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Marissa MayerApr 27, 2022 12:00:00 AM2 min read

Actor Andrew Garfield Makes Surprising Admission about His Spiritual Journey: ‘If I Wasn’t an Actor, I’d Be Doing Theological Study’

Actor Andrew Garfield is turning heads — and it’s not just because the latest previews for his highly anticipated new true-crime drama “Under the Banner of Heaven” just dropped. In a recent interview, the two-time Oscar nominee and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” star made a surprising admission about faith and his spiritual journey.

“Questions of faith and spirituality, and the mystery of a spiritual life, is what I’m drawn to the most,” Garfield said. “If I wasn’t an actor, I think I’d be doing some kind of theological study.”

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Garfield plays Jeb Pyre in “Under the Banner of Heaven,” a devout Mormon detective who has a crisis of faith while investigating a grisly murder. And if you’ve been paying attention, this is just the latest in a long line of faith-related projects that Garfield has participated in.

 

He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Seventh Day Adventist Desmond Doss in “Hacksaw Ridge” and recently portrayed televangelist Jim Bakker in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” In 2016, Garfield starred in “Silence,” where he played a Jesuit priest.

And clearly, the influx of faith into his acting life has started to rub off in real life.

“I think questions of spirituality, questions of faith and doubt, questions of how to live one’s life, questions of the meaning of life … it’s only there that I think we start to really get into what we’re doing here," Garfield explained at a recent press event. “I think that just maybe the most kind of juicy question that I can ask or I feel kind of compelled to ask as a storyteller and as a creative person, and just in my life personally as well.”

This was not the first time that Garfield had spoken about his interest in spirituality and life and death.

In an interview last year, Garfield said that “life and death is everything.”

“For me, it’s a very fertile ground that is endlessly interesting,” Garfield explained. “Because if you’re dealing with spirituality, you’re dealing with faith, then you’re really dealing with life and death. And what’s more vital? What’s a greater question?”

It certainly sounds like Garfield has more questions than answers when it comes to what he believes, which is not surprising for someone who once described himself as “pantheist, agnostic, occasionally atheist, and a little bit Jewish, but mostly confused.”

But just as Jeb Pyre finds himself searching for truth in “Under the Banner of Heaven,” maybe Garfield’s pursuit of knowledge will eventually lead him to the answers he’s been looking for all along — that Jesus Christ is the “Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6).

Photo Credit: IMDB Trailers

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Marissa Mayer

Marissa Mayer is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her work has been featured in Christian Post, The Daily Signal, and Intellectual Takeout. Mayer has a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Arizona State University.

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