on to say he watched “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in what appears to be a joking manner.
In an interview with BBC’s “Newsbeat,” Garfield says that his response was meant to be about how he prepared for the role.
“That discussion was about this play and how deeply grateful I am that I get to work on something so profound,” Garfield says. “We were talking about, ‘How do you prepare for something so important and so big?’ and I was basically saying, ‘I dive in as fully as I possibly can.’”
“The intention was to speak to that, speak to my desire to play this part to the best of my ability and to fully immerse myself in a culture that I adore,” Garfield continued. “My only longing is to serve and to keep the world spinning forward for the LGBTQ community in whatever way I’m meant to. It’s important to a community that I feel so welcomed by.”
