Andrew Garfield Is Obsessed with Becoming a Dad! (Exclusive)

Andrew Garfield is starring in the new Hulu limited series “Under the Banner of Heaven,” and the role has him thinking about fatherhood.

“Extra’s” Jenn Lahmers caught up with Garfield, and his co-star Gil Birmingham, and asked if working with kids on the true crime series had him thinking about having children of his own someday.

Garfield said, “Oh, yeah, definitely… I've been obsessed with being a dad since I was 18. I just haven't done it yet. But yeah, definitely. It's something that that you know, there's a longing in me, it's a natural longing.”

On a more serious note, the show was inspired by a Jon Krakauer best seller, and follows the events that led to the 1984 murder of Brenda Wright Lafferty and her baby daughter in a suburb in the Salt Lake Valley. Garfield plays Detective Jeb Pyre, a devout member of the Church of Latter-day Saints, known as LDS, while Birmingham plays Detective Bill Taba who is learning to navigate an investigation involving the church.

Jenn said, “Andrew, you were not a very tough sell on this series because you’re a big fan of the book.” Garfield joked, “You calling me easy? Yeah, I’m a slut for true crime.” Gil insisted, “I can attest to that.”

Andrew went on, “No, but I earn easy. I am an easy sell for true crime and particularly… I’ve loved this book since it came out over 10 years ago and like everyone else would read it in our industry. I was like, ‘We should turn this into a thing… a movie or a TV show. I was a kid, I didn't know how to do it, but Dustin Lance Black is a Mormon, an ex-Mormon himself, and we figured out a way over 10 years to turn into a miniseries with some great producers. And yeah, it was it was it was it was easy for me to say yes.”

As far as their previous knowledge of the LDS church, Andrew said it was “just through that book for me and I had a couple of Mormon friends but we didn't talk in a deep way about it.” Gil added, “I had a Mormon girlfriend does that count?” Andrew told him, “Oh, yeah.”

Lahmers also asked, “Do you see the series more as one about murder or an expose on maybe certain extreme factions of the Mormon Church?

Andrew said, “I think both and I think they're both kind of horribly interconnected in this piece… I think it's the kind of thing that people won't be able to look away from.”

Gil added of Andrew’s character, “I think it's also hopeful too because you're watching a man have a crisis of faith, questioning something that he knows is not right. And he survived and he has the courage to face it.”