Andrew Garfield disputed Sam Altman’s account of an encounter during the filming of Artificial, in which the actor portrayed the OpenAI CEO.
Altman previously claimed that he exchanged waves with Garfield outside his home. However, the actor insisted that he had never met or even seen the tech executive in person.
Andrew Garfield says he never met Sam Altman despite the CEO’s account
During an interview with GQ, Garfield addressed Altman’s recollection of seeing the actor filming outside his residence.
“I wasn’t there,” Garfield said when the interviewer asked about the supposed encounter.
The actor explained that he had watched Altman’s interview several times because he struggled to understand the CEO’s account.
“I never had any interaction with him. I’ve never seen him in real life,” Garfield said.
Garfield confirmed that the Artificial production had filmed outside Altman’s home. However, the crew had informed him that the executive was away at the time.
He recalled seeing a security guard at the location but maintained that he never encountered Altman.
The actor suggested that the CEO might have confused him with another person. He also ruled out the possibility of a body double causing the misunderstanding.
Meanwhile, Altman had previously shared a different version of events with Vanity Fair.
The OpenAI CEO recalled encountering the film crew while walking to get coffee near his home. He described seeing someone wearing similar clothes and carrying a matching backpack.
Altman claimed that he initially found the situation confusing before realizing the production had recreated his appearance.
“We waved and went on, but it was really weird,” he said.
Despite Garfield’s denial, an OpenAI representative subsequently told that Altman had been home during filming. The representative also maintained that the CEO had waved at the actor.
The conflicting accounts surfaced ahead of the theatrical release of Artificial, directed by Luca Guadagnino.
The film explored the internal turmoil at OpenAI surrounding Altman’s removal and subsequent reinstatement as CEO in 2023.
Garfield portrayed Altman alongside Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk, Monica Barbaro as Mira Murati and Yura Borisov as Ilya Sutskever. Mark Rylance also joined the cast as Geoffrey Hinton.
During his interview, Garfield discussed the extensive research he conducted to understand Altman’s physical mannerisms and behavior.
However, despite studying the executive for his performance, Garfield maintained that the two had never interacted.
Artificial was scheduled to arrive in theaters on Christmas Day through Neon.
