Speaking to The Guardian, Andrew Garfield has commented on the rumors that the reason Sony wanted to boot him as Spider-Man was due to him no showing an event in Brazil where The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was to be announced. Apparently, some people believe that the no-show was intentional by Garfield so that he wouldn’t have to continue playing the superhero, which is a quite grounded theory considering his open heartbreak regarding the experience.
Setting the record straight, Garfield stated, “No, I don’t think so” when asked if it was self-sabotage, followed by “What I’ll proudly say is that I didn’t compromise who I was, I was only ever myself. And that might have been difficult for some people.”
Garfield then launched into an explanation of what he tried and failed to bring to the table for the web-slinger, stating that: “I’d been reading the mythologists Joseph Campbell and James Hillman. And when I took on Spider-Man, I thought, ‘Holy shit! This is exquisite and terrifying and incredible. I have been given the responsibility of reaching my hand out from the big screen and putting it on [young boys’] shoulders. That is a gift for me and a big burden to carry. And I’m so up for it.’ I thought, if I can infuse all this ancient knowledge and wisdom into [Spider-Man], it could be profoundly affecting for young people in the audience. That was always my intention and what I tried to do. I was 25 and I was naive – not because of that, but because I was naive to the whole process of making one of those big-budget films.”
Andrew Garfield can currently be seen in Martin Scorsese’s Silence, while Spider-Man will next swing into cinemas this July with Tom Holland reprising his Captain America: Civil War role for Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Originally published January 3, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
