Andrew Garfield is calling Neon a "daring studio doing daring films" after the indie distributor stepped in to save Artificial, the Luca Guadagnino-directed film about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Garfield plays Altman in the film, which chronicles the turbulent period in late 2023 when Altman was fired and rehired by OpenAI's board in a matter of days.
The actor spoke about the controversy at the New York premiere of his new movie The Magic Faraway Tree, and also sat for a separate interview with Variety. Together, the two accounts paint a picture of an actor who saw the studio upheaval coming, at least in retrospect.
"I was and I wasn't surprised," Garfield told Variety. "I think there are certain things that fit certain places and don't fit other places and they [Amazon] were nothing but supportive and nothing but encouraging while we were making the film."
Amazon MGM Studios announced earlier this summer that it was dropping Artificial just months after Amazon entered into a $50 billion investment partnership with OpenAI. The timing drew immediate attention. Sam Altman had also attended Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's wedding less than a year before the film was dropped. Amazon issued a statement through a spokesperson at the time, saying, "We have the utmost respect and admiration for Luca Guadagnino as an award-winning filmmaker — not to mention a longstanding relationship that we hope to continue. We believe that Artificial will be better served if it were released by a different studio and are working closely with the filmmaking team to find the film a new home."
Several major studios passed on the project before Neon acquired it. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros., Netflix, and Focus all declined, with sources telling THR that studios were reluctant to pick up the film for a variety of reasons, including political concerns.
Speaking to THR at the New York premiere, Garfield said he was glad the film found its way to Neon. "I'm really grateful to Amazon for making the film with us and I'm also really grateful to Amazon for helping it find a new home. And I think Neon's a really, really exciting home for it. I think it's a really good fit and I'm really excited to release it with them," he said, adding that Neon was "a daring studio doing daring films so I'm very, very excited to be partnering with them on it."
Neon has committed to launching an awards campaign for the film, which is being positioned for this year's Oscar race. The nearly completed film carries a reported budget of $40 million.
Garfield told Variety he never contacted Altman directly during his research and preparation for the role. "I wouldn't know how to. I don't have his number. I don't have his email," he said. "But I'm sure that he'd be able to reach me if he wants to. I'd be very excited and curious to talk with him if he would ever want to do that."
He also acknowledged the limits of playing a living public figure. "He's very very documented," Garfield said. "There are lots of interviews. There's lots of visuals and audio and reporting. I, of course, would have loved and still would love to meet Sam. But I'm playing a version of the character that was written in the script, and I think that while you want to be as truthful to that as you can, you're never going to understand anyone ever fully ever anyway. We're all so complicated and deeply layered, and I think that Mr. Altman is probably no exception."
The film's supporting cast includes Monica Barbaro as OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati, Yura Borisov as OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, and Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk. The cast also includes Mark Rylance, Jason Schwartzman, Zosia Mamet, Cooper Hoffman, Chris O'Dowd, Cooper Koch, and Billie Lourd.
Cooper Hoffman, whose specific role in the film has not been revealed, spoke to Variety at the Los Angeles premiere of a separate film Tuesday night. He said he was not surprised Amazon pulled out. "I'm shocked they picked it up in the first place," Hoffman said. "I was like this feels like you are all in like, I don't know … I don't know who's running everything. When they dropped it, it was kinda like, 'Oh, yeah, that kinda actually makes sense,' but then it got picked up by Neon, which I'm so happy about. I love Neon and I couldn't be more happy."
A release date for Artificial has not yet been set.
