Spider-Man is swinging into production later this year, and we’ve just had a chat with the man himself, Andrew Garfield.
Having beaten out a list of hopefuls as long as your arm, Garfield won the role in Sony’s Spidey reboot, to be directed by Marc Webb, earlier this year.
According to the 27-year-old, it had been a long time coming. He reveals that he’s “been waiting for 20 odd years for a film call saying: ‘We want you to pretend to be Spider-Man, and we’re gonna extend your childhood fantasy and put you on wires and you’re gonna feel like you’re swinging through Manhattan.’”
Though he’s perhaps better known for being attached to more serious, intense roles (like the upcoming Never Let Me Go ), Garfield adds that the character of Spidey means a lot to him as a symbol:
“I do see it as this massive honour, actually. It actually means a great deal to me and him as a symbol, Spider-Man as a symbol, has always meant a great deal to me; I connect it viscerally with the comic book and the cartoon series, and of course the first three films, I was obsessed with them.
“I’m excited because, as you say, I don’t know why I’ve only done these very kind of serious and deep, deep journeys, I don’t know why that is. But for the last few years I’ve been definitely been veering more towards this kind of decision, and it just so happened it was the one role that I’ve always dreamed of.”
Considering the massive profile of a movie like Spider-Man , Garfield could be forgiven for worrying that he’s about to become a slab of meat that everybody wants a piece of.
Instead he’s relying on that faithful emotional buffer of “denial” to get him through. “I’m in pure denial,” he says. “You can’t really be prepared for anything fully. I’m an actor and I just want to be an actor. I think if my focus remains on just wanting to be an actor and I think that I can retain that sort of perception, I have no interest in being a commodity.”
Spider-Man opens in cinemas on 4 July, 2012.
