Andrew Garfield met the Oscar chatter around “Artificial” with modesty at the film’s London premiere on Sunday, saying he is “flattered that anyone is going to see this film.”
Garfield, who plays OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, spoke on the red carpet at the BFI London Film Festival gala at the Royal Festival Hall. He has two Oscar nominations and no wins. Neon, the film’s distributor, is campaigning him in the supporting actor category, while co-star Yura Borisov, who plays OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, is being pushed for lead actor. Borisov, a supporting actor nominee for “Anora,” greeted the talk with a laugh: “It’s a miracle!”
Luca Guadagnino directs the drama, which centers on the five days in 2023 when OpenAI’s board fired Altman and then reinstated him. The story spans nearly two decades and unfolds largely through Sutskever’s eyes. Monica Barbaro plays former OpenAI technology chief Mira Murati, Ike Barinholtz plays Elon Musk and Mark Rylance plays AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton. The film won warm reviews after its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 5 and reaches theaters in December.
Its route to awards season was rocky. Amazon dropped the project, and Neon rescued it. Early screening reactions were mixed, with some viewers finding it thought-provoking and others finding the pace slow.
The portrait of Altman is unflattering. One critic described Garfield’s version as a deceitful charmer. Garfield has said he wants the film to question who gets handed our power, autonomy and data, and he acknowledged it will feel confronting to Altman.
Altman has responded cautiously. In a Vanity Fair interview, he said Garfield “did walk like me,” after he saw the trailer, though he does not expect the film to be accurate. He said he once waved at Garfield near his home during filming. Garfield said he has no memory of it.
At the premiere, Garfield also said he remains curious about Altman, whom he called endlessly fascinating, “like AI itself.”
