Andrew Garfield is in New York preparing for his Broadway debut in Death Of A Salesman opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman and directed by Mike Nichols. He’ll be Peter Parker this summer. And perhaps for several summers to come. So he’s showing some impressive career variety. These are smart moves so far and they should serve him well.

But ...

Does it mean anything if he’s not having any fun?

Not that that can be determined in one interview but the tone that’s being conveyed by the writer here is that this is a very serious, very intense young actor. And if you read between her words, there’s a very light eyeroll happening here. Just me? She doesn’t make it obvious. But she’s also chosen certain descriptions, a few phrases here and there that subtly imply that he needs to spend an hour with Zoolander. Or puppies.

Apparently Garfield has chosen to stay with his character’s accent when not rehearsing. Here’s his explanation:

"No, it's just that talking about it in an English accent doesn't feel right. Whether I'm in the play or with the cast or in the world of the play in any way, I have to hear my own voice, and I don't want to confuse myself. We're all more sensitive than we realize."

During this chat, at least, Garfield's sensitivity is as much a defining trait as his seriousness. Asked about his approach to Biff, a role played on Broadway before by such notables as John Malkovich and James Farentino, he pauses and flinches.

"It's really hard to talk about," he says softly. "Everything is still gestating in my mind. It's a very mysterious process. I'm never going to fully get it — the character or the process. It's impossible to sum up who Biff is or how I relate to him, because he's as complex as any of us."

It really depends on your tolerance for actors. It’s a strange profession. They pretend to be other people for a living. Some of them can only do it by forgetting who they are. It’s “who am I?” all the time, over and over and over again. This preoccupation with themselves, or the temporal version of themselves, can compound the innate narcissism inherent in most actors...to the point where they always sound like they actually live inside their own asses.

Maybe it was just a bad interview. Because, God, this was USA Today. USA Today is considered safe. If the rest of them are like this, I worry I’ll start thinking of him like Joaquin Phoenix. And I don’t want to. I like him. SO MUCH.

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