Why Andrew Garfield Gave Up Competitive Gymnastics at Age 12: 'This Is Not a Childhood'

Mar. 15, 2025

Andrew Garfield attends the 75th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 12, 2022 in New York City.Photo:Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Long beforeAndrew Garfieldstarted acting, he was a competitive athlete.

In an interview withEsquirepublished on Wednesday, Oct. 2, the actor, 41, opened up about taking up gymnastics as a kid while living withhis parents, mom Lynn Garfield and dad Richard Garfield, in England.

Garfield became talented enough in the sport to begin training with a Russian coach, he told the magazine.

Andrew Garfield attends 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party.

However, according to Garfield, when the coach began sitting on his back while he did the splits to increase his flexibility, he realized “this is not a childhood.”

TheSocial Networkactor ultimately quit the sport at age 12, in what was “the first rebellion against my dad and his value system at the time: success and gold medals above any sense of joy, comfort, or pleasure,” he toldEsquire.

Since his father was a swimming coach when he quit gymnastics, Garfield told the outlet that he tried it out but ended up quitting as well.

Andrew Garfield attends the 28th Annual Critics Choice Awards at Fairmont Century Plaza on January 15, 2023.Phillip Faraone/Getty

“It was like thisTruman Showfeeling where you’re like, ‘I feel there is more. And I can’t identify what that more is, but I know it exists, and if it doesn’t exist, I am in big trouble,’ " said Garfield.

The movie star told the outlet that it was his mother, whodied from pancreatic cancer in 2019, that encouraged him to explore acting.

Years after many noteworthy films, includingThe Social Network,Tick, Tick…Boom!andThe Amazing Spider-Man, the actor is set to star alongsideFlorence Pughin his latest projectWe Live in Time.

Andrew Garfield attends the 95th Annual Academy Awards on March 12, 2023.Arturo Holmes/Getty

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We Live in Timearrives in theaters on Friday, Oct. 11.

source: people.com