Zendaya's Bread Throwing In Spider-Man: No Way Home Was An Improvised Idea
Is it too soon to wax nostalgic about "Spider-Man: No Way Home"? The movie that closed out Tom Holland's Spidey trilogy debuted in theaters less than two-and-a-half years ago, but it already feels like a relic of a bygone era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Sony-distributed film continued a pre-existing story we cared about, balanced delightful, fan-friendly cameos and heartbreaking, unpredictable moments, and utilized the star power of three different Spider-Man actors — plus, of course, superstar Zendaya.
Zendaya's MJ was always a high point of the most recent Peter Parker saga, and she got several moments to shine in "Spider-Man: No Way Home." She was also at the center of some of the movie's funniest bits, like when she pelts Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker with hunks of bread to test his Spidey sense. This offbeat character introduction apparently wasn't scripted, as Garfield told Happy Sad Confused podcast host Josh Horowitz that Zendaya herself came up with the bread-tossing moment (via Business Insider).
'It felt like kids just playing'
"At first, Zendaya picks up a candlestick or something, to like threaten me with in that first scene where I come in," Garfield said, recalling a version of the scene that didn't make the final cut. In the movie, we instead see MJ and Ned (Jacob Batalon) experience a hilariously awkward and skeptical first meeting with Garfield's Peter in Ned's dining room. A mistrustful MJ asks Peter for proof of his identity, and when he says he doesn't carry his ID in his Spidey suit, she begins pelting him with comically large rolls, arming herself with an entire bowlful. Apparently, Zendaya was the one who decided to use them as ammunition, as Garfield says she asked director Jon Watts if she could toss them at the actor instead of using the original prop she was meant to threaten him with.
"There was this basket of bread, and that [part] was her just going, 'Can I just throw bread at him?'" Garfield confirmed, "And Jon was like, 'Yeah, throw bread at him.'" The actor seems to have had a blast getting hit with dinner rolls, as he describes that scene and other improvised moments in the movie as "so much fun." He told Horowitz: "It felt like kids just playing, like all of us just kind of playing." Elsewhere in the podcast, he explained that plenty of other great comedy moments from the film, like the quip that Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker looked like a youth pastor and the recreated Spider-Man pointing meme, happened thanks to input from the actors and the set's general sense of open-minded spontaneity.
We already miss the bread-throwing days of the MCU
"It was so playful and creative and free," Garfield said. He also admitted that "a great majority of the f**k-around stuff that we were doing" ended up in the film. While improv-heavy movies can often tilt into unfunny territory or begin to feel shapeless ("Next Goal Wins" is a recent example of both issues), "Spider-Man: No Way Home" manages to feel comedically nimble and thoroughly entertaining.
This, too, is something the current Marvel movie and TV landscape seems to be missing. When's the last time we heard a behind-the-scenes story about a superhero movie made better by serendipitous on-set decisions and good chemistry, rather than one made worse by shoehorned-in cameos or unpleasant, CGI-heavy shooting experiences? "Spider-Man: No Way Home" may feel like it just left theaters, but its zany, chemistry-filled cast and unforced improv comedy also already feels, in some ways, like a thing of the past. The future of the MCU may be looking grim these days, but in times of trouble, at least we'll always have three Spideys and a bread-lobbing Zendaya to return to.