Promoting his new movie 99 Homes, Andrew Garfield has inevitably been asked a lot about the time he spent playing Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man franchise (he recently revealed whether or not Marvel Studios asked him to reprise the role). In this latest interview, the British actor was quizzed about what he learned from being Spider-Man, and his response is very telling, especially when he touches on what went wrong with them. You can tell he's being careful with what he says - he likely doesn't want his career going the same way as Josh Trank's - but it doesn't sound as if Garfield was any happier with how The Amazing Spider-Man 2 turned out than fans!
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 f***ing Spider-Man. I f***ing 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, which, thank you for reminding me about that.
When the interviewer went on to mention that he shows Garfield's 2011 Comic-Con appearance to his students to show them someone paying tribute to a character they love, the actor's response was very heartfelt. It should come as no surprise to learn that the ever clueless Sony weren't keen on his Con stealing idea to unmask as Spider-Man! "Thank you for sharing that with me, 'cause that was probably the highlight of the whole experience for me, 'cause it felt like, just me. Vulnerable. And terrified. And that could've really failed. That whole idea could've failed. And everyone told me it was going to. Emma [Stone] told me it was not a good idea. The studio said, "What the f*** are you thinking?!" And I was, "Just let me do one thing! Just one thing!" And to their credit they allowed it, and they saw that it worked. They trusted me a lot more after that, to their credit. So thank you for saying that. That was a gift you just gave me. Really." Thoughts?
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