Andrew Garfield has said he hopes that any billionaires who see his new movie, The Uprising, are “scared s**tless” by it.
The former Spider-Man actor spoke about The Uprising as part of a Q&A alongside director Paul Greengrass ahead of the movie’s launch this week. The Uprising depicts the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, which was fueled by King Richard II’s brutal tax on the poorest members of English society. Garfield plays Ploughman, a farmer who leads the rebellion. Some of the marketing has suggested it’s a Robin Hood origin story. The Uprising is even a game within Fortnite.
In the Q&A, Greengrass and Garfield said that The Uprising is an immediately relevant story, despite it being set 700 years ago. And Garfield specifically singled out today’s billionaires, saying The Uprising should act as a cautionary tale.
“I hope it’s galvanizing,” Garfield said of The Uprising. “I hope there’s some awakening that people feel, that we all feel like our own struggles are being reflected in the struggles of these characters from a distant time and place, and that it could be directive.
“And I hope that if any billionaires watch it, that they’re scared s***less.”
There’s a long list of billionaires Garfield could be referencing here, but it’s easy to imagine his comment referring to everyone from X / Twitter owner Elon Musk to Amazon owner Jeff Bezos. And at a time when the desperation to win the AI arms race has thrown caution — and, some say, our humanity — to the wind, there is growing concern that mass job losses and societal upheaval caused by our relentless pursuit of AI may cause civil unrest.
The Uprising’s tagline is “there will be no peace until we are healed,” and Garfield passed the sentiment on to the aforementioned billionaires.
“I’m going to include the billionaires in that as well cuz they’re the ones that might be the most soul sick,” he declared. “They’re the ones that might need the healing the most in a way.”
While we wait for a fresh uprising, Garfield might find the time to watch Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey. He recently admitted he hadn’t yet congratulated his Spider-Man co-star Tom Holland on the incredible success of both movies because he hadn’t seen them.
Wesley Yin-Poole
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. He’s obsessed with fighting games, sports games and first-person shooters. His favourite game of all time is Street Fighter 2.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
