Almost Two Decades After Breaking Hearts with Their ‘Boy A,’ Andrew Garfield and John Crowley Are Doing It Again

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on October 10, 2024. “We Live in Time” will be available on Video on Demand platforms such as Prime Video, Google Play, and Apple TV on November 26 and is now available for pre-order in the UHD format.

After nearly two decades, recollections may indeed vary. Consider this: When filmmaker John Crowley cast rising star Andrew Garfield in his 2007 drama “Boy A,” Garfield almost didn’t take the part. Or, wait, did he?

“We offered you the part,” Crowley said during a recent interview with IndieWire and his now two-time star. “And you said yes, and you then said no.” Garfield looked shocked. “Did I say no?” the actor asked, eyes pinging between Zoom windows.

Either way: Garfield did take the part in the heartbreaking British drama, and now, 17 years later, he and Crowley have reunited for “We Live in Time,” a tear-soaked drama of a different kind. Based on Nick Payne’s screenplay, the nonlinear love story follows the buttoned-up Tobias (Garfield) and the spunky Almut (Florence Pugh) over the course of a decade-long relationship that is, suffice it to say, filled with both high highs and extremely low lows.

A bit of a throwback weepie, it might not be the most obvious follow-up for Crowley and Garfield, until you look a bit more closely: Both films are about the power (and price) of human emotion, the need for domestic comforts, and what happens when people truly open themselves up to each other.

With those elements in place, it’s the perfect reunion for the duo, and one long in the making. Long before “Brooklyn” or “The Goldfinch,” Spider-Man or multiple Oscar nominations, there was a rising director, a soon-to-be movie star, and a heartbreaking story about a boy just trying to live his life.

Facing “The Fear”

“The first time I saw Andrew was on stage in a play called ‘Chatroom’ at The National. And I remember clocking you and going, Huh,” Crowley recalled. “But that would probably have been about three months, maybe, before, maybe more, before ‘Boy A.’ When ‘Boy A’ came along, I didn’t immediately go, ‘I know who the guy is.’”

It was Crowley’s then-casting director (and now-wife) Fiona Weir who reminded him of Garfield. The filmmaker gestured toward his star. “She asked you to read, and I remember the tape so vividly when it came in,” Crowley said. “It was like, ‘Oh, my God,’ because there was the level of immediacy in the tape, and there was something that you were already playing with for me, which was revelatory, was you were sort of conjuring the terrified, damaged 12-year-old. It was just like he was sort of in your body.”

In the film (adapted by screenwriter Mark O’Rowe from Jonathan Trigell’s lauded 2004 novel of the same name), Garfield plays young Jack Burridge, who is really young Eric Wilson. Told partially in flashbacks, the film slowly reveals Jack’s identity: while we meet him as a shy teenager (Garfield was 23 when he starred in the film), his story starts when he’s just a bullied child who befriends tough-talking troublemaker Philip (Taylor Doherty).

Actor Andrew Garfield and director John Crowley of ‘Boy A’ at the 2007 Diesel Portrait Studio Presented by Wireimage and Inside Entertainment on September 9, 2007 in Toronto, CanadaWireImage

Eventually, the pair commit a horrific crime that ends in the murder of a young girl. The story becomes a massive scandal in their native UK, and both Eric and Philip are sent to prison for their crimes. When Crowley’s film opens, Jack (now armed with a new name and identity for his own safety) has just been released, and is eager to build a new (and anonymous) life for himself. What follows is a deeply feeling examination of what forgiveness really entails — and what happens when it doesn’t seem actually possible.

The film would already be devastating enough— this writer finds it difficult to talk about without tearing up, even now — but that it also feels ripped from the headlines, often drawing comparisons to the James Bulger case, adds another dimension. It’s stunning, yes, but also immensely hard to talk about. Imagine starring in it.

“I remember I had just made my first film, which was a Robert Redford film, called ‘Lions for Lambs,’ and then I read this incredible other script,” Garfield said. “I auditioned for ‘Boy A’ from America. I was in the Oakwood Apartments in L.A., and I sent the tape. Then I got it, and I was so scared. It was my second film. I’d never led a movie. I loved John as a theater director. I hadn’t seen any film work he had done yet. I felt just very intimidated and very excited. I was just so shocked that he wanted me to do it.”

So, yes, he was scared. And he did back out, briefly.

“Yeah, you got the fear,” Crowley said. “I don’t know that it was officially that you backed out, but we had a couple of conversations about two weeks after you had said yes where you were, I don’t know, you were trying to back out, you signed off and went, ‘I need to think. I need to think. I’m really scared.’”

They did, however, both agree that any fears Garfield had were understandable. For one thing, the film was a television production backed by Channel 4 (it did later enjoy a robust festival tour, including a TIFF world premiere, plus a theatrical release from The Weinstein Company).

“You had referenced a hospital procedural drama that you had been in where it was your first day on a set, and you’d come in and that you didn’t rehearse, so you did what you thought would’ve been a rehearsal or a first take and then it was like, ‘That’s great. Cut. Moving on,’” Crowley said. “And I promised you, that is not what we will be doing on this process.”

“That’s right! I remember now. Because it was a TV film,” Garfield said. And with only five weeks to shoot and the “TV film label” hanging on it (“it was not what it is now,” Crowley said with a smile), the then-green actor was scared. “I was like, ‘Oh, fuck, is it going to be that? Is it going to be a TV-style of making a thing?’” Garfield said. “With a film like this, I don’t want to do that. Kind of amazing that I was bold enough to be—”

‘Boy A’©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection

Crowley interrupted with a laugh. “No, you were! I remember I got off the phone, and I was sort of, in a gentle way, as it were, furious with you, but not angry angry as in a destructive way. I remember signing off the last call with you going, ‘Look, you know you’re going to do this part. Stop messing around and just get off the fence. It’s fine. I’m telling you I’ve got your back. It’s fine.’ I was really ballsy about it. And you went, ‘OK, OK,’ and you got off the phone, and you literally called me back five minutes later and said, ‘OK, I’m in. I’m in.’”

That fear stayed with Garfield, fueling his performance (it worked: Garfield won a BAFTA for the film, his first major accolade). “The fear was palpable, which wasn’t just abstract fear,” Crowley said. “What I loved about it was that it was a sort of creative ambition, that there was a sort of wanting to clear the fence behind, rather than, ‘I’m fearful. Tell me I’m fantastic.’ No, the bar was already very, very high.”

Real Sensitivity

The process bonded Garfield and Crowley, who both admired the dedication and sensitivity the other one brought to the project.

“I felt like I was just in such good, safe hands, with someone who cared deeply, someone who had real sensitivity,” Garfield said. “I remember being very scared on set, self-doubting, and John had a very calm, steady hand. Between him and [co-star] Peter Mullan, I felt I could let my nervous system settle slightly and get into the rhythm of filming a film like this. I have wonderful memories of it, and I have wonderful memories of the surprise of how it was received.”

They did not expect it would take nearly two decades to reunite on something. “Since then, really, I’ve been wanting to find something that worked for both John and myself, and that made sense,” Garfield said. “It’s been a long time coming, for sure.”

“We would check in. We kind of had the odd cup of tea along the way and a check-in, but it was never the right one or the right thing,” Crowley added. “Not that there was that many, but [there were] two or three things that never quite connected. But when I read this script, I was like, ‘A-ha. I think I know. This might actually really appeal.’”

Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh, and director John Crowley on the set of ‘We Live in Time’Courtesy Everett Collection

Adding in Pugh was easy. “It was pretty seamless, I’ve got to say. I think she’d agree. I think she felt immediately on the inside of the process,” Garfield said. “Me and John had an awareness of this [possibly being] a bit intimidating because of our previous relationship for anyone coming in. But with that awareness, I think we made a special effort to just blow the doors wide open and allow her to step in at her own pace. And she did! She stepped in very quick, and then it very, very soon became a safe, mutual place of intimacy for all three of us.”

Perhaps those intervening years helped, with Crowley and Garfield also relearning their process, while inviting Pugh to join them. “I think the phrase ‘stepping in at her own sort of pace’ is the key one there, which is in many ways what re-engaging creatively and after all these years for me is with the exact same actor,” Crowley said. “There was no way that that was going to be imposed on Florence as a, ‘Well, this is how we work. You have to come and roll with us.’”

One thing it seems the pair didn’t struggle to tap back into: how to capture intense emotionality. The subject matter of “We Live in Time” is inherently tough: Tobias and Almut meet, fall in love, get scared, struggle with infertility, grapple with Almut’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, and have to find a new way through those struggles. In short: Garfield cries a lot, but all of it is in service to the story.

“I would say that the directing that I do with Andrew isn’t in any way sort of instructive directing or descriptive directing, which is, ‘Now we’re going to cry here or be sad here,’ it’s a much more organic process where it’s an offering from Andrew, and I will nudge and respond,” Crowley said. “In this instance, it’s such a two-hander. For me, the really important thing was the eye line between these two actors, what was going on between the two of them, because they’re trying to conjure the film up from nothing.”

So, yes, the crying? “There are tears,” Crowley said with a smile. “But they’re a side effect of something. He never goes into a scene to cry or laugh. It’s something that bubbles up as a result of hitting an obstacle or something else in the scene. It was one of the things that struck me that might appeal about the role to Andrew. There are very few actors who have his emotionality, as in his range of emotion, but also he’s comfortable.”

Director John Crowley and actor Andrew Garfield pose during the photocall for the film ‘We Live in Time’ at the San Sebastian Film Festival, September 28, 2024, in San Sebastian, Guipuzcoa, Basque Country, SpainEuropa Press via Getty Images

Crowley laughed. “This is kind of hard talking about you in front of you, Andrew, but I’m just going to say: He’s comfortable,” the filmmaker said. “He’s comfortable both as an actor with his emotions, but also as a human being with his emotions. That was part of what felt fresh about Tobias. I felt Andrew would have the ease to be emotional when it was needed to be emotional, [but] when he needed to be tough or have an edge, he absolutely could do that as well.”

A “Feeling Life”

And Garfield is comfortable with emotion, and talking about it. He’s not just accessing it for his performance, but even now, months after production and deep into a press tour, it’s easy for him to discuss.

“I guess I’ve worked hard just to be able to have access to all of my feeling life, as much as possible, as a person and as an actor,” Garfield said. “With Tobias, it’s interesting, because I think he starts off pretty locked off. He’s sealed off from the world intentionally at the beginning of his chronological journey. He’s trying not to feel. He’s trying to be safe, and then he gets hit by the car. It’s like his heart gets cracked open in that process. I think it is understandable that he would’ve been terrified to feel, because he knows on some level that, once he’s cracked open, he won’t be able to stifle the tears.”

That’s not to say that Tobias is as evolved as the actor who plays him. Garfield laughed, yes, OK, Tobias does try to wiggle out of this. That’s part of his story, too.

“He tries to get out of it early on in the chronological journey: ‘I know we’ve only known each other for three weeks, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to work for this reason,’” Garfield said. “He just tries to get the fuck out of it, and it works. He self-sabotages himself into singledom again and then into loneliness and isolation. And he’s like, ‘OK, thank God I haven’t got to deal with that anymore. I can maybe find a very safe person that will end up divorcing me again.’ But then something else has begun to rumble, and he’s like, ‘Goddamn it, I can’t let this person go, and it means I have to step into my vulnerability and therefore my vitality. I have to step into the fear of losing this person.’”

Such is the crux of “We Live in Time.” “That’s the horrible primordial thing about loving something is that, baked in is the loss, whether it’s 80 years or 18 weeks down the line,” Garfield said. “I think his emotional capacity is a beautiful thing. The job of this film for me was to be as open and present as possible to the moment. Tobias has to get in touch with his own impulses, get in touch with his heart and his anger and his boundaries and his self-respect and his longing, so that he can craft and shape the life that he truly desires.”

‘We Live in Time’A24

Not all of those desires are emotional, either. Tucked into the big emotions of “We Live in Time” are a handful of heavy, sexy, funny, sweaty, and just plain good sex scenes. Why, we wondered, are those so rare?

Garfield agreed: “You don’t get to see that much [of them] these days. I don’t know what that’s indicative of, but—” Crowley added, “No, it’s odd. I don’t know what that is either.”

“I wonder if some of it is to do with a slight tediousness of sex scenes feeling like they’re a mechanic function of a plot,” Crowley said. “What I love about [Tobias and Almut] is that, because it’s a complete portrait of a marriage in five years, you’ve got two very different kinds of intimate scenes: When they first burst through the door [in their first love scene], and they can’t keep their hands off each other, and then the later one, pre-treatment, which is far more delicate. But in both cases, what’s rather beautiful is neither of them lose their sense of humor in the scenes.”

As always seems to be the case with Garfield and Crowley, it goes back to emotion. “Maybe it’s like a musical number thing,” the filmmaker said. “If it’s not believable, it’s embarrassing. It has to have this sort of emotional pressure behind it to take vertical liftoff. It might just be as simple as them being convincingly played rather than sort of expressionistically photographed. But in this case, they’re playing it beautifully.”

Garfield loved that, and he sees the joy of those scenes as extending far beyond this film or any other. “It’s delightful to luxuriate in those moments,” Garfield said. “I don’t know, maybe it’s something to do with, we are building less and less connection and intimacy with each other in our real lives, films are usually reflective of the times we’re in.”

Perhaps this film can bring people back together, Garfield mused, to feel the kind of rich emotion he and his director are so good at stirring.

“I think maybe this film feels from a different era because we are far more guarded with each other now,” the actor said. “Paranoid. Removed. Isolated. Divided. There’s far less intimacy because of this stuff. We are much less intimate with ourselves, and we’re much less intimate with death. Our feelings. Reality. Actually, we’re much less intimate with reality. There’s such a kind of dividedness around how we experience the world now, and I think it feels like this is a film filled with longing in that way. I think there’s either an unconscious or even conscious longing in the audience for these images. To see that level of intimacy and connection being lived out on screen, I think, will be a lovely reminder and inspiration for people.”

That’s worth remembering.

A24 will release “We Live in Time” in limited theaters on Friday, October 11, with a wide release to follow on Friday, October 18.