Andrew Garfield has reflected on his tenure as Spider-Man, describing it as “a lot to take on” aged 26. “I feel that about myself as a 26-year-old. I’m like, Fuck, that was a lot to take on. It’s a shit-tonne to take on. And I wanted to take it on. I was ready. I was so up for it. It didn’t feel heavy. But I think there were elements that felt very… I sensed danger for myself, in terms of fame and exposure,” Garfield explained in an interview with GQ UK.
Garfield succeeded Tobey Maguire in the role of the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man in 2012, joining director Marc Webb for The Amazing Spider-Man, and the less successful sequel two years later, The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The 39-year-old actor said he wasn’t sure if he “had an expectation of doing more. I was very open to it being whatever it was meant to be. But there was an undone feeling. Like, What was that experience about? And how do I close that circle in my living room on my own?.”
Later, Garfield returned to reprise his role as Peter Parker alongside Tobey Maguire and Tom Holland for Spider-Man: No Way Home, the highest-grossing film of 2021, marking his first appearance in the MCU. He described the experience of filming No Way Home as “kind of beautiful. I got to treat it like a short film about Spider-Man with buddies.”
“The pressure was off of me. It was all on Tom’s shoulders. Like, it’s his trilogy. And me and Tobey were there to provide support and have as good a time as possible, actually, and be as inventive, imaginative, and kind of dumb as possible,” he continued.
“Y’know, between the three of us, I was like, Oh shit, this is going to be interesting. You have three people who feel real ownership over this character. But it was really, like, brotherhood first, I think. And I think that comes through in what we shot.”
Spider-Man: No Way Home stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Marisa Tomei, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Charlie Cox, and Tom Hardy.
