Andrew Garfield reveals mother died just before he made Tick, Tick... Boom!

Andrew Garfield wanted to honour his mother Lynn with his role in the upcoming movie musical Tick, Tick... Boom! as she passed away just before he began filming.

In Lin-Manuel Miranda's feature directorial debut, Garfield plays composer and playwright Jonathan Larson, who died suddenly after suffering an aortic dissection at the age of 35 in 1996 the morning of his new musical Rent's first preview performance.

In an interview with The New York Times, Garfield revealed that he wanted to honour both Larson and his mother with his performance.

"She is someone who showed me where I was supposed to go in my life. She set me on a path," he shared. "We lost her just before Covid, just before we started shooting, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. So, for me, I was able to continue her song on the ocean and the wave of Jonathan's songs. It was an attempt to honour him in his unfinished song, and her in her unfinished song, and have them meet.

"I was hesitant whether I was going to share that, but I feel like it's a universal experience... I feel very lucky that I got to be with her while she was passing, and I got to read her favourite poems to her and take care of her and my dad and my brother. I've lost people before, but one's mother is a different thing. It's the person that gives you life no longer being here. Nothing can prepare you for that kind of cataclysm."

Production on the movie was shut down after only a month due to the Covid-19 pandemic and resumed in October, and Garfield confessed that he didn't want the shoot to end because it gave him an avenue to express his grief and make it into art.

"We had a very amazing connection, and now an audience will know her spirit in an unconscious way through Jon, which I just find so magical and beautiful," he said.

Tick, Tick... Boom! will be released in November.