Florence Pugh looked a little different at the London premiere of her new movie We Live in Time.
Well, okay, the actress, 28, wasn’t actually at the BFI London Film Festival on Thursday, Oct. 17, because she couldn’t attend — but her costar Andrew Garfield made sure her presence was felt by bringing a life-size cutout of the actress as his red carpet date.
That’s right, the Golden Globe winner, 41, carried — and even posed with — a cardboard standee of his castmate dressed up in a sheer black polka dress and high-rise briefs, which was much appreciated by Pugh, who apologized on her Instagram Stories for not being able to attend.
“It truly hurts not being there to celebrate the release, but I’m raising a glass from very far away. Love to you all,” she wrote.
After the moment happened, the Midsommar star reacted on Instagram, saying that the joke was “genius” and praised Garfield with a “well done Andrew.”
As for Garfield, the actor looked dapper in a teal suit, yellow scarf and patterned collared shirt as he walked the red carpet at the film’s premiere.
In We Live in Time Garfield and Pugh portray couple Tobias (Garfield) and Almut (Pugh), who have a unique meet-cute after she accidentally hits him with her car. The movie chronicles their blossoming romance as well as the changes in their relationship — which is upended by Almut’s cancer diagnosis — over the years.
The couple is “brought together in a surprise encounter that changes their lives,” per a synopsis for the film. “As they embark on a path challenged by the limits of time, they learn to cherish each moment of the unconventional route their love story has taken, in filmmaker John Crowley’s decade-spanning, deeply moving romance.”
The movie, in select theaters now before expanding on Oct, 18, received a standing ovation after it debuted at the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 6.
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Chemistry is one thing the two stars evidently have, but the Spider-Man superhero recently revealed to PEOPLE that he was “shy” ahead of his meeting with Pugh for the project.
“I was really scared. I think we were both really scared and nervous because it takes a while to get to know someone,” he said. “There’s layers there. There’s defenses there. I am someone, who on first meeting someone, I can be quite shy and quite protective and it takes me a while to really let someone know me. But then, when they’re in, there’s no getting out.”
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But once he felt a sense of “trust” with Pugh — and discovered her fun, playful nature — he knew a bond would form. “And that is like catnip to me. Someone who wants to just piss around and she started taking the piss out of me. I really enjoyed that. I took the piss out of her and she really enjoyed that,” he said.
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