Last year, we kept looking for the best moments in our lies and for us, Andrew Garfield from Tick, Tick… BOOM! made his way into the list each time, and more often than not tops it. Watching him capture the legend Jonathan Larson himself is, and then doing it so accurately and beautifully, is truly admirable. But how exactly did he do it?

It is one thing to play a fictional character, but to play someone who was an actual human, and that too someone as big and legendary as Jonathan Larson? It sure requires a sheer amount of dedication and commitment. So, let us look at how Garfield molded himself into the iconic Broadway singer, Jonathan Larson.

How Andrew Garfield became Tick, Tick… BOOM!’s Jonathan Larson

Andrew has such passion for this role in Tick, Tick…BOOM, and it shows every time he talks about it. In a Netflix Film Club video, he said, “I feel like one of the luckiest human beings to ever walk the planet. Jonathan Larson is now just in my system. He is haunting me in the best possible way. He is a talisman now for me, in terms of how to live life as an artist. It’s pure love. Think it’s the part of the legacy that he leaves behind. How do you build your life around things that you love, people that you lobe, places that you love?”

As producer Julie Oh explained, the most important piece of this movie was the actor who will play the role of Larson, and it was Lin-Manuel Miranda who brought in the idea of casting Andrew as Jonathan Larson, and as they say, the rest is history. The actor went on to win Golden Globe for this role.

Lin talked about how watching Andrew in a production of Angels in America made him imagine Garfield as Jonathan Larson. He describes Andrew as a “lightful force.” After watching him perform at the theatre, Lin just couldn’t shake the idea off his head, and he saw Jonathan Larson in him.

Executive Producer and Jonathan Larson’s sister Julie Larson was herself very pleased with this casting decision. She said, “I was excited and intrigued at the prospect of him in this role. There is an intelligence to Andrew’s process and his work.”

Andrew actually learned to sing for his role in the movie

Well, a big catch for being in this movie was that the lead actor must know how to sing, and that was something we never saw Andrew Garfield do. Lin talked about the conversation he had with Andrew about the singing part of the movie. When Lin asked whether he could sing, Andrew quickly asked him when he is planning to make the movie. Lin said, “not for at least a year,” and Andrew replied, “okay, then I can sing.”

Garfield actually spent an entire year learning and training with teachers and mentors to sing and play instruments. He established this really beautiful bond with the theatre, which we can see beautifully flourishing in the movie. According to Julie, Andrew has a great discipline and work ethic that he brings along with him. He did everything that was required of him: singing, dancing, acting, and, most importantly, telling the complicated story of Jonathan Larson.

Julie Larson shared her experience of watching Andrew play her brother. She said, “getting to watch Andrew in this role, I felt like I was sharing time with my brother, And I don’t think there is a better compliment than that.” Indeed, there is definitely no compliment better than that.

Have you streamed Tick, Tick…BOOM! yet? Tell us how you felt watching this beautiful movie on Netflix in the comments below.