ANDREW GARFIELD yawns, apologises and promises it’s nothing to do with the line of questioning. He’s suffering from jet lag, having flown in from LA the day before, and a surfeit of questions about the late Heath Ledger.

Garfield – whose film break came after director Robert Redford cast him in his film Lions For Lambs – is one of the leading players in The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, during the filming of which star Ledger was found dead of an accidental overdose.

Director Terry Gilliam found a way of completing the film with Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell standing in for Ledger’s character in fantasy scenes.

Inevitably, questions about the film come second to those about Ledger. His death obviously affected Garfield on a personal as well as professional level after spending several months acting alongside him.

The chance to work with actors such as Depp came second to the appreciation for them stepping in.

“It was a surreal act of kindness and generosity to take time out of their busy lives to come and make sure his (Ledger’s) incredible work was seen, as opposed to a salacious, ‘oh my god, I get to work with Johnny Depp’,” he says.

“That didn’t cross my mind once. It was very purely ‘thank you guys because the work you did was amazing and so brave to step into those shoes’.

“Obviously, we all wished the film had been completed with that dear, dear man still alive. The best version of the movie, the best version of the world would be one where he’s still alive because it feels like he was unjustly snatched away. It was the kind of moment where you go, ‘okay, god doesn’t exist, there’s no one watching over us’ and you question everything.

“The fact that they came on with the energy they had, good on them. I don’t really care whether it works or if it makes the film better or any worse. I’m just so glad we finished it because I think Heath would have been p***** off if we didn’t.”

AT 26, Garfield could hardly be in a better place as an actor with film, stage and TV successes behind him. He has a theatre award (for the stage play Kes), a Bafta best actor (for the drama Boy A) and a movie career on both sides of the Atlantic.

He reckons he’s shocked at winning these awards. “It’s ridiculous,” he says, when the Bafta is mentioned. “My humility isn’t false, it’s genuine self-disregard.

I try not to have an opinion of myself as an actor. If I did, it wouldn’t be a very high opinion. That would stop me being creative and attempting things.

“It’s shocking when stuff like that happens.

It implants something in people’s minds, the idea that you must be good at what you do and to have that expectation of someone adds an element of pressure.”

In The Imaginarium Of Doctor Par- LEADING LIGHT: Andrew Garfield and Lily Cole star in The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2009 northernecho.co.uk TV & ENTERTAINMENT 19 nassus, he gets to be a young player in a travelling theatre troupe with links to a fantasy world. At one point, Garfield appears in drag. In another he is suspended by a rope over the River Thames from Blackfriars Bridge, in London. “That was an interesting night,” he says.

“I was sillily excited about it. I thought it was going to be a unique, one-off experience – which it was. It was a painful experience, but the view of the Thames I had, dangling above the water, has probably never been seen before.

“I was in a hip harness, no shoulder straps, so when I went upside down the weight was just on my two very pointyouty pelvic hipbones. That was it. All the pressure was there and I felt like I was going to slip out. But the stunt guy assured me it was all right.”

HE found himself harnessed to Ledger at one point. “For the bit where he falls down, he was attached to my harness – there was a strap down my arm and attached to his hip so I was taking two men’s weight. It was awful. Really tough.”

Born in the US – his father is American, his mother is English – he was raised in this country but is at home working in both. He’s recently shot a short film with Spike Jonze and is filming a movie about the creators of Facebook in the US.

He has no plans for a permanent move there. “My girlfriend lives there, so I’m there as often as I can,” he says.

“Home is North London. I’m not ready to live anywhere else. I have too much of a good time here and too many good people here.”

■ The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus (12A) is now showing in cinemas.