Andrew Garfield: ‘I don’t think I present as goody-goody’

With his films Tick, Tick ... Boom! and The Eyes of Tammy Faye tipped for Oscars success, he discusses his inner malevolence, his mother's death - and his heartbreaking' time as Spider-Man

Andrew Garfield is smiling beatifically and clasping his hands together as if in prayer. The pose suits an actor who has cornered the market in the holy and heroic, from a Jesuit priest in Silence to a Seventh-day Adventist saving lives on the battlefield in Hacksaw Ridge; from a man left paralysed by polio in Breathe to a credulous innocent who dies surrendering his organs in Never Let Me Go. He is a remarkable actor, but watch too many of his movies back to back and you are liable to hear celestial trumpets.

His prayer-like gesture of gratitude comes in response to my promise not to ask whether he and his fellow former web-slinger Tobey Maguire will be appearing in the new Spider-Man: No Way Home. I appreciate that," says the 38-year-old, speaking over Zoom from Calgary, where he is shooting the murder-and-Mormons series Under the Banner of Heaven. There seems no point posing the Spidey question when he has greeted each identical inquiry this year with a display of shrugging bafflement that may or may not be genuine. (Let's see when the movie opens next month.)