Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri speak out on the “surprising” responses to divisive After The Hunt

Luca Guadagnino's new movie After the Hunt is not the type of drama to evoke neutral reactions – and a look at the responses so far paints the picture of an extremely divisive film.

At the time of writing, it sits on just 39 per cent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, but the spate of negative reviews – including our own 2-star verdict – have been offset by some far more positive ones, including 5-star write-ups in newspapers such as The Times and The Telegraph.

It's not altogether surprising that the film would split opinions. The drama – which explores events after a Yale PhD student (Ayo Edebiri) make a serious accusation against a college professor (Andrew Garfield) – is undoubtedly a button-pushing, thorny tale that hits on many contemporary talking points without offering many clear answers.

And speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, star Andrew Garfield explained that he's been taking great interesting in all the reactions that the film has prompted so far.

"We were talking earlier about how great it is to be a part of something that there's no consensus on, in a way," he said. "How rare that is, and how strange that is, and how kind of exciting and liberating that is.

"Sometimes as a creative person, or as a person that's putting work into the world for people to have opinions about, there's a kind of a seduction, or a kind of temptation to want just a consensus. And obviously, for that consensus to be great, like 'people just like the thing that I'm doing'."

He added: "But there's something quite expanding and liberating about going, 'Oh, everyone is just having their own very subjective response to this piece of work.' And suddenly that becomes the story, in a way, and that becomes maybe more – I don't know – growthful or invigorating or challenging."

Ayo Edebiri added that – for both her and Garfield – their initial responses to the script had already prepared them for the fact they were signing on to be in something which might not receive a unanimously positive response.

"Even just reading and meeting with Luca, feeling like, 'Oh, this is going to be spicy and a challenge and a thing that's going to make me look at my convictions or my preconceived notions or my own personal histories or whatever,'" she said.

"Throughout the whole process, we were just having these conversations, and so to feel that mirrored... I feel after this process I've just learned so much and felt so much, and so to feel that mirrored is really cool."

Meanwhile, Garfield also explained that he'd invited several of his friends to last weekend's Gala Screening of the film at the London Film Festival, and thought the response from that group was illustrative of what makes the film so interesting.

"Everyone I spoke to after who managed to stay awake till midnight – because it was a late screening – each one of them, I was like, 'Oh, you're responding this way because of this. Oh, you're responding this way because of what happened in your life, here," he explained. "It's like a bellwether.”

The film also stars Julia Roberts as an academic closely acquainted with both Garfield and Edebiri's characters, whose response to the situation is clouded by a number of complex factors.

The official synopsis teases: "A college professor finds herself at a personal and professional crossroad when a star student levels an accusation against one of her colleagues, threatening to expose a dark secret from her own past."

After the Hunt is released in UK cinemas on Friday 17th October 2025.

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