For Andrew Garfield, few Hollywood experiences can top acting alongside Claire Foy twice.
“I love Claire. I love Claire as an actor. I love her as a person. I love hanging with her,” Garfield, 42, exclusively told Us at the Wednesday, July 29, screening of The Magic Faraway Tree at New York City’s Regal Union Square. “I love being her friend, and collaborating with her is a highlight of my career — both times.”
Garfield and Foy, 42, costarred in 2017’s Breathe before reuniting for the upcoming fantasy film based on Enid Blyton’s beloved children’s book series of the same name.
“She’s a rare actor and a rare human being,” Garfield gushed of Foy. “We had a really, really fun time. I did — I hope she did too!”
In acting alongside the Crown alum, Garfield felt that he stepped up his own game as a performer.
“She’s full of grace for people. She’s full of grace for an experience. She doesn’t hold onto things too tightly,” the British actor said on Wednesday. “She lets things be what they’re meant to be, and she teaches me a lot about letting go of control and letting go of having to micromanage everything. She’s someone who’s very, very happy to go with the flow with things, and I find that quite inspiring.”
As for Foy, she gushed to Us in a separate interview that Garfield is similarly a “brilliant actor.”
“He’s really a warm, silly person, and that’s lovely to be around,” Foy said on Thursday. “It was really nice to be in this dynamic with the kids, with him, and to see him play this character was a joy.”
In The Magic Faraway Tree, the Thompson family moves near an Enchanted Wood, where they discover a gigantic magical tree. Climbing the branches, the group soon discover that the tree can transport them to a variety of fantastical lands. In addition to Garfield and Foy as the parents, the film also stars Phoenix Laroche, Billie Gadson, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Nicola Coughlan, Rebecca Ferguson and Nonso Anozie.
“Every day was pretty fun, every day was pretty joyful,” Garfield told Us of the production. “Working with the kids was really, really joyful, and being in that barn, being in the countryside, and being surrounded by that fresh country air was amazing.”
Working on The Magic Faraway Tree also brought back Garfield’s own memories of childhood.
“I mean, it’s all about remembering what it is to play, remembering what it is to be connected with that inner child part — that we all have — that never really goes away,” he said. “I feel very very lucky that I got to spend a couple of months in the summer with these amazing kids, with this amazing cast, and with Claire, and with Simon [Farnaby]’s incredible script. It was just a really joyful thing.”
The Magic Faraway Tree will be released in theaters on Friday, August 21.
With reporting by Fortune Benatar
