Andrew Garfield says he never waved at Sam Altman, contradicting the OpenAI chief executive’s account of a brief encounter while Garfield filmed “Artificial” outside Altman’s San Francisco home.
Altman told Vanity Fair he walked out for coffee one morning and found cameras and a man dressed exactly like him, backpack included, copying his walk. He said he worked out what was happening, waved and moved on. He added that Garfield captured his mannerisms, and that the scene felt like a “weird glitch of the simulation.”
Garfield, who plays Altman in Luca Guadagnino’s drama, gave a different account to GQ. He said he replayed Altman’s remarks several times and stayed confused. He has never interacted with the executive or seen him in person, Garfield said. Crew members were told Altman was away, and he recalls only one security guard. “I’ve never waved at Sam,” he said, suggesting Altman may have mistaken someone else for him. Garfield made a similar point to Variety at the film’s London premiere.
OpenAI is standing by Altman’s version. A company representative told GQ that Altman was home the day the crew shot outside his house and that he waved at Garfield.
The dispute follows months of attention around the film. Written by Simon Rich, “Artificial” dramatizes the five days in November 2023 when OpenAI’s board fired Altman and then reinstated him. Amazon MGM Studios dropped the project in June, shortly after Amazon invested $50 billion in OpenAI. Altman told Vanity Fair he spoke with no one at Amazon about the decision, Jeff Bezos included, and knows of no one who did.
The film premiered Oct. 5 at the New York Film Festival and has since drawn early Oscar talk for Garfield. It opens in U.S. theaters Dec. 25 and in the U.K. on Jan. 22. Garfield has also said the role left him wary of artificial intelligence and that he stopped using ChatGPT.
