Tick, Tick…Boom! star Andrew Garfield has spoken about how he feels the recent Netflix adaptation of the musical is giving hope to young people who feel like they have a calling. Tick, Tick…Boom! is a semi-autobiographical musical written by Jonathan Larson before he went on to create the Broadway smash-hit Rent. The adaptation, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s feature directorial debut, stars Garfield as Larson as he struggles to get his musical Superbia off the ground before his thirtieth birthday.
Tick, Tick…Boom! is a love letter to musicals, filled with Broadway cameos (including the late Steven Sondheim), all while staying true to Larson’s original production. The Netflix film has been generally very well received. Garfield in particular has garnered a huge amount of critical acclaim for his lead role in the movie-musical, including a Golden Globe award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. The story accurately portrays the struggles that many young creatives face, enduring rejection over and over again in the hopes of one day breaking into the industry.
Now, Garfield has spoken about why he thinks that Tick, Tick…Boom! has resonated with so many young people. In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Garfield said that it was “great” that young people are responding to the musical so “strongly” because it portrays rejection and failure as something “we all have to go through.” The actor went on to say that “it’s giving a lot of hope” to young people who feel like they have a specific calling in their life. Read the full quote below:
“It’s so great that people are - young people, especially - are responding to it so strongly I think because it feels like the kind of quintessential portrait of like a young artist struggling and having to go through rejection and failure, which we all have to go through at a young age when we’re training or when we’re studying, or when we’re trying to, y’know, make it in whatever business we’re in. And I think, I don’t know, it’s giving a lot of hope to a lot of young people who feel a vocation, feel a calling to a specific image of a dream of their life, and I’m just like - that’s awesome.”
Garfield sums up perfectly why so many people have responded so well to Larson’s story. Tick, Tick…Boom! captures the trials and tribulations of trying to “make it” as written by someone who would go on to have a massive breakthrough just a few years later. Though Larson tragically never got to see Rent open on Off-Broadway, Tick, Tick…Boom! celebrates his legacy and encourages its younger viewers to keep pushing for their dream because they never know what opportunities might be around the corner.
Garfield clearly understands Larson and the message of Tick, Tick…Boom! very well, so it's no surprise that he’s received so much well-deserved praise for embodying the composer, lyricist, and playwright. The actor recently said he’d be open to doing another musical, after learning how to sing for the movie. With his incarnation of Spider-Man recently gaining more appreciation as well with the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Garfield is the perfect person to give young creatives hope for future success.
Source: Jimmy Kimmel