Andrew Garfield is already generating awards season conversation for his performance in Artificial, a film about the turbulent early days of OpenAI. The movie, directed by Luca Guadagnino, premiered at the New York Film Festival last week to strong reviews. Its London Film Festival premiere on Sunday further solidified its momentum, with Garfield and co-star Yura Borisov now entering the awards race.
Garfield, who has received two previous Academy Award nominations, approached the praise with characteristic humility. He told reporters on the red carpet that he focuses on the work itself rather than external validation.
“As I’m getting older, I’m starting to understand that the things outside of ourselves, we just have no control over,” Garfield said. “And the only consistent thing for me is trying to make work that I feel proud of.”
He added that he feels “really, really proud” of the project, describing the shoot as intense. “I’m so flattered that anyone is going to see this film in the first place, let alone talk so nicely about it,” he said.
Cast and Characters in Artificial
The film dramatizes the five-day period in 2023 when Sam Altman was fired and subsequently rehired as CEO of OpenAI. Garfield plays Altman, while Yura Borisov, who earned an Oscar nomination for Anora, portrays Ilya Sutskever, the co-founder who initiated Altman’s dismissal. Borisov is campaigning for a lead actor award, while Garfield is in the supporting actor category.
Borisov described the reception as a “miracle” and admitted he was unsure how audiences would react to the complex narrative. “It’s unpredictable, I don’t know what to say,” he said. “I’m really curious how people will feel. I’ll see what happens.”
The ensemble cast also includes Monica Barbaro as former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk, and Mark Rylance as AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton. All four actors attended the London premiere at the Royal Festival Hall.
Production Challenges and Real-World Connections
Guadagnino, known for visually stylized films like Call Me by Your Name and Challengers, acknowledged the difficulty of adapting the tech world. He noted that Silicon Valley is “the least seductive visually” but promised the audience would be engaged by the story.
“It was a lot of research, very, very deep, extensive research,” Guadagnino said. “We tried to go for the most close attention to detail as possible.”
The film has faced distribution hurdles. Amazon MGM Studios dropped the project in June after investing $50 billion in OpenAI. Neon subsequently acquired distribution rights and launched an awards campaign. Sam Altman addressed the film in a recent Vanity Fair interview, stating he did not speak with Amazon executives about the drop. He also revealed that the production filmed near his home and that he waved at Garfield, who he felt accurately captured his mannerisms.
Garfield disputed the claim, saying he would have remembered seeing Altman. “I was so aware of looking for him when we were shooting near his house,” Garfield said. “I didn’t see him and I was very, very disappointed that I didn’t.”
Ike Barinholtz, who plays Musk, noted that the film captures the tech mogul before his recent political controversies. He described Guadagnino’s direction as intense, with the director reminding actors to treat the character with awe. “This is Elon Musk! You need to be like, oh my God!” Barinholtz recalled the director saying.
Garfield also revealed he had previously auditioned for the role of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. He said he was told he would play the part for a few weeks before being replaced, but the experience helped him prepare for his current role. “I started immersing myself in Mark and then… there’s a better guy for it,” he said. “But I started to imagine myself into that responsibility.”
Artificial is scheduled for release in the United States on December 25 and in the United Kingdom on January 22.
Source: Variety
