Andrew Garfield says he's ‘really scared' of backlash to playing OpenAI's Sam Altman

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Andrew Garfield has admitted that he's nervous about the backlash to playing OpenAI and ChatGPT founder Sam Altman in a forthcoming movie. Artificial, directed by Luca Guadagnino, stars Garfield as Altman during his firing and rehiring from OpenAI in 2023. The movie has already had a rocky start after Jeff Bezos's Amazon MGM Studios pulled out as the film's distributor earlier this year. In a new interview with the SmartLess podcast, Garfield revealed that he is trepidatious about the reaction to the film, saying: 'I'm nervous about that one. I'm really scared about that one.' When hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett probed him on whether it was the 'backlash' he was nervous about, Garfield replied: 'Well, yeah. You're playing one of arguably that most powerful people on this planet right now, or an interpretation of this person.' 'I've never met Sam Altman, I don't know anything about the interior of his soul. I just had to interpet what I understood, what I saw, what I read, what my imagination gave me, and what the script gave me,' he continued. He added that the movie isn't intended to make Altman look bad, adding: 'I hope we're not villainizing anyone or making anyone into a hero or villain. What Luca's films do, he gets into the grey area of what it is to be human.' Garfield has found himself at the forefront of movies about the tech world, having starred as the Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in the 2010 movie The Social Network. In June, Amazon MGM Studios revealed that it would not be distributing the nearly-finished $40 million film, stating that it would 'be better served if it were released by a different studio'. Indie distributor Neon won rights to release the film in a bidding war. Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled. ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. The move came just months after Amazon announced it was investing $50 billion in OpenAI and roughly a year after Altman attended the wedding of Amazon founder Bezos and Lauren Sánchez. Garfield said in July that he 'was and wasn't' surprised by Amazon choosing to drop the movie. 'I think there are certain things that fit certain places and don't fit other places and they [Amazon] were nothing but supportive and nothing but encouraging while we were making the film,' he told Variety. 'Luca has a really great relationship with them and I've developed a lovely relationship with them as well. I'm grateful that they've helped the film to find the home that it was meant to find.' Meanwhile, co-star Cooper Hoffman – who plays OpenAI chairman Greg Brockman in the film – said he wasn't surprised at all by Amazon wanting nothing to do with the film. 'I'm shocked they picked it up in the first place,' he said. 'I don't know who's running everything. When they dropped it, it was kinda like, 'Oh, yeah, that kinda actually makes sense,' but then it got picked up by Neon, which I'm so happy about. I love Neon and I couldn't be more happy.' The biographical comedy drama, written by former Saturday Night Live writer Simon Rich, also stars Monica Barbaro, Yura Borisov, Mark Rylance, Jason Schwartzman and Zosia Mamet. Elon Musk – who is one of the founders of OpenAI – will be played by The Studio's Ike Barinholtz. Artificial is in cinemas October 5.