Andrew Garfield hasn’t lost his wit or sense of humor, even though he’s been working non-stop on back-to-back film projects, including the fantasy-adventure film The Magic Faraway Tree.
In a recent interview, the actor won the internet over with a hilarious breakdown of Gen Z’s favorite viral phrase, “aura farming.”
Garfield has been quite his expressive self in recent media appearances, including one where he opened up about craving a quiet life away from Hollywood and his addiction to his secret Instagram account.
Andrew Garfield proved he’s very much in touch with the younger generation when he gave a funny explanation of the internet-popular catchphrase “aura farming.”
He and costar Claire Foy put their honesty to the test on Vanity Fair‘s Lie Detector Test, where they asked each other questions about their personal lives and careers, among other topics.
At some point, Foy asked him if he was “aura farming,” and he said yes before adding that he thought they were both doing it. Going on to explain the phrase, Garfield said it means that anytime someone makes a public appearance, they’re aura farming.
“It’s like what Gen-Zers are saying. Aura farming is like when you wanna look cool in front of the world. And you wear clothes that look cool, and you put on, like, a nice hat,” he noted.
Seemingly confused by his explanation, the actress laughingly echoed, “a nice hat,” before Garfield went further to vividly describe what it meant.
“Yeah, a nice hat. You came to a wedding in, like, 1994. Yeah, this is like the millennial version of aura farming. Put on a nice hat,” he continued. “You walk outside and you have a jaunty, you have a jaunty stroll around lower Manhattan with a cane and a monocle.”
Garfield Reacts To His Viral ‘Slutty’ Look Breaking The Internet
The Amazing Spider-Man star was commenting on the internet’s NSFW reaction to his “slutty” look at the 2025 Golden Globes. At the time, Garfield went viral for leaving his shirt slightly unbuttoned and wearing chic glasses.
“Did reactions online surprise you?” Foy asked, to which he replied, “Yes, they did.”
As he’d previously explained in an interview with MTV journalist Josh Horowitz, the Hacksaw Ridge actor said all he did was put on his glasses and try to adjust his shirt, as he thought he was already showing too much skin.
However, he added that many thought it was “sl-tty” and “everyone responded as if I was trying to f-ck them.”
He was then called out for exhibiting signs of “deception” after Foy asked him whether he “intentionally wanted to thirst-trap audiences.”
He admitted, saying, “maybe retrospectively, there might’ve been some unconscious desire to seduce.”
Andrew Garfield Opens Up About His Secret Instagram Addiction
In much the same way, the 43-year-old actor has been quite outgoing and expressive in several media appearances.
During a recent interview with Variety, he opened up about his addiction to his phone via his secret Instagram account, where he scrolls through videos of ceramics and Japanese craftspeople.
“I’m as addicted as anybody. My screen time notifications are horrific. It’s like, I’ve given all of those hours to nothing,” he said.
“It’s genuinely enraging because we don’t have as much control over these impulses as we should, and it’s been by design. It’s pretty dark when you look at it,” the actor added.
Andrew Garfield Opens Up About Breaking His Phone Addiction
Commenting on steps he tries to adopt to fight his addiction, Garfield noted he sometimes gets the impulse to “smash” his phone like many others do, or even toss it into the sea “because we know it’s taking our lives from us in some way.”
“I’m not better than anybody else. I’ve been told, and I find it to be true, that if you leave your phone in another room, that does a lot of the heavy lifting. As soon as it’s in the room, you’re kind of f-cked,” he continued.
Social media and technology are at the heart of his new film The Magic Faraway Tree, where he and Foy play a couple, Tim and Polly, who uproot their urban family life and tech-dependent kids to relocate to a farm in the country.
When asked whether phones were banned on set, he noted that the film’s intention “wasn’t to damn technology,” but to have a “healthier relationship” with it.
Garfield Reflects On Technology’s Impact On Human Connection
During an appearance on The Today Show, Garfield reflected on how he has been taking an introspective look at his philosophy of life.
He explained that the question of how to live a balanced life has been on his mind, especially when he considers the many technological advancements that not only make life convenient but also create a “tension between us being able to be really connected to our true selves.”
According to him, new technologies are posing a stumbling block to our connections “with each other” and “to all this beautiful nature that surrounds us.”
“How are we doing the job that we’re supposed to do, which I believe is [to] be the custodians of our planet?” he asked. “How do we take care of our planet in the way that we are meant to as conscious beings on this planet? And I feel like there’s tension there. It’s a tension I’m very, very curious about.”
