Andrew Garfield Becomes Vulnerable Through Grief, With Elmo's Support

Andrew Garfield inspired new online discussions about grief and emotion after a video of him opening for Elmo from “Sesame Street” drew millions of views on social media and an influx of support.

A clip of Garfield talking to the Muppet, shared with X on Friday, sparked a flood of responses from social media users who shared that they could relate to Garfield’s pain.

Garfield’s mother, Lynn, died of pancreatic cancer in 2019, shortly before he began filming his 2021 film “Tick, Tick… Boom!” Garfield has previously spoken about how working on the film helped him deal with his loss.

Sitting on a porch next to Elmo, the actor held a vulnerable conversation about his grief journey while telling the furry red Muppet about his late mother.

“Elmo is walking around Sesame Street checking on everyone,” Elmo said to a smiling Garfield. “So, Elmo wants to know how Andrew is?”

With some encouragement from the Muppet, Garfield revealed that he’s been thinking about his mother.

“She passed away not long ago, and you know, I miss her. I miss her so much,” Garfield said, his voice full of emotion.

After Elmo responded apologetically, Garfield assured the Muppet that there is no need to apologize and that “in fact, it’s normal to miss someone,” even if it triggers feelings of sadness.

“This sadness is a kind of gift. In a way, it’s a lovely thing to feel, because it means you really loved someone when you miss them,” Garfield said, adding, “When I miss my mom, I remember all the hugs I used to get from her. , all the hugs I used to get from her.”

Some users said the clip was posted on or around the anniversary of their parents’ deaths, and others thanked the duo for normalizing such emotions and explaining them in a way children could understand.

Garfield ended his thoughts by saying he can miss and celebrate his mother at the same time. Elmo, who nodded as he thanked Garfield for sharing his emotions, told Garfield, “You know what, Elmo will think and celebrate your mother too.”

The influx of heartwarming responses contrasted with the backlash Elmo received when he unwittingly unearthed a deluge of despair among Internet users after posting a casual well-being check on X earlier this year.

In January, he asked a seemingly innocent question: “Elmo is just checking in! How is everyone?” – only to be met with declarations of “existential dread”, mental exhaustion and general disenchantment with everyday life.

The grim responses later inspired Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind “Sesame Street,” to conduct a national mental health survey that the organization published in August. Now, the internet seems to once again rely on childishness.

The clip aired the same day Garfield appeared on Amelia Dimoldenberg’s popular celebrity talk show “Chicken Shop Date,” a long-awaited collaboration that was already making waves on the internet.

Garfield’s next film, “We Live in Time,” a romantic comedy starring him and Florence Pugh, also finds him falling in love with a restaurant owner who is diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer, a fact the couple must accept as they navigate life together.

About a week before his conversation with Elmo, Garfield openly discussed grief during his appearance on an episode of The New York Times’ “Modern Love” podcast. While reading Chris Huntington’s essay “Learning to Measure Time in Love and Loss,” Garfield stopped to wipe away tears.

He opened a raw conversation with presenter Anna Martin, when he told her he was “sad” – with the transience of some relationships, with the loss of his mother, with the idea of losing his father, with the idea of not having his own children .

“But sadness is longing. It’s truly missed and there’s no shame in that,” Garfield said on the podcast. “And I can feel myself now putting the taboo of modern conditioning into this very, very pure feeling that I am having and expressing with you. And I think that’s sad.”

He goes on to express his disappointment that there are cultural expectations that discourage people from being vulnerable in this way, that an “impulse that isn’t mine” is telling him to “pull himself together” even now.

“And I think it’s so easy right now to feel hopeless in this current state of the world. Being alive now, it can feel hopeless. And we can feel quite numb, we can feel quite disconnected and isolated,” Garfield said. “But I don’t know. I feel like the feeling, the desire, lives in all of us: the desire to connect, the desire to love, the desire to take risks.”