A Spider-Man movie starring The Social Network star Andrew Garfield should have been a big deal that made both comic book geeks and movie nerds all over the world leap and cheer in anticipation and joy. But, because The Amazing Spider-Man is coming to us so soon after Sam Raimi’s Tobey Maguire-starring Spider-Man trilogy, the reaction to the movie has more resembled a collective, “More Spider-Man? Already? Really?”
Still, despite inevitable comparisons between Maguire and Garfield’s takes on the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler that are going to happening in fan circles, the two actors don’t seem to be approaching The Amazing Spider-Man’s release date feeling any sense of competition. As a matter of fact, they sat down to have a chat with one another for “VMan” magazine, and the results were quite amicable.
They started off by broaching the subject of Garfield’s upcoming version of the Spider-Man story, and sharing some kind words about one another:
AG: Do you know about this movie? [Laughs]
TM: I do know about it! Actually, when it was coming together, I was particularly excited at two moments: one was when [director] Marc Webb got involved. I think he’s an interesting and cool choice. and then I was certainly curious as to who was going to play Peter Parker. When I heard it was you, I was literally like, fucking perfect!
AG: Oh, man!
TM: I just want it to be great, and I thought, “What a great actor Andrew is,” I’m glad that’s what’s happening here.
AG: That’s so nice of you.
The duo of Spider-Men then went on to chat about what effects playing an iconic character like Peter Parker can have on your life:
TM: What kind of effect has this had on you?
AG: 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?
TM: I think our thing was a little bit different because movies hadn’t been doing the sort of opening-weekend business that’s fairly common – even expected – today. The first Harry Potter came out about six months before us and it was this phenomenon from day one. It was so wild because it was a new thing at that moment – and I’m not saying that hasn’t happened in movie history, but at the time that was a big jump…So much shifted in my life the weekend the movie came out. It was shocking.
To read the rest of their interactions, head over to VMan’s site. Personally, I couldn’t pick up on any hidden tensions between the two actors, but maybe you can pick out a point where they were looking at each other through squinted eyes and secretly thinking that they are the real Peter Parker, and the other is a B-grade, Ben Reilly wannabe. [via Coming Soon]