In an emotional appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” Monday, the actor explained how playing “Rent” composer Jonathan Larson in the film helped him to process the grief he experienced after losing his mother, Lynn, to pancreatic cancer in 2019.
“I love talking about her, by the way, so if I cry, it’s only a beautiful thing,” Garfield explained.
“So I hope this grief stays with me because it’s all the unexpressed love that I didn’t get to tell her,” he added.
In his chat with Colbert, Garfield compared his mother to Larson, as both were “warriors for art.”.
“I got to sing Jonathan Larson’s unfinished song while simultaneously singing for my mother and her unfinished song,” he said.