Andrew Garfield owes it all to Ryan Gosling: what “Spider-Man” said about “Ken”

After his first Emmy nomination for Under the Banner of Heaven, Andrew Garfield said there was one actor who changed everything for him.

Specifically, a screen test with Ryan Gosling would have had a lasting impact on how Andrew Garfied approaches acting right now.

Garfield currently plays a Mormon detective who struggles with his faith while investigating a grisly murder that apparently involves the church. Heaven is just the latest film in a series of roles that Garfield does by the book.

Earlier this year, he was nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards for the Lin-Manuel Miranda biopic Tick, Tick… Boom!

The actor has previously mentioned that he is particularly interested in characters who are defined by either their faith or the loss of it. Prior to his role in Heaven, he played a 17th-century Jesuit priest in Martin Scorsese’s 2016 film Silence.

Ryan Gosling, a kind of mentor to Andrew Garfield

He has said that his acting is defined by an experience he had with none other than Ryan Gosling.

In a recent appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Garfield recalled a screen test he did with Gosling in 2005 for a film adaptation of Michael Chabon’s novel, The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier & Clay.

The screen test, which Andrew says was “a pivotal moment” for him as an actor, coincided with the first time he was in front of a camera, but also the first time he worked alongside an actor who approached roles differently.

“Ryan was full of life. He didn’t really want to do it the same way over and over again. He listened, he was very present, he was spontaneous, he was surprising, and he didn’t try to play classical. He had a zen quality, but it was like being in a scene with a wild animal where you don’t know if it’s going to kiss you or kill you,” said Andrew Garfield.