Last night, British actor Andrew Garfield arrived at the London Film Festival premiere of his latest film “We Live in Time” sporting a surprising accessory. No, not the yellow paisley opera scarf — the lifesize cutout of co-star Florence Pugh.
Wedged under his arm like a beloved clutch bag on a night out, Pugh’s rigid two-dimensional form topped off Garfield’s outfit perfectly. He opted for a custom ‘70s-inspired Valentino suit by Alessandro Michele in a dark peacock shade and a busy, florid silk shirt. His black leather Valentino loafers matched his belt, but Garfield wasn’t complete without his 5 foot 4 inches of cardboard. At various points along the red carpet, he gleefully set Pugh down, posing with an arm wrapped around her inanimate waist.
The real Pugh — who couldn’t make the premiere due to filming constraints — shared images of Garfield and her flattened doppelganger on Instagram, calling the move “genius.” It’s not the first time a celebrity has used the medium of cardboard to invoke the presence of a colleague. In 2010, Will Ferrell arrived at a “Megamind” panel at Comic-Con carrying a cutout of Brad Pitt after it was rumored the actor was scheduled to make an appearance. There’s even been a slew of inanimate prom dates across the US, where students are ditching corsages in favor of cardboard: choosing instead to lug around scale-accurate depictions of Michael B. Jordan, Bernie Sanders and Danny DeVitto.
To those unconvinced whether Garfield’s cardboard companion can be categorized as an accessory, its definition, according to Michael Kors, is an “exclamation mark of a man or woman’s outfit.” More than any matching shoe and belt combination, a cutout of your co-star is perhaps the loudest statement you can make.
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