Andrew Garfield quit gymnastics dreams after realising it wasn't 'a childhood'
Hollywood star Andrew Garfield could have become an athlete instead, but he stepped away from competitive gymnastics as a young boy.
Andrew Garfield quit competitive gymnastics because it wasn't "a childhood".
The 'We Live In Time' actor grew up expecting to be an athlete as he even started working with a Russian coach in gruelling sessions which saw the teacher sit on his back while he did the splits.
However, he recalled thinking as a 12-year-old boy: "This is not a childhood."
He decided to step away from the world of gymnastics, as well as his father Richard's "value system at the time".
Andrew, now 41, described the decision as "the first rebellion against my dad and his value system at the time: success and gold medals above any sense of joy, comfort, or pleasure".
The 'Amazing Spider-Man' star did move into swimming instead, as his dad had become a successful coach in the sport, but he wasn't truly satisfied.
He explained: "It was like this Truman Show feeling where you’re like, ‘I feel there is more. And I can’t identify what that more is, but I know it exists, and if it doesn’t exist, I am in big trouble.' "
His dad Richard admitted "everything he touches he's very talented at", while his mother Lynne encouraged him to explore his creative side before he finally settled on acting.
Sadly, she died in 2019 from cancer, and he has previously admitted he found it difficult to accept what happened after the last few years.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: "There’s so many moments, of course, that I’ve had in the last five years of saying, ‘Well, she shouldn’t have died. My mother shouldn’t have died so young, and she shouldn’t have died in suffering, and she shouldn’t, she shouldn’t, shouldn’t, shouldn’t.’
"It’s so arrogant of me. It’s so egotistical of me when I’m in those moments. And it’s human.
"I’m not shaming myself for it. It’s a human response, because it it doesn’t make sense, it feels unjust, it feels unfair."
