Courtney McGrailThe actor Andrew Garfield, who stars in the forthcoming Silence has spoken of how he joined his co-stars Liam Neeson and Adam Driver for a seven-day silent retreat before their portrayals of Jesuits in the Martin Scorcese film of Christianity’s beginnings in 17th-Century Japan.
“If I’d had 10 years, it wouldn’t have been enough to prepare for this role,” Garfield said of his time at the St Beuno retreat centre in Wales. “I got totally swept up in all things Jesuit and very taken with Jesuit spirituality…by the time we got to Taiwan, it was bursting out of me.”
Retreat
During the retreat, Garfield explained, he participated in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola, which were devised in the 16th Century. “You enter into your imagination to accompany Jesus through his life from his conception to his crucifixion and resurrection. You are walking, talking, praying with Jesus, suffering with him. And it’s devastating to see someone who has been your friend, whom you love, be so brutalised.”
Silence stands as one of two faith-based films in which Andrew Garfield appears in 2017. In addition to Scorcese’s work, he also takes a lead role in Hacksaw Ridge, the WWII tale of Desmond Doss, a Christian pacifist who went on to win America’s Medal of Honour for his courage in rescuing fellow soldiers during the battle for Okinawa.
