Andrew Garfield's 'Hacksaw Ridge' rat story will gross you out

Andrew Garfield knows there really are rats in Hollywood. He's even co-starred with them.

Garfield told us about dealing with actual vermin while starring in Hacksaw Ridge (opening Nov. 4) as World War II hero U.S. army medic Desmond Doss. One scene even featured a dead soldier with rats crawling on his face. Garfield gave major props to the actor who suffered through that one.

5 things you probably didn't know about 'Rats' (via Morgan Spurlock)

"There was this poor soul, this stuntman extra that had to lay in this horrible dirty water and have rats just crawl on his face as he pretended to not breathe," says Garfield. "He's the real hero of (filming) the Desmond Doss story."

Director Mel Gibson made sure to include the battlefield reality of rats in Doss' heroic tale. Doss, who refused to carry a gun in battle, single-handedly saved the lives of 75 comrades during the bloody Battle of Okinawa.

Garfield himself shot a few scenes with the rodents. "Yah, I worked with a couple of high-paid, high-quality rats that were incredibly good at hitting marks," says Garfield.

He kids. But the rats were used enough to warrant the need for a "rat wrangler," as listed in the film's credits.

Gibson even shot some scenes with rats and maggots. Unexpected problem: The rats ended up eating the maggots on the set.

Not a pretty picture. "They were slurping them up. You put the rats and maggots on what seems to be a decaying corpse and off they go," says Gibson.