Taking on a major comic book movie role is a double edged sword. Being the actor to take on an iconic mantle can make you an overnight movie star, be worth millions of dollars, and also make sure you have steady work for years to come. However, there’s also a downside, and Andrew Garfield admits there were aspects of playing Spider-Man that scared him when he first took on the role, because the movie, and the character were just so big and he knew not everybody would love him.
No matter how popular a movie or a performance is overall, there are going to be those that don’t love it, and in the age of the internet, those fans are going to have their voices amplified. When we’re talking about an actor playing a popular superhero, the anger is only going to get worse. Andrew Garfield recently appeared on WTF with Marc Maron and talked about knowing that all that would happen, but knowing didn’t make it better. Garfield explained…
I think I was so freaked out by the experience of having made that kind of movie, because I never imagined I would be in that position. And also, I got a taste of what making that kind of movie is like. … On a more vulnerable level, I was just fucking scared. I was scared of this massive film coming out, and a gajillion people saying, ‘Nah, we don’t like you. We don’t like your soul. We don’t like your creative choices. We don’t like your face.’ (Which was) guaranteed! Absolutely. It was baked into the experience. There’s going to be at least 50 percent of people that detest me.
And to be fair, he wasn’t wrong. The Amazing Spider-Man had a lot stacked against it from the outset. Even before Andrew Garfield was cast there were a lot of fans who had decided they didn’t like it, by virtue of the fact that the Spider-Man story was getting the reboot treatment so soon after Spider-Man 3. And the critical response to both of the Andrew Garfield-led films wasn’t great, leading to the Amazing Spider-Man franchise meeting its end after only two movies. Even Sally Field, who was in the movies, didn’t care for them.
But while not everybody loves those Spider-Man movies, there were many that did like Andrew Garfield in them. He’s clearly shown himself to be a great actor in other roles and there were a lot that liked him as Spider-Man, even among those that didn’t love the movies for other reasons. With Garfield’s return in Spider-Man: Far From Home, there has been a fresh outpouring of love for Garfield’s Peter Parker, and even calls to see that franchise revisited.
While The Amazing Spider-Man 3 seems quite unlikely, with the multiverse set to be an active element in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the next few years, we might see more of Garfield’s Spider-Man before it’s all said and done, though it’s still true that not everybody will love that.
