The actor said he was 'surprisingly overwhelmed and touched' to be in the room at the CDGA.
Andrew Garfield welled up with happy tears as he accepted the Spotlight Award at the 2022 Costume Designers Guild Awards.
On Wednesday, the tick, tick... BOOM! star stepped out at the annual ceremony, where co-star Judith Light presented him with the honor. As he took the podium to speak, the 38-year-old actor told the crowd he was so angry and upset because he wasn't supposed to cry "and Judith just made me do that," he quipped.
"To be honored by the angel on Earth that is Judith Light," he said, "is a moment that will keep me going for the next 30 years."
Garfield explained he was "just so surprisingly overwhelmed and touched to be in this room with my community and so many collaborators that I love and I value."
"You are my favorite people to collaborate with," he said. "I feel like the luckiest, most fortunate actor alive. You’ve given me a big task to not get big-headed after tonight and I promise you I’ll do my best to pop the bubble when I get home because I want to just keep working and I want to keep collaborating and serving something greater with you all. Thank you for your art, thank you for your hearts and for your generosity. I hope we get to just keep creating together."
It's been a milestone time for Garfield and his portrayal of Jonathan Larson in the movie musical, earning a second Oscar nomination and his first Golden Globe win. Not to mention he also suited back up as Spider-Man for his surprise role in No Way Home and starred alongside Jessica Chasten in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
In the midst of production on Faye in 2019, his mother, Lynn, died, but not before they could spend two final weeks together. "I love talking about her...so if I cry, it's only a beautiful thing," he later told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show in a now-viral interview. "This is all the unexpressed love, right? The grief that will remain with us, you know, until we pass because we never get enough time with each other, right? No matter if someone lives till 60, 15 or, you know, 99, so I hope this grief stays with me because it's all the unexpressed love that I didn't get to tell her and I told her every day."
When it came time to portray Larson, who died suddenly at 35, the healing power of art unfurled itself to Garfield. "I got to sing Jonathan Larson's unfinished song," he told Colbert, "while simultaneously singing for my mother and her unfinished song."
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