It’s always refreshing to hear an actor talk candidly about a project, and as Andrew Garfield continues to make his way through the press tour for his new film Silence, he’s been doing just that. However, it isn’t his comments on Martin Scorsese’s movie that have been drawing all the attention. Rather, it’s what he’s been saying about his time playing Spidey in The Amazing Spider-Man series that’s been making the most headlines.
As we all know by now, Sony’s attempt to reboot the series was met with a very mixed response. While Garfield was great in the role and tried his best to make it work, the movies themselves just weren’t very good and the studio pulled the plug after the second outing, choosing to scrap plans for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and instead make a deal with Marvel to allow them to bring the iconic hero back into the MCU.
It was the right move, too, as fans seem to be embracing Tom Holland’s take on the character with open arms. But for Andrew Garfield, the whole thing has been a rough experience. Speaking to THR, he revealed that he had to fight hard during his time with the franchise to make sure that Spider-Man was honored:
[wgtc_youtube video_id=”IT7CABrdfoo”]“I had to fight really, really hard to make sure that the character was honored and that we were offering something really fun, entertaining and also moving and complex and deep for all the young boys and girls that want to see their favorite superhero.”
Even despite his best efforts, Garfield still feels that he wasn’t represented properly in the end, saying that it wasn’t his work that’s seen in the final product:
“So many beautiful things came out of that. I met someone that remains incredibly important to my life on that — you can fill in the blanks on who that is. But the difference between how I felt when Never Let Me Go and The Social Network were coming out and how I felt with The Amazing Spider-Man franchise was that I didn’t feel represented. I was feeling very represented by those other two films, and with The Amazing Spider-Man stuff I didn’t feel like that was my work up there, in a weird way. It felt like a semblance of it or kind of a shade of it, but ultimately I felt it was enshrouded in that filter.”
These comments fall in line with what the actor’s said recently about the whole experience breaking his heart and the struggles he had while playing the role. It’s clear that he works best when he’s in an environment that allows for more creative freedom, as demonstrated by his two excellent performances this year in Hacksaw Ridge and Silence, and that’s quite alright. Not all actors are cut out for studio franchises and it seems that Garfield is doing just fine lately. He’ll no doubt find himself in the awards race for those two aforementioned films and his future looks bright as well, with several upcoming projects that we’re excited about.
It’s a shame that things didn’t work out for Andrew Garfield with The Amazing Spider-Man series, but at least the actor can rest easy knowing that it hasn’t hurt his career in the slightest.