The Amazing Spider-Man 2 actor Andrew Garfield is his own harshest critic
ANDREW Garfield reveals he wasn’t satisfied with his first Spider-Man movie, and why he’s his harshest critic about the latest sequel.
WHEN Andrew Garfield says he wasn’t satisfied with his first Spider-Man movie, it’s hardly a surprise. He’s a man who’s rarely satisfied by anything.
The 2012 reboot of the beloved, web-slinging comic book character, less than a decade after Sam Raimi’s three movies with Tobey Maguire made more than $750 million at the box office, transformed Garfield from supporting actor to bankable leading man. Yet despite the success, and accolades for his role (not to mention the fact that he met his now-partner Emma Stone while making it) the American-born, England-raised actor remains strangely underwhelmed by the whole experience.
“I’m going to say that I wasn’t satisfied with the first movie,” Garfield says, leaning back in a chair in a conference room on the Sony Pictures lot in Los Angeles. “But I am not satisfied with the shoes I am wearing right now. I am not satisfied with much, which is arguably a good way to live and arguably not. Either way, I don’t think I am ever really going to be satisfied with anything and that’s OK.”
Garfield is clearly his own harshest critic. In the flesh he is friendly and engaging, even though he’d rather be asking the questions and doing the listening as opposed to talking about himself. He’s thoughtful and giving when talking about his work but his personal life — and particularly Stone — is well and truly off limits. Some might say he is humble and self-deprecating, albeit in a charming, British kind of way, to a fault. He won’t argue with that assessment.
“It’s true,” he says with a laugh. “I’m working on it because sometimes it’s really healthy and helpful and sometimes it just gets in the way. It’s like a distraction from a bigger thing that’s happening. It’s almost like a protective mechanism somehow. I believe it can be really useful and I believe it can be really inspiring, weirdly. But a lot of the time it’s indulgent. And it’s not necessary a lot of the time. So yes, I am keeping it in check as much as I can.”
So as proud as he is of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the $200 million sequel that opens worldwide this week and once again stars Stone as his love interest Gwen Stacey, as well as a rogues gallery of villains including Jamie Foxx as the supercharged Electro, Dane DeHaan as his best friend turned foe, the Green Goblin, and Paul Giamatti as the Russian gangster The Rhino, he still struggles with the concept of shameless self-promotion.
“It just feels rude,” he says. “It just feels really rude for me to sit here and just go ‘f — king see it guys — it’s the f---king greatest!’ Even if I believe it’s the greatest, I don’t want to sell anything to you guys.
“Maybe that’s something wrong with me? Maybe I need to be better at saying ‘check me the f--- out, mother---ers’. I should do that. Yeah — so see the movie, because it’s the best thing that you will ever see.”
Garfield is in a relaxed frame of mind in the lead-up to the release of the eagerly anticipated sequel. Both he and the filmmakers were relieved to be able to hit the ground running after being obliged to retell the origin story on the first film, which everyone involved admits was a hard, and somewhat chaotic slog. With a better prepared script and the feeling that everyone knew what they were doing this time around, they were able to enjoy themselves and experiment, making for a far more positive on-set experience. Garfield is also more comfortable with the inevitable spotlight that came with stepping up from character parts in movies such as The Social Network and Never Let Me Go, to playing one of the most recognisable and revered characters in pop culture. Before the first film was released he was worried about the scrutiny and loss of anonymity but he now says his life has remained largely unchanged and he was worked hard to keep it that way. He has no interest in the cult of celebrity or social media and aside from an awkward recent encounter on Ellen DeGeneres’ couch, has barely acknowledged his relationship with Stone.
“Actor and celebrity is a very interesting thing because the distinction doesn’t really exist anymore in people’s minds,” he says, a little wearily. “That doesn’t mean there isn’t a distinction because there is. I am an actor and I wouldn’t be any good at being a celebrity. I saw a great interview with Bruce Dern, who was in Nebraska. He is a career man. He is a marathon runner. Literally, I think, he is a long-distance runner. But we are in an age and in a culture right now where it’s sugar highs every second. That’s how we are treating the planet, that’s how we are treating each other, that’s how we are treating ourselves. There’s something apocalyptic about it maybe. Maybe we all know it’s all about so end so we all have to do everything right now. I wonder about that.”
The Amazing Spider-Man director Mark Webb, who returns for the sequel, came from a romantic comedy background and was at pains to make sure the love story between Garfield’s Peter Parker and Stone’s Gwen Stacey was ramped up along with the action scenes and the big-budget special effects. Asked about his on-film romantic interest, and Garfield becomes cagey and almost speechless.
“I will talk about her as an actor,” he says warily. “Her presence as an actor and her um … (long pause) … the reason I am hesitating is because I don’t know how to put it into words.
“I think that may be my answer, you know what I mean? It’s that mysterious thing that you can’t name — and to name it would be to diminish it.”
He pauses again, and finally breaks the tension with a laugh: “Wow, that’s a f — king good answer That’s a good one.”
Garfield is signed up for three Spider-Man movies but he’s determined to keep himself challenged and flex his acting muscles between the marathon productions. He starred in a Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s Death Of a Salesman in 2012 and his portrayal of Biff Loman opposite the late Philip Seymour Hoffmann earned him a Tony nomination.
“It was just something that I was drawn to,” he says. “It’s one of my favourite plays and he is my favourite playwright as well as Shakespeare. So just being able to jump into that, I was able to dive into something that I had always wanted to do and it just happened to fall in between these two movies.”
Next up is a drama playing a Jesuit priest spreading the opposite Liam Neeson for veteran director Martin Scorsese.
“I am basically going to spread the Christian word throughout Japan, which has recently become Buddhist and they are trying to uproot and clear out any trace of Christianity in the country,” he says. “So I am on a Christian mission in a very unfriendly land — unfriendly to Christians anyway. It’s the ultimate father-son story between God and one of his perceived children. It’s wild.”
Director Webb has long talked up Garfield’s comedic chops and for the Amazing Spider-Man 2, he was coached in physical comedy to ramp up the humour, but as he ponders whether he’d like to develop that side of his acting that self-deprecating streak comes out again.
“Comedy is the scariest thing in the world,” he says. “It’s the most difficult. It’s much harder than crying for a living. That’s why I admire Jamie and Emma so much because they started out as and are comedians. They are among my favourite comedy actors. There is something nice about it being inaccessible to me. I like being a fan of things — some people ask me what other superhero I want to play. I don’t want to play any other superhero, ever again. I don’t even want to play this one any more — I just want to watch the movies. Because as soon as you are inside something it changes the nature of it. But of course I dream of it. I’m more like Robert De Niro in the King Of Comedy — sick, twisted, not that funny, wishes he was and is convinced he might be.”
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opens on Thursday.
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