Miss millenium

"I wish I didn't have to engage with it," says Garfield. Meaning fame.

Meaning everything that's not acting. Meaning this interview. And then he asks, "You, for instance, do you even like doing these?" Struck by his candor, and by his soft and tremulous little-brother-that-I-never-had-ness, I tell him that, actually, I prefer the oldies - Kirk Douglas, Robert Duvall, Shirley MacLaine - because they generally seemed to know stuff, and have a real world-view, whereas the young ones, well, you know yourself.

There's a moment of tension. A little pop at the back of his busy, whizzy, 28-year-old eyeballs. And then suddenly his shoulders drop, and he lets out a huge sigh and says, "I'm so glad you said that! I get it! That's good to know!" I think he means that he's an oldies fan, too, and that it's good that we're both on the same page (his heroes are Robert Redford, Peter Mullan and veteran director Mike Nichols). He says that we can begin the interview itself, but he warns me, with a self-mocking chuckle, that he won't say anything that's in any way personal or revealing about himself, his past, or his present life.

"Go for it!" he says, beaming. "Shoot! I'm going to tell you everything! [laughs]"