Sam Altman had a particularly surreal introduction to Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of him in Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial: he walked outside his own home and discovered Garfield effectively pretending to be him on the same street.
The OpenAI CEO recalled the unusual encounter in a new Vanity Fair interview, revealing that Artificial filmed outside his San Francisco home without him initially realizing what production was taking place there. Altman said notices had appeared around the neighborhood warning residents about filming, but he had not paid much attention.
That changed when he went out for coffee.
“He did walk like me,” Altman said of Garfield’s performance, before describing the experience as feeling like “some weird glitch of the simulation.”
Altman and Garfield’s only meeting was a wave
What makes the encounter even stranger is that Altman and Garfield have apparently never had a real conversation.
Altman said he spotted cameras outside and then saw Garfield dressed like him, carrying the same kind of backpack and imitating his mannerisms. Once he understood what was happening, the two simply acknowledged each other before continuing with their day.
The brief roadside encounter remains their only interaction.
Garfield did not rely heavily on prosthetics to become Altman either. Guadagnino told Entertainment Weekly that early tests involving a fake nose and cheeks looked wrong. The filmmakers instead found that Garfield could create a much stronger resemblance by reproducing Altman’s posture, neck movements and distinctive walk, supported by relatively subtle makeup.
Considering Altman independently singled out the walk as something Garfield got right, that approach appears to have worked.
But Altman doesn’t expect Artificial to be accurate
Altman was considerably less convinced by what the film appears to say about his life.
After watching the trailer, he said he does not believe Artificial is aiming for a fully accurate depiction. One example he pointed to involves Garfield’s version of Altman entering a bunker-like space lined with firearms — something the real Altman says does not exist.
He nevertheless appears fairly relaxed about the dramatization. Rather than objecting to the movie taking liberties, Altman acknowledged that Guadagnino and his team are trying to make an entertaining film rather than a documentary.
That distinction matters because Artificial dramatizes one of the most extraordinary episodes in OpenAI’s history: Altman’s firing by the company’s board in November 2023 and his return as CEO only days later. Andrew Garfield plays Altman, while Yura Borisov portrays OpenAI co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, Monica Barbaro plays former CTO Mira Murati, and Ike Barinholtz appears as Elon Musk.
The film was written by Simon Rich and directed by Guadagnino, who previously worked with Garfield on After the Hunt.
Artificial has had its own unusually dramatic journey
The movie’s behind-the-scenes story has almost become worthy of a corporate drama itself.
Amazon MGM Studios originally developed Artificial but dropped the nearly completed project in June 2026. Amazon publicly said it believed the movie would be better served by another distributor. Neon later acquired the film and will release it theatrically on December 25, 2026.
Altman has denied having anything to do with Amazon’s decision, saying he did not contact the company or Jeff Bezos about the film.
Meanwhile, Artificial held its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 5, where early reactions strongly praised Garfield’s transformation and the film’s darkly comic approach to Silicon Valley power. Garfield revealed at the premiere that he spent roughly two to three months studying footage of Altman while preparing for the performance.
That makes Altman’s accidental encounter with his cinematic double even more amusing. Garfield spent months studying him; Altman needed only a few seconds outside his house to recognize the result.
He may disagree with what Artificial ultimately says about him, but on one tiny piece of the performance, the real subject has already given his verdict: Garfield got the walk right.
