Londoner’s Diary
Florence Pugh was notably absent from the UK premiere of her film, We Live in Time, at the BFI London Film Festival last night. The actress is in New Zealand filming East of Eden, so her co-star Andrew Garfield made do by carrying a cardboard cutout of her down the red carpet with him. He even nuzzled his head into paper Pugh for the cameras.
Once inside the Royal Festival Hall, Garfield wheeled out his cardboard co-star again for the pre-film Q&A. Perhaps it was something of a comfort blanket, as Garfield admitted that the pair have become inseparable.
“I’ve never experienced this feeling in any film I’ve done,” he told the audience. “We screened our film in Toronto to an audience for the first time, and Florence couldn’t come to the afterparty for personal reasons, and I felt like half of my – this is so co-dependent – I felt like half of my being was missing.”
In the film, the pair play a couple over the course of a decade, from their unorthodox meet-cute (Garfield is run over by Pugh) to a severe cancer diagnosis which leaves Pugh’s character with months to live. “It felt like it was one performance,” Garfield intoned sincerely, while still clutching the cardboard cutout. “It was like, whatever magic was happening created something third, a spiritual third… I’ve never experienced that with another performer, another actor.”
He went on to describe Pugh as “brave, bold, fierce, uncompromising, totally comfortable with her own spirit, her own soul, her own body, and devoted to this work.” At one point he made the audience laugh by giving an affectionate pat to the Pugh simulacrum. “I know it’s hard to take any of this seriously but I do mean it sincerely,” he said.
In a post on Instagram, Pugh described Garfield’s red carpet stunt as “genius”. “It truly hurts not being there to celebrate but I’m raising a glass from very far away,” she wrote.
Despite their on-screen chemistry, the pair appear to be just friends in real life. Pugh told Vogue recently that she’s in a relationship. She chose not to reveal their identity, but was photographed in September leaving a premiere with Peaky Blinders actor Finn Cole. Earlier this year Garfield was linked to Dr Kate Tomas, a “professional witch” and spiritual mentor. Tomas revealed on Instagram this week that they split up “months ago”.
