No love lost: Andrew Garfield couldn’t stand playing Sam Altman — and explains why

If you thought Andrew Garfield would swerve well clear of another tech bro after “The Social Network” squeezed him out, think again. Instead of pitching up as Mark Zuckerberg, Garfield’s now putting on the slightly haunted mask of Sam Altman — the very real OpenAI CEO at the centre of 2023’s flashpoint: sacked one minute, rehired the next. The film’s called Artificial, and, of all people, it’s Luca Guadagnino in the director’s chair. So, this one’s less crash-zoom thriller, more ‘deeply unsettling psychodrama with very expensive jumpers’.

Who’s Garfield Actually Playing?

Let’s be clear: Garfield’s made no bones about how odd he finds the whole Altman experience. He doesn’t know the man at all (never met, never so much as shook his hand), but the role still crept under his skin in a way that made him queasier than usual. Apparently, he put Sam Altman in the same miserable bucket as disgraced TV preacher Jim Bakker — the bloke he couldn’t stand playing in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”. In his new Esquire profile, Garfield got candid about why portraying the OpenAI chief made him wish for the end credits.

Talking to Esquire about transforming into Altman, Garfield laid out his thinking before stepping in front of the camera:

Reflecting on how he played Sam Altman, Garfield stated, "I don’t know this person, to be clear. I don’t know Sam Altman. I’ve never met him." He continued, "…but I think anyone who takes on that level of responsibility for a company or a technology that you know is going to do a hell of a lot of damage to the soul of humanity [must have] a certain ability to dissociate."

He didn’t stop there. The way Garfield approaches these real-life types involves a fair degree of psychic excavation — digging into his own darker corners to mine what’s needed. It’s not a pleasant business. He admitted in the interview that whether it’s Sam Altman or whatever deeply suspect character he’s taken on lately, the sense of relief after wrapping is very, very real:

Garfield admitted, "Ultimately I’m like, ‘Thank God that’s over.’ I felt that way with Sam and with Hank [from After the Hunt]."

What’s Actually Happening with the Release?

No simple road to screens for this one. “Artificial” was originally supposed to go out through Amazon MGM Studios. That’s gone down the drain; they dropped the project, so now Neon is picking up the baton. The current plan? A tight December 2026 cinema run purely so it meets Oscar eligibility — then a wider release slides in early 2027. Anyone wanting an Altman biopic double-bill with “The Social Network” will just have to wait until next awards season madness rolls round.

“Artificial” will get a quick awards-qualifying theatrical run in December 2026 before most people see it in cinemas early 2027.