"I always felt like Peter Parker": Andrew Garfield reveals Spider-Man role is boyhood dream come true

"I always felt like Peter Parker": Andrew Garfield reveals Spider-Man role is boyhood dream come true

It’s a mixed-up world when a Los Angeles-born Englishman gets to play a distinctly New York superhero.

But then Andrew Garfield has been longing to play Spider-Man since he was a boy.

And not only did Andrew get to fulfil his dream role in the new blockbuster The Amazing Spider-Man, it’s strongly rumoured he’s found love with his attractive blonde co-star, Emma Stone.

Garfield puts his early interest in gymnastics down to wanting to “simulate” the Marvel Comics webslinger’s gravity-defying antics.

“Since I was three, I’ve been a big fan of him,” says Andrew, 28.

Looks good in a suit, which is handy

“He’s been my hero. So it’s bizarre for me to be finding myself in this position... very surreal.”

Echoing the casting of the Bournemouth-raised Christian Bale (as Batman) and the Jersey-born Henry Cavill (Superman in next year’s Man Of Steel), Garfield’s turn in The Amazing Spider-Man proves just how hot British actors are in Hollywood now.

Admittedly, while his mother is from Essex, Garfield is half-American â€" and he’s always felt the transatlantic pull.

“America always seemed to me this foreign land that I imagined I could escape to if I needed to get away,” he says.

Although Andrew was living in Guildford from the age of three, his Californian father was equally romantic about the life he’d left behind.

“He romanticised the period in his life when he lived in LA,” Andrew explains.

Iconic: The superhero in action

“He still talks about it very fondly. So it’s nice that I’m now able to spend some time there and go back and forth between LA and London. I think that California thing is something I’ve always been drawn to. It calls to me.”

After studying at London’s Central School Of Speech And Drama, partly financed via a job in Starbucks, even Garfield’s early work had a US flavour â€" appearing in the Doctor Who episode Daleks In Manhattan.

So it was no surprise that Garfield made his film debut Stateside, when Robert Redford selected him to play a politically engaged student for 2007’s Lions For Lambs.

He then won a BAFTA for the Channel 4 film Boy A, but it’s in Hollywood where his impact has been most keenly felt â€" not least playing Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network.

Still, taking on such an American icon as Spidey is enough to make any actor blanche â€" particularly given that it only seems like yesterday that Tobey Maguire was playing the role.

Garfield can still recall watching a pirate Portobello Market-bought DVD of the first of Maguire’s three Spider-Man outings in his “skanky apartment in North London” when he was 19, then practising the lines in the mirror.

“There will always be people that prefer Tobey,” Garfield shrugs.

One of the benefits of being Spider-Man is that you don't have to fight for a seat on public transport

“You can’t satisfy every single fan, even if that’s your intention.”

Thin, wiry and in perfect shape to slip into Spidey’s spandex suit, Andrew nevertheless admits he didn’t jump at the role the moment it was offered to him.

“Every single possible outcome went through my mind before I said yes,” he explains.

Whether it was the difficulty of rebooting a franchise still fresh in audiences’ minds, or taking on his first blockbuster role, or simply losing his anonymity, Garfield had to “ignore all my better instincts” and listen to that “loud” three-year-old boy inside him.

“He said, ‘You have one life and who are you to say no to playing one of your heroes?’” Andrew smiles.

“Actually, I always felt I was Peter Parker,” he adds, referring to Spider-Man’s teenage alter ego.

“Everything apart from his brilliance in science, that is.”

Raised in Surrey, where his parents ran an interior design business, Garfield’s middle-class Jewish upbringing may have been comfortable, but it was by no means easy.

“I was bullied in my first school between the ages of six and 12,” he reveals.

“I didn’t really know who I was, like many teenagers. That’s why everyone loves this character so much. He’s just the most universally normal teenage kid rebelling against his situation.”

Andrew contributed as much as he could to the script â€" even suggesting one scene where Peter Parker is seen skateboarding.

“I won a lot of the battles and lost a couple,” he grins.

“At least I fought. I gave everything I could. There’s only so much you can do. Eventually you have to let go.”

Andrew also clearly enjoyed acting alongside Emma Stone, who plays Peter Parker’s love interest Gwen Stacy, although the actor has so far refused to confirm their off-screen romance is for real.

What he will say is just how she took him by surprise.

Chemistry: It's got to be love

“Emma exceeded my expectations in the amount of depth that she had,” he explains.

“I’d only seen Zombieland and Superbad, where she is a comedienne. Then I saw she had this great emotional depth. She’s an incredible actress â€" the perfect Gwen Stacy.”

For her part, 23-year-old Stone is equally gushing.

“I don’t like inflating expectations, but I truly think he was wonderful,” she says.

Still, she won’t be the only one singing his praises as the film hits cinemas.

Is he ready for being swamped by fans wherever he goes?

“I’ll deal with it,” Andrew shrugs. “Besides, I like meeting people. If they want to hang out, then I’m up for chatting... on certain days!”

So what about the film itself? Here's our friendly neighbourhood film critic Dave Edwards gives his opinion on The Amazing Spider-Man:

Our man Dave Edwards reviews the new blockbuster

There were howls of protest when Sony announced last year that it was abandoning plans to make Spider-Man 4 and instead planned to reset the clock by ditching the original cast and taking the reboot route.

Sam Raimi’s three films, released between 2002 and 2007 had, after all, been feted as among the best superhero flicks ever made, taking a mighty $2.5billion between them.

And while there’s a lot to like about the new movie, it’s frustrating to have to sit through a story that doesn’t differ all that much from what’s come before.

Andrew Garfield (The Social Network, Never Let Me Go) replaces Tobey Maguire to play anguished schoolboy Peter Parker who’s raised by his uncle and aunt (Martin Sheen and Sally Field) after the disappearance of his parents.

Bullied by the local jocks and with a major crush on classmate Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), he gains superpowers after being bitten by a genetically-engineered spider.

Using his new abilities, Peter decides to find out what happened to his mother and father, a journey that sets him on a collision course with eccentric scientist Dr Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), whose attempts to regrow his arm turn the errant doc into the monstrous Lizard.

However, the plot isn’t all that different from Raimi’s 2002 film, although director Marc Webb gives more space to the burgeoning romance between Parker and his girl which gives the film a satisfying dose of emotional wallop.

It’s no surprise to learn Webb was the man behind the angsty relationship drama (500) Days Of Summer.

As for the inevitable Garfield vs Maguire comparisons, I’d go with the former who convincingly blends Parker’s vulnerability with his alter ego’s cockiness.

Overall, Spidey satisfies but never soars.

Rating 3/5

The Amazing Spider-Man is in cinemas from next Tuesday.