Los Angeles, Aug 23 (IANS): As part of his method acting, Andrew Garfield has gone through "trippy" experiences while giving up sex and starving himself.

To prepare for his role as a 17th century Jesuit priest in Martin Scorsese's 2016 missionary film "Silence", which also featured Liam Neeson and Adam Driver, Garfield said he went celibate and without food, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"I did a bunch of spiritual practices every day, I created new rituals, I was celibate for six months and I was fasting a lot," Garfield told Monday's episode of the "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast.

"It was very cool, man. I had some pretty wild, trippy experiences from starving myself of sex and food at that time."

Garfeild also spent a year studying in preparation for the film under Jesuit writer Father James Martin, 61, who helped the actor research Catholicism.

The actor added about the sacrifices, which led to a 2017 best actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Sebastiao Rodrigues in "Silence", "There have been a lot of misconceptions about what method acting is, I think."

"People are still acting in that way, and it's not about being an a****** to everyone on set. It's actually just about living truthfully under imagined circumstances and being really nice to the crew simultaneously and being a normal human being and being able to drop it when you need to and staying in it when you want to stay in it."

Garfield recently hinted the technique may have taken its toll, saying he is taking a step back from Hollywood to be "ordinary for a while."

He told 'Variety', "I'm going to rest for a little bit."