Andrew Garfield came onto “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” to promote his new movie, “tick, tick… Boom.” What he gave instead was a truly touching story about love and loss, with a refreshing and relatable twist.
The sweet moment comes at the four-minute mark of the interview, where Colbert asked Garfield how playing Broadway composer Jonathan Larson (who died suddenly of a heart issue at the upswing of his creative career) helped him process the unexpected loss of his mother.
Instead of wishing the pain away, Garfield states, “I hope this grief stays with me.”
“This is all of the unexpressed love,” he continues. “The grief that will remain with us until we pass because we never get enough time with each other, no matter whether someone lives until 60 or 15 or 99. I hope this grief stays with me because it’s all of the unexpressed love that I didn’t get to tell her, and I told her every day, she was the best of us.
“I got to sing Jonathan Larson’s unfinished song, while simultaneously singing for my mother and her unfinished song. This film is to do with this ticking clock that we all have, that we all know, somewhere deep down that life is sacred, life is short, and we better just be here as much as possible with each other, holding on to each other.”
He concludes with, “Both John and my mother were warriors for art. They knew the power of art and knew the power of leaving the world in a slightly more beautiful state than how they found it.”
Garfield’s moving testament—with nearly 800,000 views on YouTube—helps put to words that inexplicable, bittersweet yet sublime feeling of loss, and how it helps remind us to take stock of the good things while they’re still here.