Andrew Garfield spoke to Elmo about his late mother, Lynn Garfield, in a heartfelt video clip that went viral Friday, recalling the “joy” she’d brought to loved ones during her lifetime.
The actor opened up about his mom, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2019, after the Muppet character said he was “checking in on everybody” around the fictional Sesame Street.
“You know, Elmo always feels really sad when he misses somebody,” Elmo said.
“Oh, yeah, me too,” Andrew Garfield replied. “But you know, that sadness, it’s kind of a gift. It’s kind of a lovely thing to feel, in a way, because it means that you really loved somebody when you miss them.”
He then reflected on “all of the cuddles” and hugs he used to get from his mom, adding that the memories make him feel “close to her ... in a strange way.”
“I’m happy to have all the memories of my mom and the joy she brought me, and the joy she brought my brother and my dad and everyone she ever met, everyone around her,” the actor said.
“So when I miss her, I remember, I remember it’s because she made me so happy. So I can celebrate her and I can miss her at the same time.”
Garfield has previously opened up about his mom, telling late night host Stephen Colbert in 2021 that he “got to sing Jonathan Larson’s unfinished song while simultaneously singing for my mother and her unfinished song” with his performance in 2021′s Tick, Tick... Boom! The film was released decades after Larson, a playwright and composer, died in 1996.
“I’m indebted to everyone who’s brought me to this place, so that I can honor the most beautiful person that I’ve ever experienced in my life through my art and use it as a way to heal, use it as a way to sew up the wounds,” the actor said as he fought back tears.
“Because that’s what we do, right? That’s what we do, that’s what you [Colbert] do every night: You sew up our wounds.”
Garfield recently revealed that making his latest film, We Live in Tim” — in which his character, Tobias, navigates a relationship with a woman named Almut, played by Florence Pugh, after she learns she has ovarian cancer — felt like a “healing” experience.
“Every species of every living thing on this earth has lost a mother. Young dinosaurs were losing their mothers,” he said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“So in terms of my own personal experience, yeah, it felt like a very simple act of healing for myself, and hopefully healing for an audience.”