Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man is so good at his job that his Hollywood handlers put him up against THREE enemies this time.
"Spider-Man 3" continues Peter Parker and alter-ego Spider-Man's battle against old pal Harry Osborn (James Franco), who's out to avenge his father's death, which he blames on Spidey.
Meantime, petty crook Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) escapes from prison to try to help his sickly daughter and blunders into a scientific experiment that transforms him into the Sandman, who can shift into sand formations and uses the ability to steal and beat up on Spider-Man.
Spider-Man himself is tempted by his dark side as he learns the truth about his beloved Uncle Ben's death, and he's infected by an alien entity that brings out his inner villain. Spidey's struggle eventually encompasses Peter's news photography rival, Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who becomes the black-hearted Venom, a creature with powers similar to Spider-Man's.
With director Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3" hitting theaters May 4, bad boys Franco, Church and Grace sat down with The Associated Press to discuss the art of evil-doing, why it's more fun playing bad and who the best movie villains are.
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AP: "Spider-Man" villains are never wholly evil. How did you go about balancing the good and bad?
Church: Flint Marko, he's probably a pretty decent guy who if anything is corrupted by his own good intentions. He has such a singular focus on trying to save his daughter and at various points in the movie doesn't give a ... who he steps on in that pursuit. He's an empathetic character, and the fact is he's addressing perhaps the greatest fear of any parent. That he might lose his child.
Grace: Understanding why a bad guy does what they do, whether or not you agree with them, is scarier to me than just some guy falling into a vat of acid, then saying, "I want to take over the world." If you understand it, that connects you to the villain and their evil acts. But in a bigger sense, what I really love about this movie is even Spider-Man's bad during it. ... It's great, because we all know no one's pure good and pure evil. Everyone has good and bad intentions.
Franco: Some people come up to me and say, "Oh, you're so bad in `Spider-Man 1 and 2,' but I don't see Harry as a villain at all. Although he's misinformed about what happened to his father, he really thinks he's doing the right thing. He's avenging his father's death. And in part three, Peter Parker, the hero, does pretty much the same thing, avenging his uncle's death. The father figure in his life. In a different story, Harry could be the protagonist.
AP: Is it more fun playing bad guys?
Church: I don't really think I play a villain in this movie.
AP: OK, you'll have to leave the room.
Church: Yeah. He's a pretty simple guy who breaks out of prison to save his daughter, and while he is responsible for criminal acts, I don't think he's a true criminal in as much as he makes the good and evil choice. I think verisimilitude plays heavily into how the villains are portrayed in these movies. It's all about perspective. One guy's evil act is another guy's good intentions gone awry.
AP: James, Topher? More fun being bad?
Grace: Oh, yeah. In my opinion. It was a big lesson I learned on this, because I'd never done that. When you're a protagonist, it's kind of your job, like you hear a little bell go off when you're getting too far away from center. Would I really do that? That comes from your job to be kind of a conduit for the audience to experience the movie through that character. Whereas playing a bad guy, playing a psycho alien murderer from outer space, I never felt that bell going off. I just never heard the bell.
Franco: Whenever anyone says it's more fun to play bad guys, it's because you get to do things that in normal life, there would be ...
Grace: Consequences.
Franco: A lot of consequences. And you get to have fun doing it. You get to relish being bad.
AP: And you don't get arrested at the end. If given superpowers, would most people use them for evil or at least face that temptation?
Church: Are you asking like in real life? If somebody annoys me, would I form a large sand fist?
Grace: Remember when you hit me a couple times on the set because you thought I wasn't doing the scene right? You kept saying, "Do it right" and hit me.
Church (letting out a big laugh): And I happened to have my sand fist on. So you're right. So maybe you're right.
Grace: I felt like I was kind of playing the evil doppelganger version of Peter. ... The point of my character is to show someone very similar to Peter but who didn't have a great mentor like Uncle Ben to say, take responsibility for this power. It wasn't just that Uncle Ben said that. It's that it was shown to Peter by a really awful experience that he had to take responsibility for his power. If a character didn't have that mentor and got the same power, yeah, he probably would use it for evil.
AP: Who's the best movie villain?
Grace: Probably Darth Vader. What I love about trilogies is that there's new information with each film. So you're in the same world with the same actors, but it opens up and opens up. I love how it got deeper.
AP: James? Favorite villain?
Franco: I like Francis in ("Pee-wee's Big Adventure"). I like Jack Nicholson as the Joker. I really like the guy in "Pan's Labyrinth." He was pretty great. The Terminator in the first "Terminator." Pretty amazing.
Grace: You know who they said was one of the biggest ones in the (American Film Institute) villains list? "Man," in "Bambi." Which you never see. That's a great villain. I remember feeling that villain so intensely and not even getting who it was.
AP: Yup, "Man was in the forest." Thomas? Best villain?
Church: I've got to go back to a movie that came out when I was a kid, and it remains one of the most riveting experiences I've ever had in a theater. It was "Alien," and Ian Holm's character. He was just so mechanically efficient in ensuring that the alien was protected and killed everybody on board. There was a purity to his — it's not even evil. It's just this, like I said, mechanical efficiency at eliminating life to protect an animal. I still think it's a touchstone performance.