Co-stars Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh Reveal Their Favorite Onscreen Couples

Trust, patience, kindness, nourishing, sensitivity, tenderness, trust again, and total understanding.

Ask Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield the key to amazing onscreen chemistry, and they each tick off a list of sweet adjectives. With a few extra details.

“You really want the other person to be the best version of themselves,” Garfield says. Chimes in Pugh, “And you have to appreciate that what they’ve got may be different to what you’ve got, but you still appreciate what they’re bringing.”

Of course, it’s one thing to give the right answers; it’s another to show it all onscreen. And the two hot movie stars bring it in their wonderful new movie, We Live in Time (opening wide Oct. 25.) Pugh is Almut; Garfield is Tobias. They Meet Cute, fall for each other, welcome a baby girl and then grapple with a cancer diagnosis and a gutting decision—six months of a great life versus a year of risky chemo. The story is also purposely jumbled, as the above events unfold in non-linear key scenes and moments. Bring the tissues for sure, but also settle in for heartwarming and relatable laughs.

“The film takes two very normal people and shows how the spontaneity and joy and beauty and longing in our lives can be faced with when you realize you could lose everything,” Garfield says.

Surprisingly, though Garfield, 41, and Pugh, 28, are native Brits, versatile Oscar nominees—her for Little Women; him for Hacksaw Ridge and Tick, Tick ... Boom—and members of the Marvel club (by way of The Amazing Spider-Man and Black Widow, respectively), they’d never met prior to filming. “Maybe we met in another life,” Pugh says.

But now they’re legit friends and professional travel partners. The two world-premiered their movie at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 6 and then headed to New York City for two days of interviews. Next stop: London for more promotion. “It’s actually been a really beautiful experience talking about it because of the way the movie has affected people,” Pugh says.

Just before catching that flight to London, Garfield and Pugh talked to Parade.

Mara Reinstein: What was it like premiering your movie at TIFF? Any nerves?

Garfield: It was definitely terrifying. You’re walking out with no skin and completely naked. Like I always have to tell myself, “If they don’t get it, they don’t get to have it.” And Florence always says that just making the movie and creating these characters have been enough.

Pugh: Yeah, when we finished filming, I didn’t need to see the movie. I was like, “This is great. I feel happy.”

So did you stay and watch with the crowd?

Garfield: I did. It was such a nice audience. They laughed so loud, sobbed so loud and sniffed so loud. It was nice to be surrounded by that energy.

Pugh: I think it’s a privilege to watch a movie at a film festival. These are people who want to be there and appreciate art.

Why don’t they make a lot of original, contemporary romances anymore?

Garfield: The film industry is suffering financially in certain ways. They want safe bets. They want things that people know and characters that people have a pre-existing relationship with, whether it be Barbie or Marvel characters. All those films are completely wonderful. But you want to be able to offer all these different styles and sizes and types of genres. I also think there's maybe a movement back toward heartfelt, pure, essential love films, or just films that, like, touch the heart and are about the joys of the simple things.

Then was it a challenge to take on this kind of role?

Pugh: It should have been harder than it was. But no, it was an absolute joy. The more we started working with each other, the easier the language became, the more depth and knowledge we got on the characters that we were playing in the relationship. Their relationship grew. And Andrew and I had this fluent language that we were speaking pretty early on, and so I didn't really actually do that much preparation. Obviously the themes of the movie are very tricky and heavy, but it really felt like we were able to dance together.

Who’s your favorite onscreen romantic couple?

Garfield: Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Sleepless in Seattle. It’s the first one that popped in my head.

Pugh: Ooh, Blue is the Warmest Color. My goodness, [Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos] are so in love and just the way that they look at each other, it’s just like they’re eating each other with their eyes.

Do you consider yourselves good friends now? You’re certainly spending a lot of time together.

Pugh: I feel very lucky that I got to meet Andrew at the point in my life where I did. It’s very rare to have a person in your life where you can just constantly keep on asking things like “Why are you the way that you are? Why do you think that way? Why do you believe in that?” and be able to have a very open and raw friendship. We talk about the state of the world and we talk about the movie and it's genuinely always such a joy to talk to him about how his brain works.

Andrew, what surprised you most about Florence?

Garfield: I don't know if I was surprised by anything because I really didn't have much expectation. I knew she was talented. Then I suppose, I was happily surprised to find out that she was really devoted to the work and wanted to travel deep and didn't shy away from the work. We both wanted our work to be representative of our souls and of our hearts. That’s the shit that turns me on.

This is your last interview of the day. Let’s hear some fun dirt on each other.

Pugh: You didn’t know I used to collect snails.

Garfield: She would put them all over her body.

Pugh: My mother is a big gardener. She would tell me that I didn’t collect snails, they would die. So I had a small snail farm. It was amazing.

What about pet peeves?

Garfield: I have a pet peeve. There was a song but really . . .

Pugh: I know how much this annoys him, and so I continue to do it.

Garfield: Let me tell the story! We were in the car for a scene, and I was playing music on my iPhone. It was just shuffling, and this song came on. I think it was Lucy Pearl. I was really excited to share it with Florence. I was like, “Oh, do you know this song?” And before I got into it, she said, “This is this song played at my mother's wedding.” I'm like, “This probably came out after your mom got married.” But she was doing a bit.

Pugh: It was just a bit. And he hated it.

Garfield: It was genuinely funny at first. But then she kept going. By the time the song was over, she didn't actually hear it because she was so devoted to the bit. She could see it was getting to me. I felt like I was with my older brother again.

Pugh: Now whenever he tries to explain something to me or share knowledge with me, I’ll say “Oh, it was at my mother’s wedding.”

Garfield: We have a little bit of a sibling thing going on.

Where are you going from here?

Pugh: London in two hours. Press for We Live in Time. Then production in a few weeks. But I’m going to be bothering Andrew on his bed in the plane going, “This song played at my mother’s wedding.”

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity