How We Live in Time pulled off that wild (and hilarious) birth scene

Warning: This article contains mild spoilers for We Live in Time.

We Live in Time might just feature the mother of all birth scenes.

When an in-labor Almut (Florence Pugh) and Tobias (Andrew Garfield) end up trapped in bumper-to-bumper traffic, unable to make it to the hospital, they take refuge in a nearby gas station. While Tobias peruses food options, Almut goes to the restroom, only to realize that she is about to give birth — right there in the gas station bathroom.

The scene is hilarious, disgusting, and magical all at once, as Tobias and two gas station attendants help Almut, who gets down on all fours and faces the inevitability of her situation. 

“It was such an amazing gift to be given that scene to have a go at,” Pugh tells Entertainment Weekly. “Knowing just how incredible it was to read, but also knowing that it had to be incredibly perfect for it to be pulled off. I know how irritated my mom gets when she watches birthing scenes and she's like, ‘That's just not how it is at all.’ If you're going to do it, and you're going to actually give yourself to a scene that was written so beautifully, you try your very hardest. And we did. We took it very seriously.”

Pugh and Garfield worked closely with a midwife to work out the choreography and reality of such a situation. Pugh, in particular, took every opportunity to consult with the midwife and delve into what her character would be experiencing. “[We needed to] understand the maneuvers and where he would need to be in order to grab the baby,” Pugh explains. “And then I continued working with [Penny, our midwife], in lunch breaks and in toilets and in trailers, understanding the sounds, the physicality, how it would feel when the baby drops, what sound would come out of you, all of those things. I've never had a child before, and I wanted to make sure that I understood it.”

Over the course of filming the scene, Pugh ended up simulating the birthing experience eight times. It became a type of endurance test. “We had to do it for 15 minutes and it was like we went through birth, but without the baby and without the endorphins,” she adds. “It was crazy, amazing, beautiful and so special and shocking.”

The scene was actually a big part of why Garfield wanted to be in the film. Even though he doesn’t go through the same physical exertion as Pugh, he has to render Tobias’ extreme stress in this situation. “I've never seen that on screen before,” Garfield gushes. “So that's worth the price of admission right there. And I wanted to be a part of that.”

Of course, reading it in a script and actually bringing it to life are two different things. “You do it and you're like, 'Oh, f---, we have to actually do it now,'” Garfield adds. “It's like, ‘Jesus Christ, how terrifying. This is impossible.’ And that feeling of impossibility is actually what makes you excited. And you go, ‘Okay, well, I have no idea how this is going to happen and if it's going to feel real.’ We really trusted each other because in a scene like that, you just have to really let go. You have no choice but to be absolutely present, all of us, every single actor in that little tiny space.”

Part of the challenge also involved working with a real newborn. To believably film the birth, the production brought in an 11-day-old baby for certain shots. “Suddenly we are tasked with keeping this miracle alive,” Garfield says. “We are merely actors. It was an overwhelming responsibility. That's when it kicked up another gear for all of us. [Director]  John [Crowley] was like, ‘Yeah, we need you to pass the child, with one hand, through Florence's legs so that she can grab the baby with one hand too.’”

“I said, ‘John, no, that's not going to happen,’” the actor continues. “‘I have no interest in doing that. That's an irresponsible thing to ask me to do.’ And then I realized that he was serious and that there was no other choice.”

All the actors, including the newborn baby, emerged from the scene physically unscathed. But for Pugh and Garfield, it rearranged something emotionally. “The whole thing was a sacred act,” Garfield notes. “I know it sounds silly saying that because we're just actors doing it. My brother actually does deliver babies. But after we finished filming, it was a sense of achievement, but also a sense of like when you walk into a cathedral or a sacred space where a lot of beautiful stuff has happened over the course of however many years, and you can feel it in the air. We had somehow sanctified this very unholy toilet.”

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

It was such a profound experience that Pugh and Garfield took the opportunity to soak it all in, even as the crew moved on to the next scene. “After everyone else had emptied out and people were moving on to the next set to light and start blocking, we got the opportunity to stand there for 15 minutes just holding each other,” he concludes. “Just honoring it and closing it together. Thanking it, thanking each other, thanking whoever put us into that position where we would have that surreal, amazing experience. It was a holy, sacred ritual that happened.”

We Live in Time is now playing in New York and Los Angeles, and will expand nationwide on Oct. 18.