Andrew Garfield took an unconventional route to portraying OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming film Artificial. Rather than relying primarily on physical transformation, Garfield researched Altman through interviews, videos and conversations with people who had actually interacted with the technology executive.
The approach became particularly important after an attempt to make Garfield resemble Altman through prosthetics failed. Guadagnino previously described the result as “totally ridiculous,” prompting the actor to instead concentrate on capturing the person behind the public image.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Garfield explained that he turned to the Stanislavski acting technique, using information from people around Altman to build his interpretation.
Garfield Researched Altman Through People Who Knew Him
Garfield compared his research process to a form of human crowdsourcing. He explained that Stanislavski encourages actors to consider what characters say about one another, allowing a performer to build an understanding of a character from different perspectives.
“I tried to speak to as many people as possible who know Sam or who have experiences and interactions with Sam,”
Garfield told The Hollywood Reporter. He said he wanted to gather different perspectives before combining them with his own instincts and interpretation.
The actor acknowledged that every person providing information would have their own perspective. Rather than attempting to determine one definitive version of Altman, Garfield absorbed the conflicting accounts and used them as material for his performance.
That research was supplemented by publicly available interviews and videos featuring Altman. The result was intended to capture Garfield’s interpretation of the OpenAI CEO rather than create an exact physical imitation.
Garfield was not the only Artificial actor who had to find a way into a real-life technology figure. Yura Borisov, who plays OpenAI co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, described a much more personal breakthrough.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Borisov said he struggled to find the right approach until shortly before filming began. He eventually discovered an unusual connection with Sutskever: both men were born on December 8.
“I imagined, ‘OK maybe we have some spiritual connection because of this,’”
Borisov explained, adding that the idea allowed him to relax and create his own character inspired by Sutskever.
The film also features Will Angus as Dario Amodei, the former OpenAI researcher who later co-founded Anthropic. Angus said Amodei was less prominent in the public conversation when filming took place and that he enjoyed portraying someone focused on ensuring AI remained aligned with humanity.
Written by Saturday Night Live alum Simon Rich, Artificial explores OpenAI’s origins and the events surrounding Altman’s dramatic 2023 firing and return as CEO.
The film also stars Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk, Monica Barbaro as Mira Murati and Mark Rylance, alongside Cooper Hoffman, Chris O’Dowd, Billie Lourd, Zosia Mamet and Jason Schwartzman.
After Amazon MGM Studios dropped the project, Neon acquired the movie. The distributor currently lists Artificial for a December 25, 2026 theatrical release.
