Andrew Garfield Says Being On Set With Tobey Maguire And Tom Holland Was Pretty Special (And Hilarious)
At long last, the time for lies is over! Andrew Garfield has been freed from the shackles of Marvel secrecy and now that he's no longer forced to lie directly to our faces, he can talk about his thrilling appearance in "Spider-Man: No Way Home." This means a couple of very important things are finally in play: first, we can spend all our time showering Garfield with much deserved praise for being the funniest and most loveable part of the movie. Second, we can hear all the fun on-set gossip! The "Amazing Spider-Man" actor is already kickstarting the second, as he recently sat down to chat with Variety about working with the other live-action Peter Parkers, Tom Holland and Tobey Maguire.
Be warned, Garfield's gets specific about the filming experience so the rest of this article contains spoilers for "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
The Spider-Meme Came To Life
You know that rush of excitement we all felt when three different iterations of Spider-Man were swinging in unison to take down (i.e. save) the bad guys? Turns out the cast felt it, too. Except ... imagine the same scene minus the web-swinging and the dramatic backdrop of a boss battle on the outskirts of New York. In fact, just imagine a movie set and three actors strolling around in costume. It sounds a little less exciting until you remember that the actors in question are Garfield, Maguire, and Holland, the Spider-Men of the past decades finally on the verge of sharing the screen. According to Garfield, it went in a pretty meme-tacular direction:
I think the first time we were all in the suit together, it was hilarious because it's like just three ordinary dudes who were just actors just hanging out. But then also, you just become a fan and say, "Oh my god we're all together in the suits and we're doing the pointing thing!"
While the meme-inspired pointing is certainly the most important thing the three did on set, they also shared in some hilarious conversations. It actually mirrors one of the funniest moments in "No Way Home," when the three Peters start comparing stories and Tobey's ability to shoot webs directly from his body becomes a subject of morbid fascination. In place of such odd, biology-defying abilities, our Spider-Man actors compared suits:
"There was talk about going to the bathroom and, you know, padding around the package. We talked about what worked for each of us. Tom was jealous because I have little zippers in my suit that I can get my hands out of very easily. To work his phone, he had to use his nose because he couldn't access his hands. We would have deeper conversations, too, and talk about our experiences with the character."
The Love of a Spider-Bro
Prepare yourselves, because this next bit is the most Andrew Garfield-esque thing I've ever heard in my life. It turns out that he improvised one of his most memorable lines in the movie, when obvious middle-child Peter bursts out to tell his fellow Spider-Bros that he loves them. Garfield shared:
"There's a line I improvised in the movie, looking at [Maguire and Holland] and I tell them I love them. That was just me loving them."
The Amazing Spider-Man is back and (unsurprisingly) he's swinging for the fences! This has always been true of Garfield as a performer, clearly represented by an illustrious 2021, where he starred in two back-to-back releases, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" and "Tick, Tick... BOOM!" The latter has a particular sheen of excitement around it, earning Garfield some well-deserved Oscar buzz for his leading role, but his talents aren't just reserved for award contenders. Garfield brought similar depth to his initial outing as Spidey many years ago and keeps it going with his grand return. This time, he had Maguire and Holland to bounce off of, and their dynamic fed into their characters:
"We talked a lot about mentorship. We talked a lot about brotherhood and about what it is to be the older brother, younger brother, and the middle brother. There's also a thing of seeing someone you love walking down a path that you've already walked down, and you know it doesn't lead the place where you ultimately meant to go... That character is isolated in his emotional experience and physical experience. But what happens when that aloneness gets blasted open, and you come to realize that you've never been alone and there are other brothers going through the exact same thing? That's a big spiritual journey to go on, man. And then we just milked out all the fun that we could possibly have."
"Spider-Man: No Way Home" stars Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, Willem Dafoe, Benedict Cumberbatch, Thomas Haden Church, Alfred Molina Jamie Fox, and more. You can still catch the three Spideys in theaters now.