Andrew Garfield has called artists society's court jesters, shouted out Ike Barinholtz, and urged creatives to challenge big tech companies. The actor shared the message while promoting Artificial, a film about the people behind the artificial intelligence boom. Luca Guadagnino directed the drama, which premiered at the New York Film Festival. As for why technology is on his mind, the answer comes with a very famous role.

Every king needs a jester who can say the awkward thing out loud, and Garfield, along with a comedian he admires, has nominated himself for the royal tech court.

Andrew Garfield says artists are the court jesters of modern society, and Ike Barinholtz belongs in the court. The remark ties into Artificial, where Garfield plays OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

"We're the court jesters, we're the ones that get to say to the king or the queen, hey, have you thought about this?" he told Variety.

He then added, "We've got a great court jester right next to us, you know, Ike Barinholtz is one of those guys."

Garfield also practices what he preaches. He told Variety that he dropped ChatGPT after working on Artificial, having used it as a fancy Google for research purposes. The experience left him scared and mistrustful, since the people pushing the tools do not seem to grasp their full capacities, which he finds irresponsible. He also feels a duty to shine a light, and he does not expect actors to be rendered useless.

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While Garfield questions the tech kings, Oscar voters are about to question him, courtesy of Neon's awards plan.

Neon has mapped out its Academy Awards plan for Artificial, and the category split is the interesting part. Andrew Garfield will campaign in supporting actor, while Yura Borisov, who plays OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, will chase lead actor. Garfield already owns two best actor nominations, so a supporting run despite top billing is a strategy with Hollywood precedent. Meryl Streep did it for Into the Woods, and Catherine Zeta-Jones did it for Chicago.

Company arrives in the form of Mark Rylance, who enters the supporting actor race as AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, while Monica Barbaro targets supporting actress as former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati. The wider push covers best picture, director, and crafts, plus an original screenplay campaign for writer Simon Rich, per Variety. Variety's Clayton Davis predicts a best supporting actor nomination could be coming for Garfield. Whatever happens on Oscar night, Garfield has already made his case for artists who question big tech companies, with a jester's hat and an awards campaign to match.

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What are your thoughts on Andrew Garfield's jester stance and his Oscar chances? Let us know in the comments.