Andrew Garfield talked more to The Associated Press about starring as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the upcoming reboot.
He says he’s been a fan since he was four years old and that the appeal of the character is “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.”
Garfield’s Never Let Me Go co-star Carey Mulligan added that “those big superhero films or comic films only ever work when the actors are completely truthful. If they go in with a stylized, comic book version of the performance, it’s not going to work. But I know that Andrew will play the truth of what it’s like to be that man in that situation.”
“I think it’ll be like what Heath Ledger did with the Joker,” she said. “Andrew, he has no other way of working other than doing things with complete truth.”
Garfield is about to start his training regimen for the Marc Webb-directed Spidey film that begins shooting in December.
“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,” Garfield said. “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,” the actor explained. “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.”
The untitled Spider-Man film opens in 3D and 2D theaters on July 3, 2012.
