Andrew Garfield shares a beautiful insight on grief following the death of his mother while talking about his film Tick, Tick...BOOM!. Garfield is best known to many fans for his portrayal of Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man movies but he has also appeared in acclaimed films like The Social Network, Hacksaw Ridge, and Silence. Garfield has found himself frequently in the headlines in recent weeks for his comments addressing his rumored appearance in the highly anticipated Spider-Man: No Way Home.
While filming The Eyes of Tammy Faye in 2019, Garfield's mother, Lynn, died of pancreatic cancer. Her death came just shortly before Garfield began production on his latest film Tick, Tick…BOOM!, the most recent project from Hamilton writer and producer Lin-Manuel Miranda. The new film is based on an autobiographical musical written by Jonathan Larson, the writer of popular Broadway musical Rent, which explores the life of an aspiring composer in New York City as he navigates his career, love, and friendship.
While appearing on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Garfield took a moment to reflect on the death of his mother and share a beautiful insight on grief. Garfield chokes up at first when discussing his mother, but says, "If I cry it's only a beautiful thing," because it's just a form of "unexpressed love". Garfield stresses that we don't truly ever get enough time with the ones we love and that he hopes the grief he's feeling stays with him because it's "all the unexpressed love that I didn't get to tell her." Check out Garfield's full comment below:
"If I cry it's only a beautiful thing. This is all the unexpressed love. The grief that will remain with us until we – because we never get enough time with each other, no matter if someone lives until 60, 15, or 99 – so, I hope this grief stays with me because it's all the unexpressed love that I didn't get to tell her. And I told her every day – we all told her every day. She was the best of us."
After discussing his mother, Garfield explains how her ing ultimately made its way into his performance in Tick, Tick…BOOM!. Thematically, it resonated with Garfield because, as he describes, "This film is to do with this ticking clock that we all have." After stressing just how sacred and short life really is, Garfield says that playing the character of Jonathan Larson, who died suddenly at the age of only 35, was a cathartic experience on several levels. "I got to sing Jonathan Larson's unfinished song while simultaneously singing for my mother and her unfinished song," he concludes, emotionally.
While losing a loved one is never easy, Garfield's insight on grief and the sentiment that it is actually unexpressed love is a beautiful one. Tick, Tick…BOOM! was already dealing with emotional subject matter considering the sudden and tragic death of the person upon which it is based, but the death of Garfield's mother has added another layer to the story and to his performance. Like Larson, Garfield's mother died too soon, but, if there's one silver lining to be found in any of this, it's the hope that Garfield's words – and his performance in Tick, Tick…BOOM! – will inspire others to hold their loved ones a little closer. Tick, Tick... BOOM! is now playing on Netflix.
