We live in a time when it’s impossible to rip yourself away from the internet for two days without missing out on whatever meme just so happens to be making the rounds that week. Jared Leto’s 2020 retreat disaster should be enough to discourage anyone from leaving society behind for a few days, but Andrew Garfield didn’t get that memo.
Garfield stars alongside Florence Pugh in We Live In Time, a gut-wrenching love story told out of chronological order. But instead of focusing on the plot or Pugh’s hairstyles, the conversation surrounding the movie right now is all about a horse. Not just any horse, this horse, who seems just as shocked to be there as you are.
The poster dropped last month, right before Garfield was about to head on a retreat for nearly a week. Is going off the grid before a big movie release the best idea? No, and while Garfield was on the retreat, the internet went wild with horse memes of all different varieties and variations.
The actor told AP News, “I was about to go into a retreat for six days where I wouldn’t have my phone. And I saw this image for our film that had been released. And I noticed the horse. And I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s an interesting choice.’ I don’t know, did I approve that? I’m pretty sure Florence didn’t approve that,” he explained. “So I saw that and I was like,’Oh, that’s a choice, man.’ Ah, I’m sure I’m the only one to notice it,’ Turn my phone off for six days,” he said. He carried on with his retreat, and finally saw the meme explosion nearly a week later.
Garfield added, “When I’m in the departure lounge coming back from wherever I was, I turn my phone on finally. And it’s just horse meme. I was wrong. People noticed it. And Colbert noticed and did a whole monologue on it. Honestly, I was crying.” While Garfield got a kick out of the horse (let’s just call him Herman), Pugh wasn’t so sure about him. In the same conversion, the duo had a heated discussion on if Herman the Horse made the final cut:
GARFIELD: How do you feel about the horse?
PUGH: I was just so grateful it’s actually not in the movie.
GARFIELD: It is in the movie. It was there.
PUGH: Not it’s not. The head of it was. The eyes weren’t. I was waiting for it.
GARFIELD: Dude, it was there. I’m sorry.
PUGH: When?
GARFIELD: In the scene when we’re on the thing. I promise you.
PUGH: I don’t think it was. I heard you laugh.
GARFIELD: It was there for a flash. Am I wrong?
PUGH: I don’t think it was in the movie, babe.
GARFIELD: Baby. This is undebatable.
We may never know if the horse is in the film (it’s not, according to Pugh) but the actress says she didn’t want the meme moment to take away from the seriousness of the film. “I was just so worried that that amazing, gorgeous, glittery moment was going to be s—- on by this horse meme — which was hilarious, sure. But I was like, ‘No! Not at that point in the movie.'” On the other hand, Garfield thinks that nobody would even know about the film if it wasn’t for the memes. You’ll just have to see if the horse makes it into the final cut when We Live In Time hits theaters on October 11th.
(Via AP News)