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Andrew Garfield has opened up about his desire to escape the Hollywood spotlight one day.
The Amazing Spider-Man star has spent much of the past year working on back-to-back projects, including the new Enid Blyton adaptation The Magic Faraway Tree, the action period drama The Uprising and Luca Guadagnino’s Sam Altman biopic, Artificial.
In a new interview with Variety, Garfield, 43, was asked if he ever thought about leaving his career in the public eye behind.
“All the time,” Garfield admitted.
“I’ve worked a lot this year. I’ve done like 11 months, 12 months, straight back-to-back projects. I want people to see those projects, so I’m gonna have to tell people about them. I get that. But if I had my druthers, people would just see them, and I could go whittle wood in the Somerset countryside and think about what the birds might be doing.”
Andrew Garfield has admitted he thinks about leaving Hollywood ‘all the time’ (Getty)
Garfield currently stars in ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ alongside Claire Foy (Entertainment Film Distributors)
Earlier in the interview, Garfield spoke about fulfilling his dreams as an actor. “I still have dreams, but they’re slightly more earthbound than my previous ones,” he said.
“They’re maybe a bit more philosophical and existential than achievement-based. Now I think it’s more I want a certain quality of life. I want a certain quality of relationships with my family and friends. I want a certain quality of relationship with myself.”
The Hacksaw Ridge star does have form when it comes to taking a break from the spotlight. In 2022, following the release of three major films (The Eyes of Tammy Faye, tick, tick… BOOM! and Spider-Man: No Way Home), Garfield revealed he was taking a career hiatus.
“I need to recalibrate and reconsider what I want to do next and who I want to be and just be a bit of a person for a while,” he told Variety at the time.
“Because as you know, that is a washing machine, that awards season. I need to just be a bit ordinary for a while.”
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His absence from the screen lasted roughly two years following the release of Hulu’s true-crime series Under the Banner of Heaven in 2022 before he officially returned to lead the romantic drama We Live in Time, which premiered in late 2024.
The Magic Faraway Tree is out now in theaters.