Andrew Garfield urges artists to take on Big Tech, salutes Ike Barinholtz
Andrew Garfield applauds someone while discussing how artists can challenge Big Tech — and the recipient of his applause might surprise you.
With Artificial premiering at the New York Film Festival, Andrew Garfield isn’t just playing with the idea of tech power on screen — he’s poking it in public too. In an interview with Variety tied to the festival bow, the actor argued that artists should prod the people running Silicon Valley and even nominated a favorite comedian to help make the point.
“We’re the court jesters, we’re the ones that get to say to the king or the queen, hey, have you thought about this? We’ve got a great court jester right next to us, you know, Ike Barinholtz is one of those guys.”
Garfield told Variety he quit using ChatGPT after working on the movie — he’d tried it as a research aid — and came away uneasy. Per the interview, he’s wary of how quickly the tools are being pushed when, in his view, their champions don’t fully grasp their reach, which he called irresponsible. He also said he feels a responsibility to shine a light on the subject, and he doesn’t expect actors to be made obsolete by AI.
Directed by Luca Guadagnino, Artificial is a drama about the people behind the current AI boom. Garfield plays OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, a real-world figure whose actions loom large over the debate Garfield is now wading into off screen.
Oscar plan takes shape
Distributor Neon is steering a category split that puts Garfield in the supporting actor race while elevating his co-star Yura Borisov to lead for playing OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. It’s a strategy with precedent — Meryl Streep campaigned supporting for Into the Woods, and Catherine Zeta-Jones did the same for Chicago, both to great effect.
- Andrew Garfield — Sam Altman (campaigning: supporting actor)
- Yura Borisov — Ilya Sutskever (campaigning: lead actor)
- Mark Rylance — Geoffrey Hinton (campaigning: supporting actor)
- Monica Barbaro — Mira Murati (campaigning: supporting actress)
Variety’s awards editor Clayton Davis is already forecasting a supporting actor nomination for Garfield. Beyond the acting races, Neon is also mounting pushes for best picture, director , crafts categories, and an original screenplay nod for writer Simon Rich.