We Live in Time star Andrew Garfield unpacked the chaotic birth sequence from his nonlinear romantic dramedy, which featured a weeks-old baby who pooped on his hand and an action movie-feel where his self-described scene partner was colleague Florence Pugh’s butt.

In a new interview with The New York Times that zeroes in on the making of one of the A24 film’s most frenzied scenes, Garfield explained that the shooting process felt high-stakes.

“It’s the big action event,” the Academy Award-nominated actor said. “It’s the Indiana Jones sequence.”

In the film — which traces the years-long romance between Garfield’s earnest salesman Tobias and Pugh’s witty chef Almut amid illness, career and life milestones — standstill traffic, unlucky timing and a lack of better options forces a labor to take place in a gas station bathroom. To properly depict the scene, inspired by screenwriter Nick Payne’s...