Florence Pugh arrives on the red carpet for the film...

Florence Pugh arrives on the red carpet for the film "We Live in Time" during the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. Credit: AP/Christopher Katsarov

TORONTO — Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield made one the most emotionally wrecking, tenderly exquisite movies of their careers. But what’s gone viral from “We Live in Time”? A horse.

“We Live in Time,” directed by John Crowley (“Brooklyn”), premiered over the weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival. In it, Pugh and Garfield play a couple whose life together isn’t told chronologically, but spans meeting, falling in love, having a child and battling cancer.

The film, which A24 will open in theaters Oct. 11, captures some elemental passages of life, with Pugh and Garfield giving extraordinarily lived-in performances.

When one of the first images from the film was released, it captured the pair on a merry-go-round, a good representation of the movie at its most joyful. But at the bottom of the frame was a yellow carousel steed with a cartoonishly bug-eyed expression.

The internet quickly went to work. One post has been viewed nearly 50 million times. Stephen Colbert made it a segment on his late show. Countless iterations followed.

When Pugh and Garfield sat down for an interview the day after their premiere, the conversation inevitably turned to the runaway meme and the horse that (despite Pugh’s initial confusion) is very, very briefly seen in the movie. Here are their (somewhat off-color) comments, straight from the … well, you know.

SUBSCRIBE

Unlimited Digital AccessOnly 25¢for 5 months

ACT NOWSALE ENDS SOON | CANCEL ANYTIME