Andrew Garfield thinks sex scenes have changed because “we are building less connection with each other in our real lives”

Andrew Garfield has spoken out about the sex scenes in his new film, We Live In Time, and why such intimate portrayals have become a rarity in modern cinema.

Based on Nick Payne’s screenplay, the tear-jerking, non-linear love story follows Tobias (Garfield) and Almut (Florence Pugh) over the course of a decade-long relationship as they experience a number of extreme highs and lows.

The film features a handful of heavy, funny, sweaty and just plain realistic sex scenes, which Garfield agrees have become less common. “You don’t get to see that much [of them] these days,” he told IndieWire in a joint interview with director John Crowley.

“I think maybe this film feels from a different era because we are far more guarded with each other now,” Garfield continued. “Paranoid. Removed. Isolated. Divided. There’s far less intimacy because of this stuff.

“We are much less intimate with ourselves, and we’re much less intimate with death. Our feelings. Reality. Actually, we’re much less intimate with reality. There’s such a kind of dividedness around how we experience the world now, and I think it feels like this is a film filled with longing in that way.”

He added: “I think there’s either an unconscious or even conscious longing in the audience for these images. To see that level of intimacy and connection being lived out on screen, I think, will be a lovely reminder and inspiration for people.”

Offering his own take on why similar sex scenes have become a rarity, Crowley suggested: “I wonder if some of it is to do with a slight tediousness of sex scenes feeling like they’re a mechanic function of a plot.

“What I love about [Tobias and Almut] is that, because it’s a complete portrait of a marriage in five years, you’ve got two very different kinds of intimate scenes: When they first burst through the door [in their first love scene], and they can’t keep their hands off each other, and then the later one, pre-treatment, which is far more delicate. But in both cases, what’s rather beautiful is neither of them lose their sense of humor in the scenes.”

Last week, Garfield admitted that he’s unlikely to feature in the forthcoming sequel to The Social Network, having appeared in the original 2010 original Facebook investor Eduardo Saverin.

He did, however, share that he would “100 per cent” reprise the role of Spider-Man for a future project.

We Live In Time will be released in cinemas across the UK and Ireland on January 1, 2025.

The post Andrew Garfield thinks sex scenes have changed because “we are building less connection with each other in our real lives” appeared first on NME.