A few days ago we brought you some comments from Andrew Garfield about what Sony had in store for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 before the studio’s decision to reboot the series with Marvel Studios, and now Garfield has been speaking to Zaki’s Corner about his time as the wall-crawler, and what he might have learned from his time as Spider-Man.
“Well, nothing, because I was never Spider-Man. Because Spider-Man’s a fictional character. He’s not real. [laughs] You know what’s funny, to give you the vulnerable answer, I thought I was going to be Spider-Man, you know? I went into it going…ego shit came in. It’s like, “Okay, here it is. I’m fucking Spider-Man. I fucking made it.” All that shit. [laughs] I didn’t actually make it. I was never Spider-Man.
“I was the actor that I am. The person that I am. Struggling with trying to match up with something that I’d elevated so high in my mind. Elevated beyond what I could attain, what I could achieve. The great thing is, that’s what Peter Parker was doing as well. Peter Parker created this symbol that he couldn’t live up to. It was never enough. He never felt enough, and I never felt enough. I never felt like I was able to do enough. And I couldn’t rescue those films…even though I didn’t sleep. [laughs]
“And I wanted to…not to say that I needed to rescue those films, but I couldn’t make them as deep and soulful and…life-giving as I could ever dream. And I’m never gonna be able to do that, with any film. It was especially difficult in that situation because…well, just because. And it was especially important because that character has always meant so much to me, and you saw that if you saw the Comic Con thing [where Garfield appeared in costume as Spider-Man], which, thank you for reminding me about that.”
Meanwhile, speaking to The Playlist, Garfield discussed the challenges of making a four-quadrant superhero movie:
“The pressure to get it right, to please everyone… it’s not going to happen…You end up pleasing no one, or everyone just a little bit. Like, ‘Eh, that was good.’ [The films are] mass-marketed, like ‘We want 50-year-old white men to love it, gay teenagers to love it, bigot homophobes in Middle America to love it, 11-year-old girls to love it.’ That’s canning Coke.
“So that aspect of it was a bummer, Especially for the group of us trying to infuse it with soul, trying to make it unique, something that was worth the price of entry. It was about authenticity, flavor, and truth, but at the same time, I understand people want to make a lot of money, and they’re going to spend a lot of money so the playpen can be as big as it was. I can’t live that way; it sounds like a prison, to be honest, living within those expectations.
“With a film like [The Amazing Spider-Man], there’s so much projection and expectation that is inherent in taking on a story and character like that. I was well up for the challenge, and I still am. I’m not going to shy away from something that a lot of people are going to see. Fuck it, bring it on, life’s short.”
Garfield will next be seen in the drama 99 Homes, which is set for release in September. Meanwhile, Captain America: Civil War opens on April 29th 2016 in the UK and May 6th 2016 in the States, while the as yet untitled Spider-Man reboot will hit cinemas on July 28th 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=qvTY7eXXIMg
Originally published September 1, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
