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Before Tick, Tick… Boom!, Andrew Garfield had never starred in a musical. Now the actor has received widespread acclaim and his first Golden Globe for Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda’s feature directorial debut. However, for all the praise he’s received for the movie, Garfield reveals the “most beautiful” aspect of making Tick, Tick… Boom! is something far more personal.

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Andrew Garfield wear suits while onstage
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Andrew Garfield | Monica Schipper

Andrew Garfield plays the late Jonathan Larson in ‘Tick, Tick… Boom!’

While Miranda is behind the camera, Tick, Tick… Boom! isn’t based on one of his own musicals. Rather, the film draws inspiration from the stage musical of the same name by Jonathan Larson. The story is a semiautobiographical account of Larson’s own struggles to create a hit musical.

Of course, Larson did ultimately land a smash hit with Rent. But he died the day of the show’s first Off-Broadway preview performance. Larson later won many posthumous awards for the ground-breaking musical, including three Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The actor shared the most impactful part of making the movie musical

In fact, Garfield considers shining a light on Larson’s work to be the best part of making Tick, Tick… Boom! In particular, he told Variety how much the feedback about the film has meant.

“It’s been all-encompassing. The most beautiful thing has been members of his family and his friends feeling like they’ve been given Jon back for a period of time. Through his music and what the film does, people who never had a relationship to his work have reached out because their lives have been reinvigorated by him. Because his story is theirs, too. You see him making these ripples in others reaffirming or recommitting to their own dreams.

I got a message today from a friend of a friend who watched it on an airplane. He wrote the most beautiful note just saying, ‘I needed this, and I didn’t know that I needed this film in this moment.’ It’s also just this reminder for people about the sacredness and the shortness of life, and how what we do matters, whether we know it in the moment or not. Jonathan didn’t know. He didn’t get to see the effect his work was going to have. But what he did matters, and we’re still reaping the joy of it now.”

As Garfield previously shared, he saw making Tick, Tick… Boom! as a way too to honor his own mother. Her death and memory informed his performance as Larson, giving even more weight to the message of the movie.

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Andrew Garfield is a prime contender in the Best Actor Oscar race

All the effort Garfield put into his performance as Larson is certainly paying off. Thanks to Tick, Tick… Boom!, the actor is getting some of the best reviews of his entire career. He’s already won his first Golden Globe and landed a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination too. Could Garfield’s first Oscar be next?

In all likelihood, yes. The way awards season is shaping up, Garfield’s biggest competitors is likely Will Smith, who plays Richard Williams — father to tennis pros Venus and Serena Williams — in King Richard. Oscar nominations are announced on February 8, 2022, ahead of the awards ceremony itself on Sunday, March 27, 2022.

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