Andrew Garfield can do it all. He’s been a war hero, a Jesuit priest, a superhero, a loving dad, and a neurotic YouTube star. Yet, he’s still largely overlooked when the topic is his generation’s best actors.
The 41-year-old Los Angeles native has been acting since he was 21 and has since built a career that spans the screen, big or small, and the stage, with equal charm and precision. With two Oscar nominations, one Emmy nomination, and one Tony win under his belt, he’s already on the path to EGOT greatness. His CV is as rich as it is entertaining, but for this article, we’re narrowing it down to his ten best on-screen performances.
10. The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)
Garfield plays evangelist Jim Bakker in this Tammy Faye Bakker biopic led by an Oscar-winning turn from Jessica Chastain. The film takes from the 2000 documentary of the same name, tracing the couple’s rise to fame as the heads of the world’s biggest religious broadcasting network as well as their fall from grace at the hands of scandal.
9. Mainstream (2021)
Mainstream is perhaps the most divisive entry to this list. Garfield plays Link an eccentric man who is turned into a YouTube star by Maya Hawke’s filmmaker character. Link is a hit, a view and subscription magnet, but the self-feeding nature of social media soon leads the duo to take things too far for the sake of content. It’s a chaotic film satirizing influencers that dances, dizzily, between brilliance and failure.
8. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
Andrew Garfield’s take on the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has been experiencing a renaissance ever since the actor reprised the role in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. Although his Peter Parker didn’t get much of a fighting chance, the power of hindsight has crowned Garfield’s performance, which perfectly mixed awkwardness, cocky, and vulnerability, as arguably the best iteration of the character.
7. Under the Silver Lake (2018)
We use the expression “ahead of its time” too often, but it certainly applies to 2018’s Under the Silver Lake, where Garfield shares the screen with another underrated talent — Riley Keough. This surrealist black comedy will take you on the trip of your life, all while deconstructing and satirizing the Hollywood-centric conspiracy theories that have imbued pop culture for a century.
6. Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Hacksaw Ridge earned Garfield his first Oscar nomination in 2017, and for good reason. The Brit-American actor is powerful in this depiction of Desmond Doss, a World War II United States Army Corporal who refused to carry a weapon when he joined the front as a medic. Like most war movies favored by the Academy, you will find bravery and drama in spades in this one.
5. We Live in Time (2024)
Considering how magnetic Garfield was opposite Emma Stone in TASM, there’s a surprising lack of romance in his filmography. Thankfully 2024’s We Live in Time has come to fix this oversight. This brilliant, beautiful look at a decade’s worth of a couple’s relationship with Florence Pugh playing the 41-year-old’s other half, will make you laugh, sob, and reevaluate your life.
4. Under the Banner of Heaven (2022)
Religion seems to be more or less of a theme in Garfield’s filmography, but his Emmy-nominated turn in Under the Banner of Heaven is a particularly striking look at a faithful man at odds with his beliefs. Created by Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, this FX limited series depicts the real-life investigation into the murder of Mormon housewife Brenda Lafferty and her baby. Garfield plays Detective Jeb Pyre, who shares in the Mormon faith of the victims.
3. Silence (2016)
Following in the themes of disillusionment in and criticism of religion, Martin Scorsese’s Silence stars Garfield as a Portuguese Jesuit priest who, joined by Adam Driver in a similar role, searches for Liam Neeson’s Cristóvão Ferreira in 17th century Japan. This historical epic is loaded with detail, philosophical questions, and violence, with Garfield’s character acting as its moral compass.
2. Tick, Tick… Boom! (2021)
Garfield’s second Oscar nomination came with another biopic, this time about Jonathan Larson who wrote Rent and Tick, Tick… Boom! before dying suddenly at 35. This Lin-Manuel Miranda-directed musical is vibrant, bold, and heartfelt, and features the actor in his first-ever singing role for which he practiced over the course of a year.
1. The Social Network (2010)
![THE SOCIAL NETWORK - Official Trailer [2010] (HD)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lB95KLmpLR4/hqdefault.jpg)
Known as one of the greatest films of the 21st century, David Fincher’s The Social Network was a break-out role for Garfield who plays the Eduardo Saverin to Jesse Eisenberg’s Mark Zuckerberg in this Facebook origin story. Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin transform the story of the world’s pioneering social media into one of friendship, betrayal, and loneliness.
