A birth scene so taxing, We Live In Time co-stars Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh needed to rest

NEW YORK – You would not expect the romantic drama We Live In Time to have an action scene, but it does – at least that is how Andrew Garfield sees it.

In the middle of the time-hopping story of a young couple battling a cancer diagnosis, there is a hilarious yet touching sequence when Almut (Florence Pugh) gives birth on all fours in a petrol station bathroom as her partner Tobias (Garfield) nervously coaches her through the delivery with the aid of two shockingly helpful employees.

“It’s the big action event,” the 41-year-old British-American actor said. “It’s the Indiana Jones sequence.”

The birth scene is a showcase for both the acting skills of Pugh and Garfield and the unique tone of the film, which mashes up humour and tragedy. It opens in Singapore cinemas on Nov 7.

It was also a logistical challenge for Irish director John Crowley and the actors who had to deal with the intensity of the material as well as an actual weeks-old baby who arrived for the grand finale.

For Crowley, 55, the birth was the reason he wanted to make the movie in the first place.

A number of elements potentially swirling around one another meant “we could create a scene that was thrilling and refusing to be one thing at one time”, he said in a video interview, noting that the “absurdity of the situation” lives alongside the “genuine sort of jeopardy of it”.

In We Live In Time, it is New Year’s Eve and traffic is at a standstill. In search of snacks, Almut abandons the car and heads towards the station.

Thinking she needs to use the bathroom, she goes to the toilet. It turns out she is actually deep in labour, and the key to open the locked door breaks, requiring Tobias and the station workers (Nikhil Parmar and Kerry Godliman) to kick it down and then serve as makeshift nurses.

While Crowley did find an actual petrol station for the location, the bathroom was re-created on a soundstage in part to fit the actors and crew required for the filming and in part for sanitary reasons.

“There are limits to what health and safety would allow and – without it being like the loo in (1996 film) Trainspotting – it just needed to have a bit of life and the patina of much use, should we say,” he said.

Before filming, the actors rehearsed with midwife consultant Penny Taylor, who used a doll as she walked them through the blocking. Still, Garfield, who had no personal experience with childbirth, did not want to know too much ahead of time.

Tobias is an overplanner and is completely thrown for a loop by the unconventional setting and the fact that the medical professional is on the phone rather than in the room.

“I wanted to feel very overwhelmed and confused, and I wanted to find out what I needed to do within the moments of the scene,” he said in an interview at the New York office of the studio A24.

Still, he knew he needed to be well-prepared for one key moment: holding the actual baby. He was particularly nervous about carrying the baby in one hand and passing her through Pugh’s legs.

“When I am on set during a take, I usually try to let go of everything, forget everything and then just be really present in the moment, and I’m like, that does not fly here,” he said. “This is actually much more important than anything I’ve ever done.”

The baby, Crowley said, “performed beautifully and magnificently”. She did poop on Garfield’s hand, but he was fine with that. “Honestly, those moments were the most beautiful because you’re just like, ‘Oh god, this is life; what a privilege’,” he said.

As for Pugh, Crowley said she wanted to work with Taylor to make sure she was not falling into cliches of moaning and groaning.

In an e-mail interview, the British actress explained that her own mother had emphasised to her the importance of getting birth scenes right. In addition to figuring out with Taylor where specifically the pain would be coming from, Pugh recruited her own sister to record voice notes to demonstrate how she breathed during her experience with labour.

“I would listen to them during lunch and toilet breaks to get my mind and body focused into tuning in what sound meant and how my body responded to it,” Pugh wrote.

An intimacy coordinator was also on set given that she was naked except for a bra and a heavy prosthetic belly, which gave her knee and back pain almost “instantly”.

“I was mostly acting with Florence’s bum,” Garfield said, and was acutely aware he was in a position of trust. “So I really wanted to make sure that she felt safe, tended to and cared for.”

In between takes, Pugh said, they would rarely leave the set. “We would apply each other’s ‘scene sweat’ so no one from the make-up department had to enter our safe space.”

The shoot for the scene lasted over two days, and the actors ran it through about eight times. Crowley called it “arduous”, but ultimately rewarding.

“By the end of it, both actors felt they had been through something genuinely very special and moving and wanted to sit in that set quietly for 10, 15 minutes,” he said. “I’ll never forget it. They just wanted to sit there and be quiet and just kind of hold hands.” NYTIMES