Andrew Garfield plays Desmond Doss in Mel Gibson’s true-life epic Hacksaw Ridge. A Virginia farm boy who enlisted in the army as a medic during World War 2 but steadfastly clung to his pacifist 7^th Day Adventist faith refusing to touch a weapon, Doss was initially court-martialed by the army but having won the right to his conscientious objection and later proved uncommon bravery in the Pacific saving scores of wounded comrades while wholly unarmed in the face of fierce fighting. He was awarded the Medal of Honor by president Harry Truman. The HFPA’ s Elisabeth Sereda spoke to Garfield in Venice.