Florence Pugh crouched and grunted like a football player emerging from a huddle to recreate a dramatic scene in “We Live in Time,” which premiered to great fanfare on the second day of the Toronto International Film Festival. During a post-screening Q&A with co-star Andrew Garfield and director John Crowley, Pugh spoke about making the tear-jerking cancer drama’s wild scene, in which she gives birth in a dingy gas station bathroom while Garfield and two strangers look on.
“It was amazing. You only saw about seven minutes. I had like eight 15-minute births. It was amazing,” she told the sniffling audience. “The only problem was, the baby didn’t come out, so I was just so tired and sweaty and exhausted. No endorphins or anything. … I’ve never had a baby, so that’s a big part of knowing how to have one, but I know so many amazing women who have had lots of babies and I’ve heard their stories.”
“It’s weird that they made that toilet into a sacred place,” Garfield added.
The A24 film follows a blossoming couple, Almut (Pugh) and Tobias (Garfield), who must navigate her potentially fatal cancer diagnosis and uncertain prognosis. Garfield, who lost his mother to pancreatic cancer in 2019, appeared emotional while answering a question from the audience about how he prepared to play a character whose loved one is afflicted by the same disease.
“This is one of those scripts where there’s already a lot of preparation. The writing was so precise,” he said. “I don’t know if you’re familiar with Nick Payne’s work, but he wrote a wonderful play called ‘Constellations,’ and he made sure I got it right. … And the way he writes about relationships is so subtle and unique, both as a playwright and as a screenwriter. So I think there was a really solid foundation. And in terms of preparation for the specificity, … I never want to know what the next take is going to be. And that can only happen if you have a scene partner who’s willing to pay attention, who’s willing to listen, who can get you to the most honest, authentic place. And that’s Florence.”
Garfield and Pugh are both Oscar nominees, and “We Live in Time” could put them both back on the winning side. The pair, who have several steamy sex scenes together, were asked about their chemistry. Pugh shrugged, drew laughter from the audience, and then offered his opinion.
“We did rehearse. It was a really special and wonderful two weeks. When you get rehearsal time on any movie, it’s so great because you get to talk about each scene and discuss how it felt,” she explained.
Crowley, who will be appearing at TIFF again since her feature film “The Goldfinch,” which premiered at the festival in 2019, uses a non-linear story structure to tell the couple’s love story, which begins when the two first meet when Almut hits Tobias while driving at night, sending them both to the hospital. Crowley spoke about her previous collaboration with Garfield (the 2007 drama “Boy A”) and how it has evolved since then.
“He did that performance in such a beautiful way, reminiscent of a child, and now he’s an adult,” he said. Garfield tilted his head back and forth at the portrayal, as if that were up for debate. “And he’s kind of accumulated all that complexity emotionally. And when I read for the part, I thought of him right away because of the scale that he’s comfortable playing emotionally, and it was the humor. I thought he’d play that humor in a way that didn’t make the character too outlandish, and made it totally real and relatable.”
A24 is set to give “We Live in Time” a limited release in the U.S. on October 11. It’s sure to resonate with audiences who are familiar with the difficult decisions people make regarding treatment after receiving a cancer diagnosis. Pugh, who reportedly struggled with the making of Olivia Wilde’s 2022 drama “Don’t Worry Darling,” raved about her experience working with Crawley and Garfield.
The “Black Widow” star said, “Even the most painful thing you could imagine having to say to someone in your life and hearing that news, I just enjoyed every single scene. I had so much fun dancing with everyone involved.”