On Sunday night, the stars of Hollywood got glammed up and attended the SAG Awards at the Barker Hangar of Santa Monica Airport in Santa Monica, California.
The glitzy event, which required a negative COVID test and proof of vaccination to attend, occurred at an admittedly strange time, what with COVID-19 still claiming thousands of lives a week and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. One of the few actors to address this striking juxtaposition during E!’s red carpet festivities was none other than Andrew Garfield, who was nominated for his electrifying turn as playwright Jonathan Larson in the Netflix musical tick, tick…BOOM!
“[It’s] a tricky day to celebrate,” said Garfield. “Keeping what’s happening in Ukraine in our hearts. It’s weird. It’s definitely odd that we are dressing up in this moment, but yeah, I’m very, very grateful to be here with our community—a community of love—and trying to bring Jonathan [Larsen] seasons of love.”
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Garfield, 38, also expounded on his turn as Larson, who crafted the celebrated musical Rent as a tribute to the friends he’d lost to AIDS in New York City—before passing away himself at the age of 36.
“He wasn’t thinking about how he sounded; he was just thinking about getting heard,” offered Garfield. “He was trying to reach the innermost ear of Ronald Reagan and the halls of Congress during the times of the AIDS epidemic. So, he was just trying to soul-cry his song into the unconscious minds—and into the hearts—of all of America. So, for me, it was like getting to that place of confidence where I felt like I could fill up his lungs with my lungs and fill up his soul with my soul.”
