Andrew Garfield stars as a leader of the rebellion against King Richard II in The Uprising.
While Garfield’s character is the star of the film, as well as a leader of the ferocious rebellion he takes part in, he has no name. The character is only referred to as Ploughman. He’s a simple farmer living in medieval England grieving the family he lost during The Plague.
Audiences experience the film through the eyes of someone who represents an everyday person. One who doesn’t think of himself as a leader, and yet is one inherently.
“I think that’s one of the reasons why he is seen as a leader and reluctantly given that role, because he doesn’t want it,” Garfield told ABC Audio. “I think it’s a sign of a true leader because they know the cost. No one would want to be a leader if they knew the true nature of it.”
Garfield said Ploughman’s sense of humility is “a dying art form in our consciousness.”
“I think all of our leaders could use a hefty dose of it – a kind of acceptance of their own humanity – which allows them to be in touch with the humanity of others,” Garfield said.
Ploughman is “someone who can feel deep compassion for the people around him because he knows his own pain and he knows his own lostness. That’s a real leader as far as I’m concerned,” Garfield said.
And while this film’s story takes place during the 1300s, Garfield supports modern interpretations of its themes. Encourages them even, he says.
“There’s a reason to make this film. I think the urgency of making this film is because even though these events were centuries old, they feel like a distant mirror to the times we’re in, today, tomorrow, if we’re not careful,” Garfield said.
The actor expressed that he feels “there is a deep wounded rage and sense of injustice that a lot of us in this world are feeling right now, whether we’re talking about it or not.”
“I feel like it’s rumbling underneath most cultures, most interactions and I feel like there’s a real longing to set the world right, to see people brought to justice that seem to be above the law because they are laws that they are governing themselves,” Garfield said.
Garfield said he believes there’s a lot of corruption in the world right now.
“If justice is coming from God then laws are coming from man and those laws are corrupt,” he said.
Garfield then put it very plainly: “I think we’re in trouble.”
“I think a film like this is hopefully shedding some light on the trouble we’re in, and a healing and a reckoning that we need to do as a human race,” he said.
The Uprising comes from Captain Phillips director Paul Greengrass. It opens in theaters on Friday.
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