Andrew Garfield portrayed Peter Parker/Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Significant roles[]
- Frank in Doctor Who (2007)
- Todd in Lions for Lambs (2007)
- Jack in Boy A (2007)
- Francis Weston in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
- Anton in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
- Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network (2010)
- Denis Nash in 99 Homes (2014)
- Desmond Doss in Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
- SebastiĆ£o Rodrigues in Silence (2016)
- Sam in Under the Silver Lake (2018)
- Jim Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)
- Jonathan Larson in Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021)
Quotes[]
- "I have been waiting for this phone call for 24 years, for someone to call me up and say, "Hey, we want you to pretend to be a character that you've always wanted to be all your life, and we're going to do it with cool cameras and cool effects and you're going to feel like you're swinging through New York City. Do you want to do that?" [laughs] "Let me just consult with my seven-year old self and see what he thinks..." So my seven-year-old self started screaming in my soul and saying, This is what we've been waiting for. Like every young boy who feels stronger on the inside than they look on the outside, any skinny boy basically who wishes their muscles matched their sense of injustice, God, it's just the stuff that dreams are made of, for sure. It's a true f**king honor to be part of this symbol that I actually think is a very important symbol and it's meant a great deal to me, and it continues to mean something to people. So yeah, I feel like I've been preparing for it for a while. Ever since Halloween when I was four years old and I wore my first Spider-Man costume."
- "Not to give it credence, not to give it any of my energy. Just approach it like any other job that I care about deeply. That may be naive of me to think that I can just get away with that. But if you give focus to something, it will grow. I just want to be an actor, really. And of course all those things came into consideration when I was making the decision. But at the end of the day, I had faith that I would be able to not be defined by it. And I still have faith that I will be able to get lost in roles and just keep doing what I love to do."
- "I've witnessed other friends go through it, so I'm aware of the pitfalls, for sure. So I already feel as prepared as I can be, and also no advice can really prepare you for something so visceral."
- "I'm sure there will be a bunch of that, yeah. Flexibility is my main focus right now. Making sure that I can be as flexible as possible. It's all kind of starting up so I haven't really got much to say about it."
- "There's a film that I really like that I shouldn't really talk about. I really want to do a play afterwards. I was already thinking, "How am I going to offset this experience and create equilibrium within my system after this incredibly big thing?"
- "I'm very happy. I'm not thinking about that in that respect. Never Let Me Go is a story that I care about deeply and wanted to be a part of desperately, so I auditioned my ass off. I worked hard filming it, everyone did. And then I went into a short film with Spike Jonze ["I'm Here] and approached it with the exact same intention. I did a film with David Fincher and approached it with the exact same intention. i'm just going to act the same way. I'm going to approach it with the exact same thing. It's another role that I just want to play. I feel very passionate about it, it means a great deal to me and it always has since I was four years old. It's all the same to me. I just like working."
- "Do you want to reach bigger audiences by doing a big film like Spider-Man? That's a byproduct maybe. But it's not something that comes into my thought process. I want my life to be my life, and I want my work to be my work. I don't want to identify one with the other. What's important is life comes first. My family comes first, and my friends, and my happiness comes first. It just so happens I get happiness out of working hard. I get happiness out of working on something hard. The idea of fame isn't something that interests me, the idea of celebrity isn't something that interests me."
- "This is the first round of press you've done since the Spider-Man announcement. Has it occurred to you that you'll be answering Spider-Man questions for the next 10 years? You just put that in my head! No, I haven't really given it that much thought. As I was saying, I'm going to approach it like I approach any other role. I'm just going to work as much as I can, because it's been such an important symbol to me since I was four years old. It's meant so much to me, and it's given me so much hope as a skinny little streak of piss, who feels more powerful inside than he looks on the outside. Every skinny boy's dream. I'm very lucky."
- "Most times it's a decade until a series is rebooted, and this is like three or four years. Does that give you any pause to do something different? No. What's wonderful about Spider-Man is it's no one's and it's everyone's. It means so much to so many people. It's mythology and a legacy. There is no definitive version. You look back at the Dick Cook Stan Lee comics to the Ultimates and the Incredibles and the Amazings, then you go to the original cartoon series in the 70s and how that translated to the one in the 90s that Avi Arad was involved in, it's constantly shifting and reflecting the time and being as relevant and topical as it can be. I think it's going to shift again. I don't know in what way, but it's going to be defined by where we are as a society, and hopefully people are going to enjoy it, because I think we're going to enjoy making it."
- "I was appealed by his youth, his relatability, his struggle. He was just this skinny boy. He was a skinny boy who felt stronger on the inside than he looked on the outside, and I related to it immediately, and it stayed with me as I grew up."
- "Every single generation of the comic, the cartoons and the movies, it all means a great deal to me. It was always something that gave me hope as a skinny little kid whose sense of injustice about the world didn't match his sense of strength about his body. I found it so inspiring and uplifting and reassuring. To be a part of that mythology and that legacy is a true honor."
- "We're just talking about where we want to go with it and what kind of body shape it should be. What the skill set should be. I know I'm going to be doing a lot of flexibility training and a lot of strength training, because I have to swing and stuff. I'm just guessing, but it's all kind of early stages."
- "I'm not doing it for any of the peripheral stuff. We could be making a short film, a short Spider-Man film with an unknown director, with no money, and I'd do it just to be able to play as Spider-Man. That's like a childhood fantasy come to life. It's an adult fantasy, as well. I'm still climbing up the door frames in my house. It's just a bigger space I'm going to be climbing in now, with a bit more money behind it, and the cameras filming it."
- "Nah, that's just another role, man. No, it's all in the very early stages."
- "Absolutely, I've always been obsessed with that comic and that character and that symbol and everything he stands for."
- "I think he's an important figure of mythology for every skinny young boy across the world, myself included. Yeah, it's a dream come true."
- "I think Marc Webb and the production team had seen a movie I had done and also an audition I had done for another film and I was told they were considering me. I kind of thought they were crazy but at the same time I was like: 'No, maybe theyāre not crazy.' It was a wonderful duality. Then I got the call and it was a dream come true."
- "My dad explained what it meant and explained what Spider-Man stood for, and how he was just a teenager and skinny and small and goes through the same problems as all teenagers but he is stronger inside than he looks on the outside."
- "That became really important to me and itās something Iāve dealt with my whole life. Spider-Man has all the elements I can relate to."
- "They showed me the cartoon and the sheer sight of someone swinging through New York City was breathtaking and my fantasy really began from there."
- "Spider-Man has his own conflicts, tortured but also having fun with what he can do. It's that attitude towards life like, 'Today's a good day to die. You gotta go out with a with a bang.' I think that's definitely an Indiana Jones quality, that fearlessness, throwing caution to the wind. I'm very excited to jump into that."
- "I still look 18 years old, and I can convince people that I'm a teenager still."
- "I have my teen side. I'm still very insecure and I can get rebellious and act out and kick and scream and mope around like teenagers do. So the majority of me is still a teenager."
- "The heads of the studio, the director and the producer called me upstairs and sprung it on me. They were all there with glasses of champagne and smiles and tears. It was a really generous way of telling me."
- "The symbol of Spider-Man means such a great deal to me since I was five years old. I love the Spider-Man films so much; they're the greatest."
- "I've been a massive fan and it all means a great deal to me. It feels like a legacy that I'm just gonna be another part of. I was so surprised when I found out because I could never imagine a childhood dream coming to life. That's not something that's ever gonna happen in reality...I'm still in denial about it."
- "I think the material is elevated and it's just as meaningful and just as important as Shakespeare. One of the things about the comic book is it's a mythology so it's storytelling derived from the Greeks, derived from Shakespeare."
- "It will be different. I don't know how right now but I definitely know we're going to work hard to make it a new chapter in the legacy that means so much to so many people. Myself included and Marc Webb included. I'm really excited to jump into it."
- "I have had a lot of good wishes and kind words and a fair bit of criticism too. I heard some people are saying Iām lacking the muscles to be Spider-Man. But the thing is, Spidey is as skinny as me. Heās not Arnold Schwarzenegger!"
- "Ironically, I'm going to be the person in the audience going, 'Sh#t! Why did they cast this English fool?' " "I see it like Hamlet or any Shakespeare play. Every actor is going to play King Lear differently because every actor is a different person."
- "I think it's going to be really weird. I don't know what to expect at all. It'll definitely be a different way of working and my approach isn't going to change. I'm just going to approach it like I'm doing a short film of Spider-Man that my friend is directing. It's kind of how I have to approach it or I'll lose my mind."
- "I'll let you know next year. The idea of stepping into a room and trying to convince someone that you're worth hiring is counterintuitive," he continued, saying later that "putting yourself in the correct room and meeting the correct person are all those things that feel so crass to do but somehow you find yourself in those rooms."
- "It's impossible when you watch [yourself onscreen] because all of us know when you record your voice into a cassette player and you play it back, you cringe because you don't sound like that. Magnify that a hundred-fold and it's your face and it's your eyes and it's your stupid eyebrows & your stupid personality."
- "We started shooting two weeks ago, we have Christmas off and are then back into it for a fair bit of time. I'm going to have to hibernate into this character for at least four or five months."
- "I have! I feel like a kid in my pajamas. I can only say how it feels and it I feels pretty special. It feels like a dream released and a fantasy realized and I don't take it lightly and feel very, very lucky that I get to wear spandex for the next few months!"
- "Strength! I think Spider-Man needs strength but Peter Parker is still just a teenager. That's a very tender balance to figure out. It's very specific of what we're trying to achieve in terms of body type. Rest assured there are a lot of people who are helping me with it in that respect!"
- "I've never met him. He sent me a lovely message through a mutual friend. He gave me his support and it meant a great deal of course because a part of the reason I loved this character was because of his portrayal. So to step into those shoes is no mean feat. It was generous of him to reach out and say something, so I'm thankful."
- "Luckily nothing really. I don't ever watch playback or ever go to the monitors and watch what I've done because I get very self conscious. I like to not know what my eyebrows are doing or the stupid thing my nostril is doing or whatever. The difference is is that the monitor is 3D so you've got the director and the producer and the writer there with their silly glasses watching the scene play out in 3D."
- "Itās bizarre and I have to not look at my face. Itās strange and surreal to be wearing it and I wonāt lie I actually shed a tear when I first wore the spandex for the first time. I didnāt expect to get so emotional but I did."
- "Itās tough man, I have to keep watching what I eat and I love eating and eating the worst things. Itās really really hard, but I know that I have this responsibility to so many people to stay fit and trim and to basically not get obese!"
- "I was going in to shoot my second day on set on Spider-Man and at first I was upset for having to get up so early, I probably looked miserable but on the inside I was seriously excited. But it was a lovely and surreal day and my co-star Emma Stone was also nominated for āEasy Aā and we had our first scene together that day, so it was a really special day."
- "Yeah, he [Justin Timberlake] sent me a couple of texts saying that heās so proud of me and [Jesse Eisenberg] and something equally cool. Heās the most supportive and loving friend and what we pride ourselves on is the fact that weāve also been nominated for a several ensemble categories and that really means a lot to us."
- "What if no one sees it? It'd be hilarious. Maybe there'll be boycotters. My self-sabotaging makes me want to head the boycott."
- "Yes. On Halloween. Bedtimes. Tuesdays. When I was auditioning, my parents sent me a photo of me as a kid in the Spider-Man costume. I gave it to my agent, and my agent slipped it to the studio as they were making their decision. What skinny kid wouldn't love that character? I can't overstate enough when you start to actually identify what's happened and you go, "Yeah, I did dream of being Spider-Man when I was a kid." I'm trying not to lose my mind about it. But it's not superficial to me. It's not frothy or frivolous."
- "Yes, the overriding theme of the comic is: With great power comes great responsibility. And, yes, I feel a huge sense of pressure and responsibility."
- "We're two weeks in. The first week was full of stunts, and I've never felt happier in my whole life. I'm all bruised and scratched up, and it feels really good. It's just me throwing myself up against walls, which is incredibly fun and painful and testing my manhood. It's a childhood fantasy I'm living out."
- "Itās going good actually. Itās been a lot of fun, but Holy Christ itās a lot of work. Itās like using seven different parts of your brain at once which is really interesting. Iām having a lot of fun, Iām enjoying it. The freedom youāre talking about, I still feel."
- "I donāt feel hemmed in or tied down. I feel like I do have room to play, I feel wonderful about everyone involved ā the cast, the director (Marc Webb). Touch wood, I donāt want to speak too soon, but so far itās been really pleasant and creative. I think everyone wants it to be like that. Everyone is feeling like we want to do something other than whatās already been seen. Thereās an exploration going on in this film."
- "I really do like Emma - she's a pretty special actress and a pretty special person. "One of the funnier people and one of the more fun loving people I know. I'm so glad that she's there on set. It's really fun."
- "I see it as a massive challenge in many ways....To make it authentic. To make the character live and breathe in a new way. The audience already has a relationship with many different incarnations of the character. I do, as well. I'm probably going to be the guy in the movie theater shouting abuse at myself. But I have to let that go. No turning back. And I wouldn't want to."
- "I want to feel stronger than I've ever felt, and I want to feel more flexible than I've ever felt. I want to feel powerful. You don't want to just be a pack of meat ā it has to be an open body. It does something to your psyche, and it does something to the way you move."
- "I realized immediately how much hard work it was going to be, and how much of a minefield it was going to be in terms of all the s*** that comes with it. Stuff that I would like to not have any part of. I mean visibility and being recognized walking down the street. I'm holding out a naĆÆve and ignorant hope that won't happen."
- "Itās cool right? Thatās cool man! Iām not going to lie, Iām kind of excited by that! Itās ridiculous and surreal...Iām really kind of humbled by it."
- "Youāll have to wait a year and a half to find out!"
- "There's nothing interesting about my life."
- "Like, I'm not stumbling out of clubs at four in the morning, you know? So there's absolutely no reason for that to happen."
- "I feel the pressure of my own inner four year old and that's the biggest pressure I could ever come up against. I don't need anyone else to tell me what a big deal it is because I'm Spider-Man's biggest fan."
- "I'm really getting back into the older Spider-Mans now. I used to collect comics and I have a lot of them. I was a child so I couldn't afford all of them. I freaked out. I was kind of like, 'I'd better get to work right now, because I want to do this justice'."
- "I was thinking of my history and thinking of the kid at school who I wasn't as strong as, who behaved badly to a lot of people - including myself - and who I constantly tried to stand up to but never had the physical prowess to. I can be shy. But it depends on the situation and who I'm with."
- "He has hot Indian oil poured over him to keep his muscles supple and flexible."
- "I feel a great deal of weight," "We all know how important it is to so many people, and itās equally as important to us. We worked really hard to make [director] Marc Webbās vision and [Spider-Man co-creator] Stan Leeās original vision and the essence of that character come to life again for the audience in a different way."
- "I have tried to explore Peter Parker as an orphan. Orphans, I feel, are the strongest human beings on the planet. The amount of things they have to deal with in their lives, is amazing. I have tried to capture how Peter copes with the feelings of being an underdog, his confusions and his self-doubt . This, I hope, has brought, a certain empathy and sensitivity to his character that explains how it helps him become the hero that he eventually turns out to be."
- "Well yes, there is the first kiss between Peter and his love interest, Gwen Stacy."
- "Well, I got to practice for that [the stunts] - although on my own, I must add (laughs). I practiced kissing on my hand, arms and in the mirror. I was just hoping I'll remember how to kiss when the moment comes and not fumble."
- ""I can't answer that, really. I don't know. I know that I saw the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire version before it was legally out. I was so excited to see it, I got a pirate copy. I was blown away. [Tobey has] been Spider-Man in my imagination since then, in my mind's eye."
- "I approached the character like any fan would: with real reverence and terror and attempt to do it justice."
- "I do feel like he's in me, like all true fans do. That's what being a fan is of a character like this: feeling like there's no separation between you and them and that you have ownership over them. Ultimately, you have no ownership over it, because he belongs to everybody."
- "All the way through filming the Spider-Man movie, I felt like I was serving something greater than me. I wouldn't have done it if I didn't. That character has been an important character to me since I was a kid. And all my concern was to make sure that Peter Parker and the symbol of Spider-Man were treated with the reverence that I have for them."
- "It's made of something that is designed to make you irritated. I don't know what that material name is, but that's the description underneath."
- "It was pretty basic, apart from it being more dragged out and pressure-filled and dramatic than any other audition process I've ever been through. They like to put you through the ringer, in the respect that it creates drama and tension among a generation of actors."
- "The main thing I'm thinking about and worrying about is what happens after this movie comes out. What was your experience when you became Spider-Man in people's eyes? I'm interested to hear what you have to say about the whole life change that it brings. Because right now I have a host of fears that I'm contending with on a minute-to-minute basis. I'm not in the reality of it yet, so I'm sure I'm imagining it will be much worse than it is. I admire you so much because you're an actor and that's all you've ever been and all you ever will be. It must be very hard to hold on to the simple fact of wanting to be an actor, to tell stories and not have your image become bigger than your art. Do you have a recollection of a definite change, or was it a seamless thing?"
- "I just feel such a great responsibility to the story and to the fans, because I know in my heart how much this character means to people, because it means that much to me. For the sake of all the people who care about it as much as I doāI want to bring the character to life and make sure they're as satisfied as they can possibly be."
- "Peter Parker is such a positive characterāhe's pure wish fulfillment, an underdog. I grew so much from him when I was a kid, from the comics all the way up to the first movie you were in. I was 19 when I saw [Spider-Man]. I got a pirated dvd at portobello Market with my friend Terry McGinnis, and we went back to my skanky apartment in North London and we watched it twice in a row and then practiced your final line in the mirror!"
- "Terry has this thick accent and every time I would recite that line he would laugh this very distinct laugh and say, "No, man, you could never be f*cking Spider-Man. You'll never be f*cking Spider-Man!" I was so humiliated and upset. But, um...f*ck you, Terry!"
- "I saw it, and I was blown away. And I'm going to see it again this weekend. I have no problem adding to the amount of money it's making! [Laughs.] Joss Whedon is a genius, and it's an incredible cast. I was very, very jealous, and I wanted to jump on the screen and play with them. It killed me that I wasn't in it, but I understand why, and I'm not insulted. But hey, if Samuel L. Jackson wants to give me a shout, I'm there for the next one!"
- "I feel really excited. I feel like we got over a hump with our first one. We had to reinstate the character, and we had to reinvigorate an audience to the character. And I hope to bring more of this themeāthe theme of the orphan. I wanna keep exploring that theme of being fatherless, being motherless, searching for purpose and finding a purpose within himself, being a self-made man, I guess."
- "We get to build on a foundation we set with the first one. We get to really expand and explore. Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci wrote something Layered and rich, and full of twists, and turns, and dimensions. And I think it's going to be a much more fun picture."
- "I sat with Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman in a restaurant for lunch in New York, and they pitched me this movieā¦ And I was crying! I'm an easy crier, but I was really emotionally moved by what they said to me. And I think a lot of my emotion was because these two guys love the character as much as I do. I think there was something missing in the first one because our focus wasnāt on character as much we were trying to keep a number of plates spinning in the air ā How can we reintroduce the character? How do we not upset this guy or this guy? That was a tough wasteland we had to move through."
- "I mean Iām under contract for another one after thisā¦ as far as a fourth one? Thatās not anything to do with me. But yeah, I think what weāre doing here is weāve established the world. And now we get to really play inside that world. Use our imagination, and kind of expand. Thatās what this film is."
- "I have given that thought. Miles Morales was a huge moment in this character's comic book life. And I do believe that we can do that. It's something I'm really interested in figuring out; an eloquent way of coexisting, or passing on the torch. I don't have an answer, but I think it's actually a really important move. I think it's a really beautiful and important move. I want it to feel like a circle. I want the two ends to join, somehow. I don't know what that means, yet. I don't know what that means in terms of the quantity of Spider-Man movies I do. But I know that I don't particularly want to be a 40-year-old Spider-Man. [Laughs] I do know that time is fleeting."
- "It would have been strange not to follow [The Night Gwen Stacy Died]. It's a defining moment in the comics, and not just in the Spider-Man comics, but in comic book history. It's a fact that we lose people. People die. Death is strangely a part of life. You can't have life without death. It's an amazing thing, and a shocking thing, for audiences of these types of films to witness. Especially with such a beloved character."
- "I think it's incredibly bold and incredibly necessary, to keep pushing the envelopes and the boundaries of what these movies can contain. There's a tendency to want to be safe, and a tendency to want to please everybody, and to not ruffle any feathers. There are so many of these movies out, so how do we make sure this one stands out and needs to be seen?"
- "I think the love story we've created between Gwen and Peter is very authentic and very deep, it's one of the strongest parts of that first film. How is he going to continue fighting? How is he going to continue loving? Will he ever be able to love again? Will he be able to have any personal relationships in his life ever again? What does it do to his power, his ability to fight, his compassion as a human being? These are all the big questions that I'm starting to ask about where we go next."
- "I know more than Iām allowed to say right now. I can say Iām really excited about Drew Goddard, whoās going to be writing and directing The Sinister Six movie. And whether Iām involved in that or not is kind of immaterial."
- "Itās interesting: I read a lot of the reactions from people and I had to stop because I could feel I was getting away from how I actually felt about it. 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 itābecause there was even more of it than was in the final cut, and everything was related. Once you start removing things and saying, āNo, that doesnāt work,ā then the thread is broken, and itās 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 theyāre the tentpoles, so you have to answer to those people. But Iāll tell you this: talking about the experience as opposed to how it was perceived, I got to work in deep scenes that you donāt usually see in comic book movies, and I got to explore this orphan boyāa lot of which was taken out, and which weād explored more. Itās interesting to do a postmortem. Iām proud of a lot of it and had a good time, and was a bit taken aback by the response."
- "Itās a discernment thing. What are the people actually saying? Whatās underneath the complaint, and how can we learn from that? We canāt go, āOh God, we [frick]ed up because all these people are saying all these things. Itās shit.ā We have to ask ourselves, āWhat do we believe to be true?ā Is it that this is the fifth Spider-Man movie in however many years, and thereās a bit of fatigue? Is it that there was too much in there? Is it that it didnāt link? If it linked seamlessly, would that be too much? Were there tonal issues? What is it? I think all that is valuable. Constructive criticism is different from people just being dicks, and I love constructive criticism. Hopefully, we can get underneath what the criticism was about, and if we missed anything."
- "I was actually starting to workshop ideas with Alex Kurtzman, who was going to be writing it. We thought to kind of start from the base level, the foundational level of where have we left Peter and where do we want to see him go and whatās logical. And how do we build upon where we left off with this deep, desperate moment with Gwen? So, yeah, we got to some pretty heavy places and I was really excited to kind of explore it and be involved on the ground level like that."
- "No [I've never been offered the part of MCU's Spider-Man] . To be honest, all the ins and outs of what happened is a more tender conversation that maybe I donāt want to talk about in public in a press situation. But all I can say is that Iām stoked to go and watch a Marvel film of Spider-Man. Iām really, really grateful for the whole ride of it. And Iām really excited for the next one. Iāve been petitioning to hook up with Marvel since the beginning, so Iām really glad theyāre finally doing it."
- "The pressure to get it right, to please everyoneā¦ it's not going to happen...You end up pleasing no one, or everyone just a little bit. Like, āEh, that was good.ā They're mass-marketed, like āWe want 50-year-old white men to love it, gay teenagers to love it, bigot homophobes in Middle America to love it, 11-year-old girls to love it.ā That's canning Coke. So that aspect of it was a bummer. Especially for the group of us trying to infuse it with soul, trying to make it unique, something that was worth the price of entry. It was about authenticity, flavor, and truth, but at the same time, I understand people want to make a lot of money, and they're going to spend a lot of money so the playpen can be as big as it was. I can't live that way; it sounds like a prison, to be honest, living within those expectations."
- "With a film like that, there's so much projection and expectation that is inherent in taking on a story and character like that. I was well up for the challenge, and I still am. I'm not going to shy away from something that a lot of people are going to see. [frick] it, bring it on, life's short."
- "I'm excited to get to the point where we don't have to have this conversation, where we can have a pansexual Spider-Man. The richness of the world we're in, the diversity of the world we're in; you look at the animal kingdom and you see it reflected. You look all over. What are we so scared of? Why are we so, 'No, it has to be this way, a man and a woman.' Why is that even a conversation? We're scared of things that aren't us. Love is love. Skin is skin. Flesh is flesh. We're all wrapped in the same thing. I have no preference. The beauty about Spider-Man, for me, is that he's covered head to toe. That's why everyone thinks it could be them in that suit. You don't see skin color. You don't see sexual orientation. You don't see how old the person is, gender, the whole thing. I celebrate that. Anyone can be a hero in their own lives."
- "From a storytelling perspective, my perspective has shifted a lot. I mean, I got to be Spider-Man. I was Spider-Man. And as I get older, you think, āWhat would I show my kids?ā There may be some dangers about the one man coming and saving humanity. "It kind of abdicates the rest of us of responsibility. We have had great figures in the history of time ā I think of Gandhi, and John Lennon, and Martin Luther King, whoever you want to name. These great, progressive movementsā¦ But theyāre movements. There just happens to be one person who is the face. That person is a community, and that person is bringing their gifts into the community. The idea that the world is going to be saved by one man, one woman, is a fallacy."
- "That [the ending] was one of my favorite parts of the film, and it was my idea. I felt the film was missing me as a seven-year-old. All of us as a seven-year-old, being inspired, and given the strength to be who we are, we can step into fear and be courageous in our own lives. I feel a little bit egotistical mentioning it was my idea. But itās one of the things Iām really proud of."
- "There were beautiful things about it and also privileged things about it which I struggled with and then some really disenchanting things that happened. Hollywood is the epicentre of worldly values where a piece of art is judged, not on how many lives it touches or what change it makes, but as long as that film makes money. Only then is it a success. Or as long as that film gets awards then itās a success, its worthy to be here. I feel lucky that I now have that awareness that something is damaging and can separate me from just being in the world, and I really want to be in the world even though itās painful. Iād much rather be in the world than in some ivory tower somewhere."
- "To be honest, I would not have been able to work with Mel Gibson and Martin Scorsese if I had done Spider-Man 3. Iām incredibly grateful that I get to now go and watch another man play Spider-Man who I think is a fantastic actor in Tom Holland."
- "You know what, itās sliding doors, right? There are so many possible outcomes; so many positives and potential downsides to that situation. If I am being totally honest, I am so excited Spider-Man is back in the hands of Marvel. I think thatās a really awesome move. It was a move that Iāve been advocating since I was offered the Spider-Man gig five or six years ago. Iām also excited for Tom Holland. I think heās a very emotional, truthful, funny, physical actor, and I love the filmmaker ā it all really couldnāt be in any better hands. Iām really stoked for it."
- "I don't know that the filmmakers knew who the hell that guy was! [Laughs] I don't know, actually. I actually don't know. No. But the good news is that now none of us are ever going to find out, because that version of Spider-Man is no longer. Now we got Tom Holland, who I really think is going to do some beautiful stuff."
- "There were great things about it, I got to work with incredible actors, a really great directorā¦ I learned a lot about what feels good and what doesnāt feel good, and what to say āyesā to. Thereās something about being that young in that kind of machinery which I think is really dangerousā¦ I was still young enough to struggle with the value system, I suppose, of corporate America really, itās a corporate enterprise mostly."
- "Thereās something that happened with that experience for me where story and character were actually not top of the priority list, ultimately. And I found that really, really tricky. I signed up to serve the story and to serve this incredible character that Iāve been dressing as since I was three, and then it gets compromised and it breaks my heart. I got heartbroken a little bit, to a certain degree. Not entirely."
- "I love what you just said, that you were looking at a stranger and feeling like you were perpetuating something that's toxic and something that's shallow and something that has no depth, no matter how much depth was attempted. Spider-Man was my favorite superhero, my first superhero costume when I was a 3-year-old at Halloween... I was like, there's millions of young people watching who are hungry for someone to say, 'You're OK. You're seen very deeply.' And more often than not the opportunity is not taken, and it is absolutely devastating and heartbreaking because there is so much medicine that could be delivered through those films."
Trivia[]
- Andrew was dating his co-star Emma Stone.