Andrew Garfield stops by SmartLess to talk about playing Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy in the new series 'Wild Things' — a man who survived a tiger attack after 40 years of incident-free work — and Sam Altman in a Luca Guadagnino film about OpenAI's boardroom crisis. He also opens up about being 42, childless, and wanting a family, while the hosts riff on Letterman, GLP-1 drugs shrinking the bear community, and Jason Bateman's Iceland film shoot.
Key Moments
Andrew Garfield
“He so 40 years he worked with these animals and there was no incident with him ever. And there was one night in 2003 where the tiger went tiger.”
Andrew is explaining Roy Horn's relationship with his tigers before the 2003 attack, defending Roy's genuine spiritual connection to animals.
“Voice note after voice note after voice note of just raves from the 7 8 9 10 year-olds that um that I have a connection. It was honestly like why have I done anything other than this up until now.”
Andrew describing the reaction from his friends' kids after screening The Magic Far Away Tree, calling it the best reviews of his life.
SmartLess is a comedy interview podcast hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett, where one host surprises the others each week with a mystery guest. Known for its loose, irreverent banter and genuine camaraderie between the three hosts, the show blends celebrity interviews with relentless ribbing and off-topic tangents. It consistently ranks among the most-listened-to podcasts in the US.
Takeaways
1
Garfield plays Sam Altman in Guadagnino film Andrew Garfield has been cast as Sam Altman in a Luca Guadagnino-directed film focused on Altman's ouster from and return to OpenAI. Garfield admits he's never met Altman and had to interpret him entirely from public material and the script, and says he's genuinely scared about the backlash potential. The film aims for moral ambiguity rather than villain or hero framing.
2
Garfield plays Roy Horn in 'Wild Things' series Andrew Garfield stars as Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy in a new series called 'Wild Things,' directed by John Hoffman. He describes Roy as someone who had zero incidents with his tigers over 40 years before the famous 2003 attack, and says he physically fed a live tiger by hand during production. The show explores what specifically triggered that one night.
3
Doing a family film was deliberate creative relief After consecutive brutal shoots — including a medieval peasant war film in Munich with Paul Greengrass — Garfield chose 'The Magic Far Away Tree' explicitly to have an easier, more joyful experience. He says the enthusiastic voice notes from 7-to-10-year-olds who screened it were the best reviews of his career. He frames this as a lesson: the audience response from children hits differently and more gratifyingly than adult critical acclaim.
4
Paul Greengrass makes actors want to suffer for him Garfield describes working with Greengrass on 'The Uprising' — a handheld, visceral peasant revolt drama shot in muddy Munich fields — as 'the best possible misery.' He says Greengrass is the kind of director whose vision makes you voluntarily embrace discomfort, comparing it to the dynamic on 'Captain Phillips' and the Bourne films. The cast includes Tom Hollander, Jamie Bell, Cosmo Jarvis, and Steven Dillane.
5
Garfield, 42, openly wants kids but doesn't have them When asked casually if he had children, Garfield volunteered that he is 42, childless, and 'not entirely proud of that,' saying he would love to start a family. This moment of candor — unsolicited — stood out as unusually personal for a light comedy podcast. It reframes his motivation for the family film as partly aspirational rather than purely professional.