The film We Live in Time has been described as “one of the most emotionally devastating and tenderly beautiful movies” in the respective careers of lead actors Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. For better or worse, though, much of the discourse around it has been dominated by the infamous horse meme, which originated from an early still from the movie. While the movie is far from a comedy, it also spawned literally hundreds of memes based on its very brief inclusion of one freaky carousel horse.
Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield React to the Viral Horse Memes from Their New Movie
In a strange and wonderful twist, Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield‘s latest collaboration in the A24 movie We Live in Time has taken a decidedly meme-heavy turn-not with their great performances, mind you, but a weird carousel horse that pops up once in the film. And neither of the stars-be she a Thunderbolt, he a Spider-Man: No Way Home alum-have let the strange attention this bizarre moment has received go unnoticed.
Where the film itself is no comedy whatsoever, its marketing campaign has inspired an unlikely viral sensation. One promotional poster included a romantic kiss shared between Pugh and Garfield’s respective characters on a carousel, but it was the peculiar face of a carousel horse in the background that people really homed in on. The internet memefied this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detail into a sensation, abstracting it from its romance-context framing. Though the horse only had a few seconds of screen time, his weird expression made him an instant hot topic on social media.
Both actors spoke with AP about what they think of the meme. Pugh explained the moment, comic and entertaining, yet she had been so worried the clip went all over the internet. She expressed being sometimes worried that it might detract from how emotional this scene of the film is to her favorite part. She was afraid laughter with a horse would detract from the gravity of that scene, in which their characters decide to take it to the next level.
Garfield found the memes absolutely hilarious. He admitted the horse “steals the show”-something of a mantra in his description of the first time he saw the now-infamous image. Garfield had seen the photo just before going into a phone-free retreat and thought the horse’s face was unusual. He said, “I was about to go into a retreat for six days where I wouldn’t have my phone. And I saw this image for our film that had been released. And I noticed the horse. And I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s an interesting choice.’
He turned his phone back on six days later and was immediately gobsmacked to find that the internet had exploded in horse memes. He remembered thinking it was great, realizing, ‘Oh, people did notice the horse, and Stephen Colbert did a whole monologue on the meme.’ Garfield couldn’t help himself-tearfully, he said he was “crying” at just how ubiquitous the joke had gotten.
Memes That Stole the Spotlight
Of course, with the horse meme running wild, both Pugh and Garfield took great humor in the situation. Pugh said she had shared her favorite reference memes, naming The Shining and BoJack Horseman as standing out for her. Garfield, light-hearted in his tone, said, “Some of my favorites, I have saved,” naming the meme where everybody has a horse face.
But beneath the memes is a more profound film, directed by John Crowley and written by Nick Payne. It’s a film about the shifting relationship and marriage of Pugh’s character Almut and Garfield’s Tobias as they navigate all of life’s complexities, from parenthood to health challenges. Far from the silly online reactions, it’s a quite honest story that resonated with early viewers at the Toronto International Film Festival.
But, though the internet response was lighthearted, all over that weird horse, We Live in Time is a romantic drama that tugs deep on the strings of human emotions. The film has outstanding performances by Pugh and Garfield and narrates a story about love, life, and time. The attention might have gone to the memes, but the film shall keep that going, moving with the depth of emotion and poignancy of the storytelling.
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This film surely will leave marks, not because of the viral horse, but because of its strong narrative. There is great excitement about how Pugh and Garfield will bring these characters to life on screen, knowing very well that beneath the humor, there is a waiting love and resilient story.
We Live in Time premieres in theaters Oct. 11.
