Andrew Garfield explains why he returned to acting for his R-rated romance with Florence Pugh – and how it helped him "process" life

We Live in Time sees Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh play a couple across three distinct time periods. The time-jumping narrative covers key moments of their relationship, from first meetings to pregnancy, as well as some heartbreaking extra challenges that Tobias and Almut face.

Before taking on the film, Garfield – who's well known for roles in movies like The Social Network and Spider-Man as well as shows like Under the Banner of Heaven – had taken a sabbatical from acting. However, he explains to GamesRadar+ that We Live in Time felt like the perfect project to return for.

"It felt like it was part of the break weirdly, it felt like this is like a lovely thing to do while I'm on break," he laughs. "Like in the sense of I was already thinking about all of the things that this film was about. I was just thinking, feeling, looking out the window, reflecting on life, thinking about what life's about, what love's about, and how losing people is part of living.

"It felt like just tailor-made for the exact existential midlife moment I was in, and I thought, well, this isn't going to take away from my life. This is actually going to enhance where I am. And if it is going to enhance where I'm at and help me process where I'm at, then it's going to help a lot of other people process where they're at and heal, do some healing, and be a mirror to an audience."

He continues: "That was exciting to me to be able to, rather than just stew in my own juices as it were, and just kind of be in my own private process, which I had done already for a year, I was like, 'Well, probably [it's] a generous, good thing and [it will] probably feel really good to exorcize these feelings and to express them in this beautiful vehicle of a film. And it was, it really was. It didn't feel like work. It felt like part of the holiday, actually, part of the sabbatical."

We Live in Time is available on digital in the US now and out on January 1, 2025 in the UK. For more, check out our guide to upcoming movies that should be on your radar and our picks of the best movies of 2024.