New Delhi: Sam Altman had never met Andrew Garfield, who plays him in the upcoming film Artificial. Then one morning, he stepped out of his San Francisco home and found the actor filming outside, dressed exactly like him.
“I waved at him that one time and that was it,” Altman said in an interview with Vanity Fair.
Altman had noticed signs that a film was being shot on his street but had not paid much attention to them before.
“There were all these cameras, and there was a guy dressed exactly like me with my same backpack,” Altman told Vanity Fair.
The sight, he said, felt like “some weird glitch of the simulation”.
The encounter was the only time Altman and Garfield interacted.
The one time Altman met Garfield
Garfield plays Altman in Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming film about the OpenAI CEO. The film is based on the events of November 2023, when OpenAI’s board removed Altman as CEO, triggering opposition from employees and major backers before he was reinstated.
Altman has seen the trailer but not the whole film. While he was impressed by Garfield’s portrayal of his mannerisms, he does not expect the film to be an especially accurate account of what happened.
“They’re trying to make a good movie, and maybe it will be good. I don’t know. Good as a movie. It will not be good as an accurate depiction,” he said.
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‘I did look kind of cool’
One scene in the trailer shows Garfield’s Altman walking into a bunker-like room with guns mounted on the walls. Altman said he does not have a bunker like that.
“That’s an example of an inaccuracy, but I did look kind of cool,” he said.
However, he was more impressed by how closely Garfield had picked up his mannerisms, including the way he walks.
“It’s a strange thing to see someone that has nailed your kind of quirky mannerisms,” Altman said.
“That seemed good. I’m sure they’ll get some other parts right, at least accidentally,” he added.
Garfield, meanwhile, has said he chose not to meet Altman while preparing for the role. He told Esquire UK in August that he prepared for the role through the script, court transcripts, interviews and research.
“I think anyone who takes on that level of responsibility for a company or a technology that you know is going to do a hell of a lot of damage to the soul of humanity must have a certain ability to dissociate,” the actor said.
Artificial also stars Yura Borisov as OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and Monica Barbaro as former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati. The film is set to release on 25 December.
Edited by Maryam Hassan