Like a football player emerging from the huddle, Florence Pugh crouched and grunted as she reenacted a dramatic scene from “We Live in Time” after the film made its splashy debut on Day 2 of the Toronto International Film Festival. During a post-screening Q&A with co-star Andrew Garfield and director John Crowley, Pugh described the genesis of a wild scene from the tear-jerking cancer drama in which she gives birth in a squalid gas station bathroom as Garfield and two strangers look on.

"It was amazing. I mean, you saw about seven minutes of it. We did eight 15-minute labors. It was insane," she told the sniffling audience. "The only problem was I didn't have a baby coming out, so I was just so exhausted and sweaty and tired, and I had no endorphins or anything. … I've never had a child, which is pretty important to know how to have a baby. But I know a lot of amazing women who have had tons of babies, and I've heard all their stories."

Garfield added: "It's strange that we've made that toilet a sacred place."

The A24 film follows Almut (Pugh) and Tobias (Garfield), a blossoming couple dealing with a potentially fatal cancer diagnosis and an uncertain prognosis. Garfield, who lost his mother to pancreatic cancer in 2019, appeared overcome with emotion as he answered a question from an audience member about how he prepared to play a character with a loved one battling the disease.