The actor plays a dad and detective in the FX true-crime series 'Under the Banner of Heaven.'
After soaring to new heights in 2021, Andrew Garfield’s acting career continues to peak with his latest role in the FX true-crime series Under the Banner of Heaven. As Jeb Pyre, the 38-year-old actor plays both dad and detective tasked with leading the investigation into a murder within a devout Mormon family.
Given how much Garfield’s fans have crushed on him over the past year, there’s no doubt that his latest role will likely earn him the moniker, “DILF,” which works two ways here: “a dad/detective I’d like to f**k.”
When asked by ET’s Lauren Zima if he’s ready for such a title, the actor responds by joking, “I mean, listen I’m just trying to give the people what they want.”
“As long as I’m in the business, I’m just in the business of pleasing,” he continues, before teasing, “You know, if you ask a silly question, you’re gonna get a silly answer.”
While the series is far from humorous, the levity that Garfield brings to the interview is just the kind of charm audiences have come to expect from the actor, who is rounding out an incredible year of back-to-back roles in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Tick, Tick… Boom!, with the latter earning him his second Oscar nomination.
Under the Banner of Heaven, meanwhile, will likely earn the actor his first Emmy nomination for his complex turn as a man whose faith is called into question after he uncovers buried truths about the LDS religion and witnesses the violence that can come from unyielding devotion.
Adapted from Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction bestseller by creator and showrunner Dustin Lance Black, the series depicts the events leading up to the 1984 murder of Brenda Wright Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her baby daughter as well as Pyre and Det. Bill Taba’s (Gil Birmingham) subsequent investigation into the sprawling Lafferty family, including brothers Ron (Sam Worthington), Dan (Wyatt Russell), Allen (Billy Howle), Sam (Rory Culkin) and Robin (Seth Numrich).
“This is a true-crime thriller that is dealing with some pretty dark and heavy themes,” Garfield says.
A longtime fan of the 2003 novel, the actor was interested in how the subject matter explored human behavior and mythology with the series picking “at the root of the core of what enabled such evil to take place,” he previously told ET, adding that what attracted him to the adaptation was the fact that they “weren’t going to sensationalize anything. They were going to make it a kind of step-by-step understanding of how something so horrific could come to pass.”
And knowing what kind of journey his character goes on over the course of the seven-part series, “the road to getting there is painful,” Garfield says now, adding that what Black “has done with the series, especially the end, is given much more power to the women in the show, specifically Brenda Lafferty.”
The actor adds, while “devastating” at times, “there’s definitely hope there.”
Under the Banner of Heaven premieres with two episodes on April 28 on Hulu, with new episodes streaming on Thursdays.
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