Garfield opens up about The Amazing Spider-Man franchise and his struggles with the iconic role.
[toggler title=”TL;DR” ]Andrew Garfield explains that he felt he couldn’t live up to the role of Spider-Man and save the franchise, citing post-production changes to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 for the films pitfalls.[/toggler]
[dropcap size=small]F[/dropcap]ollowing news earlier this year that Andrew Garfield would not be reprising the role of Spider-Man in the upcoming title, Captain America: Civil War, – which will see Sony and Marvel team up to bring our favourite web-slinger into Marvel movie canon – there has been much speculation about what happened between Garfield and Sony to put a definite halt on the reboot, and strip Garfield of Spidey’s famous red and blue suit.
In a candid interview with Zaki Hasan, Garfield spilled the beans on his feelings towards being Spider-Man in the recent reboots, whilst also potentially shedding some light on why he personally feels it was best to lose the Spider-sense for good.
In response to a question posed by Hasan about what the 32-year-old actor had learnt from his time as the iconic comic book character, Garfield’s sincere answer is very telling of the evident insecurities he had about filling the web-slinger’s proverbial shoes.
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 sh*t came in. It’s like, “Okay, here it is. I’m f***ing Spider-Man. I f***ing made it.”… 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.
Garfield then goes on to say that his feelings towards the role are akin to those of Peter Parker himself.
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]
It’s sad to see Garfield being so hard on himself about his portrayal of Parker, and his radioactive-spider-bite-induced abilities. It’s made all the more heartbreaking with the knowledge that Garfield is a self-proclaimed, die-hard fan of the comic book character, which he charmingly showed in an open letter of love he addressed to the web-slinger (whilst donning a Spider-Man costume) at San Deigo Comic Con back in 2011.
Following the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the sequel received some poor reviews from critics, who cited the overabundance of characters, and shaky narrative, as the main causes for the flawed outcome of the film. When asked about the criticisms last year in an interview with The Daily Beast, Garfield revealed his thoughts on why the movie didn’t quite make the cut.
For me, I read the script that Alex [Kurtzman] and Bob [Orci] wrote, and I genuinely loved it. There was this thread running through it. I think what happened was, through the pre-production, production, and post-production, when you have something that works as a whole, and then you start removing portions of it…and saying, “No, that doesn’t work,” then the thread is broken, and it’s hard to go with the flow of the story. Certain people at the studio had problems with certain parts of it, and ultimately the studio is the final say in those movies because they’re the tentpoles, so you have to answer to those people.
He then went onto say that despite this, he got to get deep into the role, but it was just unfortunately broken down and stripped bare by the studio.
I got to work in deep scenes that you don’t usually see in comic book movies, and I got to explore this orphan boy—a lot of which was taken out, and which we’d explored more.
This just goes to show that the films pitfalls were a result of the studio’s decisions, and you can’t help but feel we were deprived of the true experience the original script was going for. Regardless of the criticisms and his own insecurities, Garfield should be proud of giving it his all, and for trying so hard to be the character he himself loved and admired so much.
He also deserves some kudos for being so gracious about the whole situation, and for giving his open support to the next Spider-Man, British actor Tom Holland – who will be appearing for the first time in the upcoming Marvel title, Captain America: Civil War.
Captain America: Civil War will hit theatres 6 May, 2016.
