Making Creator Headlines · Page 4
Garfield's First Impression Did Not Come With a Character Arc
· New York time
Andrew Garfield, who portrays OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in Artificial, has recalled initially admiring Altman after seeing him testify before Congress. Garfield said he once thought the technology executive could be a future best friend, a striking contrast with his less flattering portrayal in the film. The recollection captures a familiar problem in public life: a person seen on a screen can feel immediately legible, even when the viewer knows very little about them. An appearance before lawmakers offers a particular kind of introduction, filtered through the setting, the questions and the audience's expectations. Playing a real figure asks an actor to move beyond that first impression and make choices about how a character comes across. Garfield's account gives the audience a glimpse of how far his initial response was from the role he later played. It also shows how quickly admiration can attach itself to a public presentation, before a viewer has much else to go on. The imagined friendship arrived in the space of a congressional appearance. The more complicated screen portrayal came later, with the benefit of a script and a different set of choices. First impressions rarely get to see their own revisions; Garfield's happened to turn into a movie.
Read this story in the full newspaper →Satire. Not factual reporting. Read the original reporting from the linked publishers.