Andrew Garfield Discusses ‘Spider-Man’ Struggles, Admits Feeling Wasted


Andrew Garfield has once again opened up about the woes that he experienced working on The Amazing Spider-Man films. The 33-year-old actor only got to portray Peter Parker in two films for Sony before the studio pulled the plug on his incarnation and allowed Spider-Man to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where he’s now played by Tom Holland.

During his discussion with The Wrap Andrew Garfield, who over the last few months has drawn huge critical acclaim for his performances in both Silence and Hacksaw Ridge, which were directed by Martin Scorsese and Mel Gibson, respectively, chatted about the differences between these films and The Amazing Spider-Man. When talking about the latter and its sequel, Andrew Garfield admitted that he was confronted by “a different set of values and a different hierarchy of priorities. And we all know what those are. I struggled with that. I wasn’t having the total experience that I remembered having.”

Andrew Garfield then suggested that his intense passion and commitment to the craft of acting might have actually been wasted on a film of such magnitude, where spectacle and action are prioritized. However, Andrew Garfield confessed that he’s unable to go into any projects in a half-hearted manner, and he felt that his dedication on Silence was reciprocated by Martin Scorsese.

[Image by Sony]

Andrew Garfield continued.

“What I realized is that I can’t help but give my full self to something. I can end up pouring myself into a bucket with a hole in it. I knew that with Martin Scorsese, he creates a container from the moment he sends you three boxes of research. By the time you show up on set, there are no leaks, and you can just inhabit the character’s journey.”

As the Inquisitr previously reported, this isn’t the first time that Andrew Garfield has talked candidly about the troubles he experienced working on The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. During his discussion with Amy Adams as part of Variety‘s Actors On Actors series ahead of the Awards season push, Garfield admitted that he found the entire process of working on such a mega-budget blockbuster a little disenchanting.

“There’s something about being that young in that kind of machinery which I think is really dangerous… I was still young enough to struggle with the value system, I suppose, of corporate America really, it’s a corporate enterprise mostly.”

Clearly, Andrew Garfield was left a little bit broken by his work on The Amazing Spider-Man films. After originally being cast, Andrew Garfield insisted that the character of Peter Parker had actually been a major influence on him as he was growing up. During the same chat with Amy Adams, Garfield noted that he originally believed The Amazing Spider-Man films would do service to Parker as a character and his story. But that ultimately didn’t prove to be the case.

[Image by Sony]

Garfield explained.

“There’s something that happened with that experience for me where story and character were actually not top of the priority list, ultimately. And I found that really, really tricky. I signed up to serve the story and to serve this incredible character that I’ve been dressing as since I was three, and then it gets compromised and it breaks my heart. I got heartbroken a little bit, to a certain degree. Not entirely.”

Since finishing his work on The Amazing Spider-Man franchise Andrew Garfield’s career has gone in a different trajectory. Not only did he produce his first film 99 Homes, which he also starred in, but his performances as Desmond Doss in Hacksaw Ridge and Father Sebastiao Rodrigues in Silence have been lavished with praise. So much so that he’s being touted for a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for at least one, maybe even both of them.

[Featured Image by Sony Pictures]

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