Andrew Garfield says ‘Artificial’ could paint a target on his back for tech giants

Playing a real tech kingpin has Andrew Garfield thinking about the fallout. In a new GQ profile published November 4, the actor says stepping into Sam Altman’s shoes for Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial made him acutely aware of the power dynamics he’s dramatizing — and the people who might not love seeing it onscreen.

“It’s the artist’s responsibility to reflect the times we’re in, and I think it’s getting harder and harder to do that without fear of consequences from those in power,” Garfield said.

Garfield joked that giants like Altman may be “too big to fail” and could simply brush off his portrayal, but the stakes still rattled him. He recalled waking up to see Vanity Fair call Altman the most powerful man in the world right as audiences were about to watch Garfield’s version. The actor credited Guadagnino’s fearlessness as a steadying force and admitted he’s pushing through his own apprehension.

“I am afraid, but I’m still willing to kind of put it on the line. But we’ll see.”

Inside the film

Written by Simon Rich, Artificial traces roughly two decades of AI breakthroughs before landing in OpenAI ’s 2023 leadership crisis, when Altman was ousted as CEO and then reinstated five days later after a tense boardroom showdown.

• Andrew Garfield — Sam Altman
• Yura Borisov — Ilya Sutskever
• Monica Barbaro — Mira Murati
• Cooper Hoffman — Greg Brockman
• Ike Barinholtz — Elon Musk
• Mark Rylance — Geoffrey Hinton
• Jason Schwartzman — role TBA
• Chris O’Dowd — role TBA

The production’s release saga has its own corporate twist: Amazon MGM walked away from the nearly finished movie after Amazon announced an investment in OpenAI. Neon stepped in to acquire the film, which premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 5 and screened in London days later. It opens in U.S. theaters on December 25.