Andrew Garfield has responded to a nontroversy earlier this month that found Twitter denizens upset over comments he made about the gay community.
Related: Andrew Garfield comes out as a gay man, with one exception
While promoting his latest role in a London revival of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America — in which he plays Lewis Ironside, a guilt-wracked gay man — Garfield quipped:
“[Watching Drag Race] is my life outside of this play. I am a gay man right now just without the physical act – that’s all.
As far as I know, I am not a gay man. Maybe I’ll have an awakening later in my life, which I’m sure will be wonderful and I’ll get to explore that part of the garden, but right now I’m secluded to my area, which is wonderful as well. I adore it.
I had to trust that it was the right thing and Tony [Kushner, writer of Angels in America] had asked me and maybe if he’d asked me, it was the right thing. It was as about doing honor, doing justice and knowing my herstory.
The preparation had begun before [rehearsals began] with a lot of my friends. [The play is] as much devoted to my friends in the gay community as it is those that passed during the epidemic.”
He says he was just trying to illustrate exactly how devoted he is to the role he’s playing.
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Related: Andrew Garfield appears out of nowhere to lip sync for his life with ‘Drag Race’ queens
“That’s of course not what I meant at all,” he tells Newsbeat.
“That discussion was about this play and how deeply grateful I am that I get to work on something so profound.
It’s a love letter to the LGBTQ community. We were talking about, ‘How do you prepare for something so important and so big?’ and I was basically saying, ‘I dive in as fully as I possibly can.”
Later on, the 33-year-old actor says he just wants to make the LGBTQ community proud:
“My only longing is to serve and to keep the world spinning forward for the LGBTQ community in whatever way I’m meant to. It’s important to a community that I feel so welcomed by. The intention [in my comments] was to speak to that, speak to my desire to play this part to the best of my ability and to fully immerse myself in a culture that I adore.”
Okay?
Terrycloth
These celebs always say something the hope.is brilliant but is so vague and confusing why say anything at all.
Yet , Andrew instead of just letting it be..has to make a correction to what he previously said by saying something even more vague…stop..just stop..you aren’t doing us ? Or yourself any favors..
mujerado
There was enough backlash that a response from him was appropriate. There was misunderstanding of what he said even on Queerty, from people who didn’t bother to watch the clip and instead just reacted to his words. It was plain, if they had just seen and heard him say it, that he was being tongue-in-cheek. Our community can be very unforgiving at times, and he didn’t want to risk that.
heckles202
Can he just STFU and continue to make out with hotties like Ryan Reynolds and Colbert?
RiBrad
Twitter is so desperate to be outraged. How sensitive can we be? We attack an ally who is doing a brilliant gay play and expresses his love of and desire to be included by the gay community? Seriously, people need to get their priorities straight. How about tweeting about the atrocities occurring in Chechnya and gay muslim men being thrown off buildings? Now there’s something to be outraged about.
JB
Preach, RiBrad. Amen!
Donston
There is so much of this self-rejecting and narcissistic “be who you want to be” agenda going on that, yes, someone who thinks “being gay” is watching RuPaul’s Drag Race does need to be corrected. This “ally” nonsense doesn’t excuse someone from being ignorant. As those are frequently the people who are the most idiotic and mostly likely to spread stereotypes. However, it was obvious the dude was being sarcastic, and the Twitter outrage brigade are very easily triggered.
mcquagg
First of all, Andrew Garfield does not play Lewis Ironside. HE PLAYS PRIOR WALTER.
There is no Lewis Ironside in this play. There is, however, a Louis Ironson, played by James McArdle.
Get the facts right, folks.
And I appreciate Mr. Garfield’s further comments.