If you want to the theaters this summer to see The Avengers, you may or may not know that Joss Whedon was involved with the project. The Avengers was a massive hit, was easily the biggest film of the summer, and made a huge amount of money. If you miss the days of Marvel superheroes on TV, a new series is in the works from Whedon.
Even more interesting than knowing he’s working on co-writing a new ABC pilot for a TV series is that the series he is working on is set in the Avengers universe. The project is tiled S.H.I.E.L.D. and follows the secret military law enforcement group headed by Nick Fury. I doubt we’ll see Samuel L Jackson in the project, he makes a good Fury.
Reports indicate that Joss Whedon, and his brother Jed are co-writing the pilot along with help from Joss’ wife Maurissa Tanchareon. There are also indications that Whedon might direct the pilot if his schedule allows. I would hope if Whedon directs the pilot, whomever they choose to direct the individual episodes is up to par.
The production for the pilot is going to get underway as soon as possible according to Mercury News. S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t the only Marvel superhero property ABC is developing as a series. It looks like The Hulk is also coming back to television. That was my favorite show growing up, The Incredible Hulk and The Dukes of Hazard made for an exciting Friday night in the 80′s.
It’s now not only official that there will indeed be a film called “The Avengers 2″, but that the same man as the first film will be both directing and writing the 2015 feature. While it hasn’t been confirmed directly that this film will be released three years from now, it has been confirmed that Joss Whedon has signed a deal with Marvel Studios (owned by Disney) that will last through June of 2015. In that time he’ll also be working on a live action television series for Marvel Television at ABC and he’ll be working on the ins and outs of the rest of the Marvel-related films popping up in the next few years as well.
Whedon was largely responsible for the first Disney marketed and distributed Marvel Comics film The Avengers which has to date made $1.5 billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Domestic box office cash is up to $616.8 million which makes The Avengers the third-highest-grossing film in history behind the movies Avatar and Titanic. Other films currently in development in the Marvel Comics / Avengers universe include Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and an untitled film featuring the hero Ant-Man.
Disney chief Bob Iger spoke during Disney’s quarterly earnings call this week, making it clear that Whedon is in the company for the long haul.
“Joss Whedon has signed an exclusive deal with Marvel Studios for film and television through the end of June 2015. As part of that deal, Whedon will write and direct Marvel’s The Avengers 2 as well as help develop a new live action series for Marvel Television at ABC. He will also contribute creatively to the next phase of Marvel’s cinematic universe.” – Iger
Those of you looking to catch all of the films that this statement likely includes in the “Marvel cinematic universe” will enjoy knowing that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and X-Men: Days of Future Past will also quite likely be included in the 2014 lineup of films from the comics group, as will The Wolverine which is coming up quick in 2013. Both The Wolverine and Iron Man 3 are currently in filming right this minute!
This past month, SlashGear got the opportunity to speak with the rogues gallery of stars from the biggest comic book sci-fi action film in the theater right this minute: The Amazing Spider-Man. Amongst these actors and actresses were none other than two of the most well-known actors in the business: Martin Sheen and Sally Field. These two play Uncle Ben and Aunt May, the guardians of Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, and holders of the keys to this young man’s past.
It was a bit of a strange encounter with this pair of acting legends as Sheen entered the room first while Field ended up being a couple of minutes later gracing the room with her presence. As such, Sheen took the opportunity to warm the audience up, standing in front of the room aside the stage he’d soon take to do the talk with Field. He stood next to approximately 12 recording devices that’d been set in front of the chairs that would soon hold him, amongst these the highest tech digital recorders down to tape recorders and over to a couple of smart phones as well…
[Martin Sheen] Now what’s this all about? *laughter*
How many of you have seen the film? The rest of you can leave… How many of you saw the film and loved it? The rest of you can leave… How many of you have the most important question you’ve ever wanted to ask anyone your entire life? The rest of you can leave…
What are all these cell- some people have lost their cellphones en masse here!
Did you all come in for this, or did you fly in? Really? Where did you all come from?
Los Angeles, San Francisco, Idaho, Minnesota – oh Minnesota? Saint Paul? Garrison Keillor is one of my heroes. Clevland? My wife went to highschool there. They closed down the place, she couldn’t go to her reunion. Closed the joint. It was that awful shooting. She grew up on Ukeland. I was over there just last week working for Senator Brown. In Ohio. Good man.
When are they gonna stop picking on the unions over there? What is that about? You know who’s working that crowd, is… what’s that fascist’s name… Karl Rove. You know exactly – when I say fascist, you say Rove! *laughter*
Isn’t it true? Man and they reward that kind of fascism. Give me a break, Wisconsin, Walker, they can keep Walker. Somebody from Wisconsin?
*Field enters the room*
[MS] Ladies and gentlemen, Sally Field. *applause*
Martin Sheen and Sally Field pose for press photos at the NYC junket for The Amazing Spider-Man
[Sally Field] Oh my god it’s, it’s the Marty show.
[MS] I’ve warmed them all up. Those who didn’t like the show have left. They’re an eclectic crew.
[SF] Oh you already know them all? You know where they came from, where they live, how many children they have.
[MS] Sally and I have to make a commission.
[SF] I don’t know where you’re coming from with this…
[MS] Neither of us have seen the movie, so…
[SF] Oh an ADmission, yes. You said commission.
[MS] Oh, it’s show business, they know what I mean. I didn’t get the chance to see it yet, when did you guys see it? Just last night? How was it? I wasn’t invited. But I didn’t get a chance to see it, and I feel badly about that, so I cannot respond specifically to what you saw. – I know I’m in the film, I assume I’m still in it?
[SF] I don’t know, I don’t think they’d be talking to someone who weren’t in the film, you might not be in it very much?
[MS] So if there’s any specific references, you’ll have to refresh my memory, so sorry.
Spider-Man’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy (1962)
[Q] Have either of you read a comic book or seen a movie with a Spider-Man character?
[SF] Ah no, I didn’t – I read Little Lulu. And I haven’t seen them make that into any thing yet. Little Lulu was mine, that was my girl. So I can sing that song “Little Lulu, Little Lulu” no never mind, I’m not gonna do it. But no, I just, I didn’t – I loved comic books, I was a real comic book freak when I was a kid. Except they were the girl ones. I read Archie, I read those, but my brother read all the Spider-Man.
My brother, who is a world-renowned physicist, he’s one of the finest physicists in the world, he’s almost 3 years older than I – he’s so excited about this movie that I’ve… finally I’ve arrived. I’m in this movie because my brother used to read all of those. So I was and am familiar with the movies but I never have, still, to this day [read the comics.]
Little Lulu, as read by Sally Field
[MS] Yes the same is true for me, I was a big movie fan –
[SF] You read Little Lulu? *laughter*
[MS] Ah no, but I did read Sluggo and Nancy and ah, Archie comics, but my passion for movies was always the, ah, Saturday afternoon, the Zorro or the western or sports or what have you. But no I was, as far as Spider-Man is concerned, specifically? I’m 21 years older than he is, so I missed him, totally. But I do recall the afternoon cartoon, “Spider-Man, Spider-Man, [does whatever a spider can]” and my kids would rush to the TV to see him, but that was as close as I ever got.
Sluggo and Nancy, as read by Martin Sheen – image via MyComicShop
[Q] Mister Sheen, when you’re working on a big budget Hollywood movie, do you miss being out in the jungle with a rebel director going crazy?
[MS] What ever are you referencing? *laughter*
Nah ah, I don’t know how to answer that.
[SF] Just say you don’t remember any of that.
[MS] I don’t remember any of that. You know at my age, at this time in my career, I’m lucky to be living, let alone working. So I give thanks and praise each day that I’m able to get up and walk around. And to still be able to work and to make my living doing the thing I love the most – I’m delighted. So if it’s big budget or small budget, I’m delighted to still be on the team.
[SF] And we’re delighted to have you.
[MS] Well thank you very much.
Martin Sheen on set for Apocalypse Now (1979)
[Q] At this point in both of your careers, how do you feel about putting yourselves on screen in a project for the first time? Do you feel like it’s better to see it in an intimate setting, or especially with a big blockbuster film such as this, do you prefer to see it with a big audience in a theater? And also if you could talk about behind the scenes – did Marc let you see any dailies, and did you want to see dailies?
[SF] I don’t like watching myself at all. I never liked watching myself.
[MS] I like watching you.
[SF] Awww, thank you. But I know a lot of actors, most actors have difficulty watching themselves, but now, as I’ve reached an age, it’s really hard to look at yourself – so I really may not ever see it! I shouldn’t tell you. It’s just a really selfish reason, it’s like ahgh! You know, it’s 3D, for God sakes. I wasn’t good with myself on a television screen.
[SF] So I don’t know, I grapple with it because part of me says, ‘oh Sally, come on, get over it, you want to see Andrew, you want to see Marc’s work,’ and it’s such a small, you know, such a vain little thing that – but that’s true, I admit it, it’s out there.
But also – about watching dailies: Marc didn’t have anyone watching dailies. It’s really not a good idea for actors to watch dailies, it’s an acting faux pas, ever, because the whole task of an actor is to not have any actual mental vision of yourself outside of yourself. Because then you start imitating yourself.
And that is the difficult thing even about watching a film that you’ve done, because you become aware of your own physicality in a way that isn’t good for you to have in your mind. You see actors who start out, young actors who start out and seem so free and easy and natural. Then all of a sudden, third or fourth movie down the line, they look posey, they’re all careful with what they’re doing. Like Marty, for instance. *laughter*
[MS] I was so good until I got successful. *laughter*
[SF] Yeah so sometimes, and Marty will answer this question, I’m sure he feels similar things about watching dailies. I don’t think it’s ever comfortable.
[MS] I agree that it’s a mistake, in this case it was interesting because they would run back a scene almost immediately for technical reasons. You know, you do a take, and they’ll say ‘something was in the frame’ and they’d go down and they’d have just… a row of working computers, these computer geniuses –
[SF] The technology was unbelievable.
[MS] In order to see a playback or a rush, by the way I never saw any of them and I agree with Sally It’s never a good idea for actors to continue to see themselves. The thing is you fall in love with one take, and that’s not the one that’s in the film, and so you’ve already foreclosed any hope of being satisfied.
I once heard an artist say that they did not display their own paintings in their home because they didn’t want to be influenced by themselves. It’s the same thing.
Watching myself on television, for example, I always warned the family what was coming. Like we would gather to watch a “West Wing” episode or some movie of the week, and I’d say, ‘Now this is gonna happen, and you have to feel this way about it.’ *laughter*
I could control the audience when a television came on. With movies, I prefer to go after it had opened, for good or ill, and see it with an audience to get an honest reaction.
[MS] I remember one time I was driving someone up to Bakersfield in the middle of a hot summer day, and on the way back I –
[SF] Why?!
[MS] I had to drop them off!
[SF] Why would you do that?
[MS] Because the bus was late, and, I don’t know.
[SF] Was it someone you’d just met or
[MS] It was someone I knew very well, yes.
[SF] No no, if you’ve just met Marty, I swear to god, if he’d seen some people on the corner and that said ‘I just spent my bus money’ he’d say ‘gosh, where were you going? Look, I’ve got a couple hours, let me drive you!’ *laughter*
I swear!
[MS] Well if I’m going in the same direction. By the way if any of you people are going along PCH… anyway.
At any rate, I was coming back, I was going back to Bakersfield, and I was passing a shopping center, and they had the movies listed. “Major League” was playing. This was about two weeks after it’d – I had never seen it, and so I thought ‘ah this is nice’ and it was so hot. So I went in and it was air conditioned in the theater, and there were two other people besides me. And I watched Major League, which I loved, in the moment where Charlie [Sheen] comes in from the bullpen during the big game, they started playing “Wild Thing”, and I started to weep, and I said, “Go get ’em, kid!” And I wanted to tell the whole audience, all two of them, that that was my son coming in to pitch for the Indians.
So it’s not a good idea, you know, to get so personally involved.
[SF] It’ll cause you to act foolishly in Bakersfield.
[MS] Just – what was the question? *laughter*
[Q] Your characters really ground this story in reality, and I was just wondering about how you were almost in a different movie, like you were doing a family drama while all this action was going on elsewhere.
[MS] I think Sally will confirm that our great director, Marc Webb, wanted us to be as simple and direct and honest with each other and just enjoy each other’s company and not to play any image of the characters, who are very well known. To forget all that and make contact with each other and enjoy what we were doing and make it alive and personal. Because if it’s not personal, it’s impersonal and if it’s impersonal, who cares? We knew those relationships would ground the whole story and that was important.
So that, for my part, that’s all we focused on. And watching this young man — and I know Sally would agree — that this is a very, very special guy, Andrew Garfield, who is now launched and rightly so. But watching him work was so gratifying. He was so generous with us because he had to do some very heavy emotional work and, boy, the set was on fire when he went to those places. But then he would do an equally intense performance off-camera for our reactions. For me that was an enormous leap of generosity to his fellow actors. That really endeared him to me and Sally, too.
But yeah, we took it personal and we had a lot of fun, we were laughing a lot.
Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Andrew Garfield, and Emma Stone pose at NYC junket for The Amazing Spider-Man
[SF] We laughed a lot. And basically all my work in the film – and I don’t know how much of it is actually in the film – I too have not seen it at this point – but it was always with Andrew and Marty, that’s all that I was in the house and around that, I had one scene outside it, I don’t know if it’s still in there.
[SF] So all I knew of the movie, really, was that. We had a table read so certainly knew what was going on, but the interesting thing about we doing this Spider-Man movie is that it is more contemporary, in a sense, in that it’s a metaphor for how hard it is anytime, but especially today, to… the coming of age, you know? And the darkness that this young man carries with him and that troubled soul that he is.
[SF] It certainly is different from any of the ones before, and Mary and I knew our task is that family. That it was a 3D movie was odd because, I said before in an interview, where some of the scene that Andrew and I had together where Uncle Ben was no longer there…
[MS] I’ve gotta see this movie!
[SF] It gets very heated, it’s very troubling what’s going on. As far as we knew, we were shooting a little kitchen drama. And what was bizarre for me, because I’ve been doing this a long time, is that we were shooting a kitchen scene in a very confined atmosphere with a handheld 3D camera. And that means, first of all, that it is enormous, and that it is being held up on a bungee cord by guys up above that are helping. The hand-held camera, notoriously why it was used is so that it can move around with the actors – it’s not on a dolly, it’s not stationary.
[SF] And it moves where we go, if we decide to go this direction or we go that direction, it can go there with you. And you learn as an actor how to, sort of, work with that. But I’d never worked with a 3D camera – first of all the lens is halfway across the room, and it was bizarre… to be doing that. And there was, yes, at least a little part of me going ‘Oh sweet mother of god. This is a 3D camera this far away from my face. I am never going to see this movie as long as I live.’
[SF] It’s kind of amazing, and Andrew and I, to do the fight scenes that he had, to not lose your focus. We were maneuvering around this huge piece of equipment that this phenomenal operator is also trying to, you know, maneuver around us and… the furniture… It was technically fascinating. And in a lot of other ways, as well.
[Q] Mister Sheen, you recently came off of doing voice work for Mass Effect going straight here to The Amazing Spider-Man…
[MS] You, you gotta explain what Mass Effect is, most of em never heard of it.
[Q] Mass Effect is a Science Fiction video game series, ah, and…
[Q] What is it about genre entertainment, about science fiction and fantasy that appeals to you as an actor?
[MS] I’m drawn to characters, you know, if I can relate to them personally, all the better, because for an artist, any artist, if something is not personal it’s impersonal. If it’s impersonal, nobody cares. I’m challenged by playing villains which I think Mass Effect is what I’m playing. I’ve never seen it because I don’t have a computer and I’m not computer savvy. I’m very sorry. I have not seen them. I don’t have a clue what it is.
[SF] What?! What, you don’t have a computer?
[MS] Naw and there was a guy who came to fix my wife’s computer who said that I was the guy in Mass Effect and he was just over the moon. And I said, “I’m doing another one. Would you like to come?” And he ended up as an advisor for it.
[SF] And then he drove him to Bakersfield. *laughter*
Martin Sheen shares a warm moment with Andrew Garfield at the NYC junket for The Amazing Spider-Man
[MS] I’m attracted to things that appeal to me personally, whether its a villain or a hero. In this case, what attracted me to the show was, you know, frankly, was the lady next to me, she was the only one – well, Dennis Leary, I didn’t have any scenes with him but I’ve worked with him before and I’m really fond of him. And Campbell Scott [playing Peter Parker’s father], I knew, these guys, and I was very fond of the lady next to me particularly, so I knew it was going to be a sweet ride.
I got to play a character that I’m a father, I’m a husband, and a grandfather so I have some familiarity with raising kids and grandkids, albeit not always successfully.
Never mind. I’ll take a rap for it.
But I think one of the things that really fascinated me about Spider-Man the character is that he is dealing with what all young people today, particularly in our society, are just absolutely fractured by, and that is peer pressure. And he’s saying, bottom line, is when you hear that voice inside that’s calling you to step up, to be your better self, it’s going to cost you. But that’s the only way you can become free and that’s the only way you can become yourself. But anything worthwhile has got to cost you. If it doesn’t, then you’re left to question its value. So he’s really saying to young people…
Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) throttles a bully (the character Flash Thompson played by Chris Zylka) after he’s gained Spider-Man powers
[SF] I have to say, I agree with you mostly, but I think that it’s not only peer pressure. I really think it’s not only a metaphor for how difficult the world is, I mean, when you look at what’s happening to the world, and he’s using, metaphorically, these villains that come in – in some ways it offers the Peter the possibility to step up and push his own envelope and to, sort of, fight for the right thing. And to threaten your existence in doing it, in other words lose every safe place you ever thought you had to do the right thing.
And, boy oh boy, if the younger generation could have the feeling that we have to step up, and make things right, no matter how much it costs me, it would be a different world. And you see a lot of different countries, you know, lord knows, grappling with this: how do you make change? How do you make enormous change? Well, obviously, it doesn’t come easy.
And in some entertaining way, I think that’s what the metaphor is. It’s a really, really difficult world right now.
[MS] I gotta see this movie.
[SF] It’s playing in Bakersfield!
[Q] I was wondering how the project came to you both, I thought about how Webb was basically a newbie to feature films, but both of you are familiar with new directors or directors who suddenly become really huge. I wonder if that was part of the appeal? And do you seek that out to keep your careers fresh with new talent? New writers, new projects, and new challenges?
[SF] For me, I have one main big reason why I did the movie, but I loved the idea of Marc. I saw his first film which I thought was just exquisite. And I met with him and he is who he is, and I had no doubts he was going to, you know, push his envelope, and I had no doubt that it was going to be exciting, and fresh, because that’s what this film was. So that was never an issue at all, I was very eager to do that, and the cast, and the script was very good. It was dark, and really very different.
But for me the reason that I absolutely had to do it was that my first producing partner was Laura Ziskin and we produced Murphy’s Romance together. It was her first film, and my first film that I produced. She was a good friend. She is, was a spectacular hero. Really a spectacular hero. She is Spider-Man. She really is. I say is because the work that she started is really continuing the fight against cancer. She asked me to do the movie, would I come in and do it, and I said ‘absolutely’ before I read it, before I knew who was involved in it, before I met Marc, before I knew Marty was there. Because my instinct was she wasn’t going to do another one after this, so I would have done it no matter what so I am very proud to have been a part of her first film and her last film. And she was a hero.
Have a peek at the rest of our interviews from the cast and crew of The Amazing Spider-Man in the timeline below, and be sure to stay tuned as more are indeed on the way! We’ve got everyone from Andrew Garfield to Dennis Leary to Emma Stone and back again! We’ve also got Rhys Ivans – playing Curtis Connors, aka the Lizard, coming up soon, the same goes for Sony Pictures Imageworks Senior Visual Effects Supervisor Jerome Chen. Don’t miss it!
With The Amazing Spider-Man in theaters this week, it’s high time you read up on the making of the film and it’s future as spoken by the stars themselves, today’s interview being with none other than Dennis Leary. Playing the role of Peter Parker’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy’s father, Leary lets it be known that he’s not letting go of the series as easily as the classic plot-line surrounding his character would suggest. Note that this interview is especially littered with swearwords and spoilers galore, so if you’re rather young or don’t want to know what happens to Leary’s character in the movie specifically, watch out – otherwise dip in on this rather candid talk with the actor.
Also be sure to check the timeline at the end of this post to see each of the other interviews we collected last month (with more on the way) from the New York City press junket for the film. Don’t miss our first impressions of the movie as well – it’s a blast!
[Dennis Leary] First of all, I have a question. You guys f*ckin bored yet? *laugter*
You just had Sally Field and Martin Sheen up here, I bet you’re really looking forward to me. Two screen legends, and then this a**hole.
I’m sure we can make this very fast.
How about that Martin Sheen. Did he mention his book? I’ll do it for him. He just wrote a book with Emilio. It’s about the father son relationship – A total dysfunctional book book about Emilio wanting to beat the sh*t out of his father on the set of Apocalypse Now. -Which by the way, I don’t know what kind of stuff you like to read, but when he told me about it today and I said, ‘I’m reading that sh*t.’ How great would that be? You know?
[Q] What’s the name of the book?
[DL] Sh*t. I’m sure if you just Google ‘Emilio Esteves punching Martin Sheen’ you’ll get it.
[Q] Hi Dennis, how are you?
[DL] Good, how are you doing?
[Q] Good. I was just wondering – after writing, acting, producing duties on “Rescue Me”, was it nice to be able to come in and do this and just focus on the acting?
[DL] It was awesome. You know that 3D cameras sometimes need to take a break, because they’re air conditioned? They’re big rigs and I just go back to my trailer, watch ‘Sports Center.’ I didn’t have to write anything or fix anything. It was awesome; it was great; it was really good.
Above: The Amazing Spider-Man viral marketing video with Leary as Captain Stacy.
[Q] You played a New York City cop and a New York City fireman, can you tell us, in real life, what experiences you’ve had with either job – how people on the job affect you? And I also wanted to get the inside story on how – you have one of the best lines in the movie with the Godzilla reference – I was wondering if you could tell us how many takes that took, whether or not that was scripted or if it was improvised?
[DL] It was improvised. Marc is like an actor’s director, and he made a small movie, I don’t know if you’ve seen it it’s called 500 Days of Summer. It’s a terrific little movie with a lot of heart. And it’s an actor’s movie – and that’s what he described this as when I first got on the phone with him. And he actually stayed true to that. That he was making a character movie that happened to cost a good jillion dollars and have a big blockbuster name. -And a July 4th release date!
[DL] But it really was like an acting movie. Even in the big action sequences. So in rehearsal and stuff, he was talking about wanting to improvise around certain things and in certain scenes and play with it. That was one of the scenes he had earmarked. And I don’t know what take it was but we filmed a number of different versions of it. It was just myself and Andrew that day with a lot of extras. And we just started playing around with it and somewhere in the middle of it Marc walked up and said ‘what about this?’
Because it feels like, I imagine that we had about 8 or 9 takes where we just played with it and some where my ideas and some where Andrew’s ideas and Marc had come up with that line. And I said, ‘let’s shoot it!’
And I don’t know what they did from there, if they tested all the takes, or if they just decided in the editing room.
[Q] Have you seen the final cut of the movie?
[DL] I haven’t seen the movie.
[Q] What are some of your best real life experiences with real-life New York City cops and New York City fire-fighters?
[DL] Too many to mention with fire-fighters, but, when I was doing a television show called “The Job” for ABC which was based on the real life of a detective, who I knew, who was my technical advisor on The Thomas Crown Affair. So the guy was clean and sober when I was working with him on the television show, but he had been a pill head and kind of a mess – and he had had a mistress while he was married, and he had both things going on which was what the show was about.
And I was standing with Lenny Clark who was an actor in that show, outside of the Steak House after we had just eaten dinner. And the detective, who was on the job, who was under cover, we both see this guy who was scouting stuff out, he had a radio thing and he started to move and he saw us and and he went ‘hey Dennis, thanks a lot, now my wife’s really pissed, she found out about my girlfriend.’ *laughter*
And I thought that summed it up.
[Q] Dennis, I wanted to know what it was like working with Emma Stone –
[DL] Horrible. It was just a nightmare. *laughter*
[Q] It’s apparent you had a really great bond with her and you got to know her so I’m wondering if you could just talk about that.
[DL] We had makeup and hair tests and all that stuff you normally do, but we had some rehearsal time, and ah… listen man, honestly speaking, I had seen her in a couple movies and I’d heard on the grapevine great things about her. And Andrew I’d seen in a couple movies and I knew Rhys’s work, but I didn’t know him – the only person I knew coming in was Martin Sheen, we’d done a movie called Monument Avenue together years ago.
But I really, you know – I thought that Rhys was just a great actor… I didn’t know what to expect from Emma, and quite frankly, they were the real deal. I mean, they were all about the work. They were able to improvise, which not everyone can do – everyone thinks they can but they can’t really do. Every actor thinks they can do comedy and that’s just not f*cking true. *laughter* And everyone thinks that they can improvise and a lot of people can’t!
She’s great at it, and so is Andrew – so the first couple of days was getting used to the idea that these couple of kids were going to steal the movie from me and Rhys. And then, I remember in the dinner scene which was the first big acting scene that we shot and one of the first things we shot on the movie. We had three days to shoot, and we were playing around, improvising and all this stuff, and ah, I still wasn’t there yet.
I was supposed to be intimidating Andrew’s character but it didn’t feel like it was working. Because he was really coming to strike right back at me. And Marc walked in after a take and he just kneeled down next to me and he said ‘hey you really gotta step it up.’ *laughter*
And I just go… ‘f*ck.’ *laughter*
I mean that’s how good they are. I don’t know if you saw Death Of A Salesman but he was really outrageously good and that’s one of the most difficult roles you can take on in the theater and he was just – he was outrageously good, so, they’re the real deal. They’re going to be around for a long time and I’m just saying really nice things about them because I’m going to ride their coattails. *laughter*
That’s what I’m hoping to do. I’m going to be really nice to them, from here on in.
[Q] I have a question about –
[DL] -Where are you?
[Q] Oh, down here.
[DL] Oh, geez. How did you get the microphone? -Oh, she hands it to you, I see. There’s not like a hundred mics! She has a mic, and she has a mic. OK, sorry. I was confused.
[Q] What’s the difference between the effects films you worked on, say, 10 years ago, compared to now? Especially in regards to 3D.
[DL] There’s a huge difference now. Even in the course of “Rescue Me” which we shot for seven years. With a lot of action sequences which involve fire which is famously, obviously, dangerous with real smoke, real flame. And there’s sometimes effects that you need to lay in under that.
We went from having to do everything completely real – fire and smoke, to make it look real – to by the end, in the first five years of the course of that show, finding that there were details that we could do, that we could do digitally, that the audience would never see the difference of. And it would save a lot of safety concerns.
But at the same time there’s a lot of stuff that Marc purposely shot in front of the cameras, to avoid CGI, in terms of the stunt work.
You know, the audience will always know that there’s been a cut, or an edit, or an effect tossed in. I remember the movie “Children of Men”, did you see that movie? There’s a couple of sequences in that movie where it’s clearly one take, and it’s really the actors, and you’re never gonna really get away from that. We all know, we know more than ever when we’re being tricked, so when you’re not being tricked, you’ll stay on the edge of your seat longer.
[Q] How about in regards to 3D? I know that the rigs that are being used are using RED cameras, and then there’s two of them set up in a rig made by 3ality Technica –
[DL] I didn’t know that.
[Q] They make a rig that’s made specifically so that 3D filming is not intrusive. So you’ve got these 3D cameras that are going all over as easy as 2D cameras – did you notice them? Was it difficult to work with them?
[DL] Yeah they’re pretty big, it was pretty difficult not to notice them. But you know, you get used to it after a while.
[Q] Could you talk about – what was your hardest thing to do physically for this movie, and also was it fun to go back to Ice Age with a movie coming out in a few weeks?
[DL] Listen man… those things… Chris Rock said something about them at the Oscars this year. They’re the greatest. You come in, you look like sh*t – I don’t like to dress up, I wear the same clothes every day, you’re lucky I’m wearing – I changed my shirt and my tie like, I basically wear the same sh*t every day and I, you know, I don’t even wear underwear, I’d be in a bathing suit, that’s what I would wear, so.
When you can walk into a room and talk to an electric stick, and pretend to be, I don’t know, some f*cking tiger or something, and they give you all this money for it? That’s the greatest job in show business. It’s an insane job. I love it. I think it’s fantastic, and I’m truly hoping that we do – I want to do Ice Age until we do the Civil War, the Johnson Administration, and Obama gets elected. We’ll have Ice Age 13 when we catch up to the current timeframe and we’re moving into the future. They’re unbelievable man, they’re great.
[Q] What about physical stuff [for Spider-Man]? Do you get scared doing any of that?
[DL] Hey man, that’s what stunt men are for. I’m not one of those actors that’ll walk around saying ‘oh I do all my own stunts’ – f*ck you. First of all there’s a lot of stuff they wont let you do, you know what I mean? Then there’s sh*t you’ll look at and say ‘yeah, I want to do that, that looks pretty cool, let me try that.’ Then there’s stuff where at my age I’m like ‘f*ck this, I’m not doing it.’ F*cking stunt double, man.
[DL] The one thing I wanted, I told Marc, ‘I’m shooting that shotgun, every time the shotgun is fired.’ There was like four days of that, man. And that was a blast. Shooting the shotgun… so I like to do all the shooting. And some of the falls, you know. Sh*t that makes you look cool, I’ll do, but once it gets a little dangerous it’s like; no. That’s where that CGI sh*t comes into play.
[Q] What originally attracted you to this film?
[DL] I’d just finished filming the last season of Rescue Me, we were still cutting and mixing music and making choices. And Marc called me, I got on the phone with him, like I said he described this small little acting movie and I was like ‘this guy’s crazy.’ I’ve done action movies before, nobody, you know, you don’t get to do any acting.
And then I just said, ah, I’ll just jump in. I mean I’m not writing or producing it so how hard is this gonna be? It took longer than I thought but my job was basically just the acting, I didn’t have to do anything else. Which was great. And then just like any film, you figure like, you just hope it comes out in the wash. You know, comes out good. But it was no pressure on me.
I’m not like a comic book guy – my friends that are like Captain Stacy fans I had to like, stop talking to them. Because that’s like, insane, the sh*t that they want you to know about the character and so forth. So I went into work and focused on the other actors and that was it. So I had it easy, on this, you know? It was really no pressure on me.
Now I just gotta make sure I’m in Amazing Spider-Man 2 and 3 and 4 – which, by the way, is not impossible. Flashbacks… I really get in Peter Parker’s head there at the end with the dialog…
I was like ‘guys, you know I can come back, right? You know I can come back in a flashback, I’m in his head.’ And they’re like ‘oh that’s true, yeah man.’
F*ck yeah. By the time we get to The Amazing Spider-Man 5 it might be called “Captain Stacy’s Story.”
[Q] While you said that you’re not really that familiar with the comics, how early on did you know about Captain Stacy’s fate – which was pretty direct from the comics?
[DL] Yeah pretty much from the get-go, yeah.
Captain Stacy as he originally appears in the pages of Spider-Man courtesy of Spider-Man Crawl Space – note his retired status.
[Q] Was that something that made you hesitant or did it make you more excited about the role, getting to be the big act 3 tragedy?
[DL] Well I’ve been around long enough to think ahead. So I’m like, ‘ahh f*ck. My guy dies.’ As an actor I’m like, ‘well I get to do a big juicy death scene.’ But I could be out on the sequels… which is where the real money is.
Because in the original Ice Age, the ape was supposed to die – at the end of the first Ice Age. So I said, ‘this isn’t going to work, you can’t kill a major character, kids bum out.’ Right? So they screened it the first time and kids bummed out. Not because it’s me, because you have to kill the mother at the beginning of the child movie, and it’s OK. But you can’t kill a major character at the end.
So I got in on that! And I had a brief conversation with Marc where I was like ‘how about if I die, and then at the end, I come back to life.’ And he’s like, ‘no you gotta die.’ And I’m like, ‘alright.’ But that’s why I gotta plant the seed for flashback city. Two and 3, you know? Gotta get in there.
[Q] When you were talking about the dinner scene before, and Marc told you to step it up, I was wondering where it went from there, how you stepped it up and intimidated Andrew in that scene?
[DL] Ah, that next take. I kind of saw his, his head move back a little bit. I’ve got it in me, I was just still playing around trying to figure it out, you know? But they’re really good, and they’re not, you know, Andrew and Emma, I don’t know how they’re so good at such a young age, I really don’t.
[DL] Rhys and I would just stand to the side and say, ‘how did these kids get this good this young?’ They’re concerned about all the right things. You know, it’s not the size of the trailer, it’s the meat of the scene. That’s what they’re concerned about, so, you know, hats off to em, man. I wasn’t anywhere near that good when I was their age. Or that mature.
[Q] Did this movie get you thinking about the limits of science, and like, pissing God off by going too far and that kind of thing?
[DL] Yeah, Lapsed Catholic. I not believe there is a god because the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series. *laughter* I also think God is a gangly Irish guy who smokes and drinks and is not the guy that most people believe in. And I flunked science and math in highschool, and I still don’t understand science. So yeah, I don’t really…
I think it could be really cool if you could get bit by a spider and then fly around. I’d f*ckin do that tomorrow. You know? But I don’t investigate that stuff morally. I don’t know anything about science but I can basically recite the entire starting lineup of the 1967 Boston Red Socks – and their batting averages. And why wasn’t that on a math test when I was in school? You know? Like Bobby Doerr‘s stats, I could have been a straight-A math student if that had was on the math test. But no!
[Q] People don’t know that you’re a doctor.
[DL] They should know that because I published a book under the name Doctor, two books under the name Doctor actually.
[Q] A lot of people don’t realize this.
[DL] Yes I am, in fact. It’s nice that it follows the science question. Just incase you didn’t know – but you probably did know because of the celebrity world of becoming a doctor, which is you don’t actually have to go back to school. You’re just famous and they give you one if you speak at the graduation – which I used to think was really bullsh*t, but now that I have a doctorate, I think it’s a really smart system. *laughter*
I actually graduated with honors from my college, it was an acting and a writing degree, and then years later they gave me a Doctor of the Fine Arts. So there you go, Bill Cosby.
Bill Cosby actually went back to school and got his real doctorate, I’m like, ‘f*ck man, he must be pissed.’ I’m Doctor Dennis Leary, he’s Doctor Cosby. You know what I mean? But it’s cool to be able to say Doctor Leary.
I just went to – my son just graduated from the school I went to, and the guy looked down his nose at me because they were putting the doctors, the doctorates in a special seating area. And we were going in there, and this guy, like a real academic looking, like real doctor, of letters, turned around and he’s like, “excuse me but this is for the doctors.” And I’m like, “yeah I’m Doctor Dennis Leary.”
And he went like this, *surprised look* like that, and then there I was sitting next to him at the graduation. With all the other f*ckin doctors. *laughter* He was pissed, man, he was not happy.
[Q] Where is this school located?
[DL] In Boston, it’s a great college. Emerson College. I went there, there’s a lot of famous people that went to school there. It’s a fantastic school for acting, writing, and now filmmaking as well. My son just graduated with a degree in filmmaking. I can’t say enough about that school. It’s where I ultimately met my wife, after I graduated, she was going to school there, and… a lot of great alumni from that school from Henry Winkler to Norman Lear back in the way old days to – you know, a lot of the Simpsons original staff writers came out of that college. David Cross, me, god – the list, Gina Gershon, Mario Cantone, ah… I’m forgetting people man, Laura Keitlinger, it’s just, it’s – Steven Wright, the comedian.
It’s a really great school.
I should be getting paid for this.
Be sure to stay tuned for our whole series of interviews being posted immediately if not soon for this fabulous film. Have a peek at the timeline below to see what we’ve already got and hit our Entertainment hub for more awesome interview and film feature action in the future. Also don’t forget to see The Amazing Spider-Man in theaters now!
The next blockbuster comic book film headed to theaters this summer is The Amazing Spider-Man, and we got the opportunity earlier this month to speak to none other than the friendly neighborhood super-hero himself: Andrew Garfield. As part of a press junket in New York City that included everyone from Emma Stone to Martin Sheen [our talk coming up later this week], including the director Marc Webb as well, it was Garfield who came off as the single most jolted and excited cast or crew member involved. Have a read on how Garfield jumped into the role of Peter Parker and his superhero alternate identity Spider-Man below, and don’t forget to keep your mask on!
Be sure to check out our first look at The Amazing Spider-Man from earlier this month as well. We’ve also got a talk coming up that will let you dive deep into the world visual effects on the film this week. For now though, head on down to Andrew Garfield’s take on the whole experience!
[Q] Hi Andrew, first off, congratulations on everything.
[Andrew Garfield] Oh thanks. On my life, hah. I do have a very blessed life, thank you.
[Q] I wonder if you could talk about the difference between doing low-tech stagecraft [such as with Death of a Salesman] and this, a huge blockbuster?
[AG] It’s not much different, actually, weirdly enough. In terms of how I approached it, my only intention was to honor the character. That goes for Biff Loman as well as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. That was everything to me. So, my approach was the same – just from my heart and guts. I got very upset and stressed out and wanted to do a good job, as is my way. And that’s kind of it. I mean, there were certain things that were challenging about both, of course.
You know, the repetition of going through trauma every night on stage is a killer and your body doesn’t know it’s not real, even if your mind does. So, your body is in a lot of pain and your heart is in a lot of pain. But it’s worth it. I will always think about that theatre experience all my life. I will hold it very, very close to me.
Garfield poses with cast members in NYC for The Amazing Spider-Man earlier this month.
[AG] And then with this movie, the technical aspects – the only thing that was kind of a challenge was that it was difficult to get into a rhythm because of the 3D cameras. The new technology was difficult for everyone involved. They take a lot of care and delicacy, so it meant that we were stopped occasionally. I love just going and going and going and keep it rolling, keep it rolling and screwing up and screwing up and screwing up, then occasionally you accidentally get something right and you won’t know how. That’s kind of how I like to work. And that’s why I loved working with David Fincher because he does so many takes. I discovered how that kind of painful exactness really suits me, so that was cool.
[Q] In this film you use the mechanical web-shooters. Did any of them actually work – did anything happen [when you activate them]?
[AG] Um… hah…. do I lie or not… um, no, it was a nice exercise in imagination, and that carjacker scene we had the ah – that was all improvised, that scene, so I had this idea that I could draw the Spidey image over the guy’s crotch, and I think at one point they had that in there and they took it out. (I thought it was kind of cool.) But no, to be able to have that imagination do whatever you want and know that they could add it in in post was kind of liberating so I could shut that door on that guy as many times as I want, I could web him in the face, I could web a long shot – It was kind of fun. But difficult, because if it was real, it would have been awesome if it was real.
[Q] I interviewed Andy Armstrong about the swinging rigs that he built and he talked about all the training you put in to actually be able to get up there and swing yourself. What was the experience like in actually using those rigs and actually being able to get up there and swing?
[AG] Thanks for the question – any mention of Andy Armstrong and my heart swells. He kind of turned into a father figure for me on this film and remains that way. He… I can’t… I will write a book about him one day. He… his team are the safest group of hands you could ever hope to meet, and passionate, supportive, loving – it’s a tribe that he has. And he was generous enough to allow me to be a part of that tribe. I got no special treatment and it was amazing for that very, very, very reason.
He’s a real person and he likes real people and we had an amazing time. He pushes me, you know, there were things I was scared about and like any good father he kind of told me: ‘Go beyond. Go beyond what you think you can do, ’cause you might surprise yourself.’ So for that reason it’s kind of a spiritually overwhelming sort of experience to work with him, and of course that combines with that sensation, that physical sensation that I wanted to do since I was 3, probably what everyone in this room has wanted to do since they were 3 years old: I got to live that for a second. I’m eternally grateful to everyone at Sony Pictures for allowing me to.
[Q] Have you received any feedback from Toby McGuire about your portrayal of the character, and if so, how did you take it?
[AG] Ah… to my knowledge he hasn’t seen the movie, but I got feedback from the casting – when I got cast he sent an email to Matt Tolmach immediately that was very, very generous, and made me feel like I could take the torch in confidence and that I had that support in him. He didn’t need to do that, it tells you something about his person. We’re all part of that family, that Spider-Man family.
[Q] How would you describe the wonderful work that Spider-Man does in regards to him being called a vigilante?
[AG] What’s cool about this movie is that he discovers… he discovers the power of what he’s created. He doesn’t create this… he doesn’t create this symbol with any kind of high-mindedness, he creates it so he can protect himself. Because he’s searching for his uncle’s killer. And I think that he is a vigilante for a period of this story, of this particular story. And I think it’s true for any teenager who goes through that amount of tragic events to have those impulses – to kick out, and rebel, and use their powers in a way that you’re not thinking responsibly. They’re not even thinking at all.
[AG] I think that whole section is Peter running away from his feelings – Peter running away from the pain, the guilt, and putting it in something physical, and sweating it out. And when he comes home to Aunt May it’s sort of very difficult to be seen in that way and to see yourself in that way. So yeah, I think there is a period where he’s acting out on those kinds of impulses, and he accidentally discovers that he’s created something bigger than him, and that can be used for good. I think it – it was important for me that he started with a heroic impulse, he, without the physical powers doing things with it.
And that was always how I felt growing up, I felt like I was a dog and I felt like I was a skinny kid and – now I’m not obviously, I’m a just like, huge bruiser. So I got over that problem. Now I just realize that being skinny is ok, you know? I always feel I should have been bigger for that reason, because if I actually told you that, I guess – although for example like everybody played rugby, and I played rugby, and I was good at it but I got concussed all the time because I was a weakling, So that’s something I would identify with for Peter, you know, he always just felt stronger on the inside than he did on the outside.
And there’s nothing better than seeing a skinny guy beat the crap out of big guys. So that was just kind of important for me.
[Q] You say in a lot of interviews how much just Spider-Man truly meant to you as a child growing up and this end result now, and [Marc Webb] has mentioned that you wrote a personal note to him that really moved him. I’m wondering if in your long history with Spider-Man you – can you tell us what it was like to meet Stan Lee for the first time and how that ranked as far as maybe like nerve-racking experiences inclusive with things like auditioning for this role which is nerve-racking enough?
[AG] Yeah, yeah, I’ve been at this for the past two years, it seems like, every day there’s been something that like has made me have to suppress shaking. So, but Stan Lee was a weird one because… he wasn’t real. He’s too iconic to be real. So it wasn’t like I was in a room with a human being, it was like I was in a room with a wax figure, you know? I was at Madame Tussauds.
It… It made no sense. I wasn’t nervous, I was just like… I was one of those annoying people who is like *makes open faced gawking expression* And he was just like… *waves hand in front of face* ‘I’m here…’ And he’s amazing, he’s everything that you think he is.
[AG] He came on set, so I met him in the makeup trailer once, and then he came on set again and he did this amazing cameo in the library… It was just, it was just beautiful because when you really truly understand what he’s given to us… he’s given so many kids hope, and joy, and you cannot thank enough for that. It was like being in a room with Mickey Mouse, you know, it was bizarre. So I wasn’t actually nervous, in a weird way. That was the one day I wasn’t actually nervous.
[Q] You’ve said you want to audition for every part that you want. Why is it that you feel you have to audition? Is it a challenge, and what do you get out of it?
[AG] Sometimes there are actors who reach a certain level of notoriety or visibility where they don’t need – they may get offered roles based on their monetary value or the idea that they will bring in an audience. They may not be right for the part or they may not serve the story in the way that they should. I’m not saying that I’m in that position, I’m just saying that that is something that I fear.
Like, here’s a weird analogy: if you’re in a pool hall and you’re playing pool and you have to put in 50 cents every time, you’re going to enjoy that game because you paid for it. But if you figured out a way to jimmy the thing and you can get a free game of pool out of it, you’re not going to care so much about the game.
There’s something in that about feeling like you’ve earned something as opposed to just being handed something. And luckily I haven’t experienced that. I’ve had to work for everything that I’ve been a part of, and there’s just something satisfying about it because you know that they looked at everyone and that you are the right person for that particular story at that particular moment. I guess there’s something about staying grounded and humble, and making sure that you appreciate everything you have as well.
[Q] You had one of the most memorable introductions at Comic Con [as seen in the video above]. Why did you choose to go that full confessional route? Did you feel like you needed to or were you driven to and you thought that was the right audience?
[AG] It wasn’t really thought out. I was compelled, for many reasons I think – if I analyze it. I am terrified to take on this role because it means so much to me, so I know how much it means to other people. And I think it has something to do with actors being on stage… I wanted to be on the ground. I wanted to be in the audience watching the panel. I didn’t want to be in the panel. That’s where I thought I just belonged more, so I guess I just kind of extended that idea.
I kind of wanted to do the whole speech in the mask, just out of sheer protection, you know? There is something odd about the separation between actors and the audience that I don’t really care for. That’s why I love theatre so much. That’s why I loved the great show that was here in New York called “Sleep No More”, which is all audience participation. You basically walk around and you’re immersed in the experience, and there’s no separation from the actors and the audience.
I don’t know – I’m not really answering your question. I just wanted to feel connected to the fans in a real way because I’m a fan first and foremost. It just felt like the right thing to do. It was a scary thing because who knows what would have happened. But it just felt like an opportunity to have fun as well.
[Q] What did you do to make sure you got the part of playing a teenager right – not necessarily a teenager who develops powers? Is there research that you did?
[AG] agree that the teenage element is incredibly vital to this particular superhero and this person, this character. The fact that he goes through the same stuff I went through, that’s why I love him so much. Because I thought if I was him. That’s why everyone feels like he’s him because he’s all of us. He really is.
So the teenage thing, I don’t know. I did spend time in Queens hanging out with teenagers and a lot of recording the voice and intonation and picking up phrases that I might not be aware of or a general attitude. That malaise and the awkward shyness – every aspect.
There was a great book I found for inspiration called “Teenage”, which is a book of photographs. I wouldn’t buy it because it’s too expensive, but actually the marketing department at Sony bought it for me very, very generously as a gift. I saw the price and I’m like, ‘You guys are crazy! Thank you so much.’ But it’s awesome. The energy of the photos in that is what I wanted to capture. It’s tongue on tongue.
[AG] It’s just head out the window, that need to express, that need to kick the walls down irrationally.
Which, when you combine that with being a superhero, that is kind of exciting. There’s that scene on Gwen’s bedroom floor where she’s nursing me and we have an intimate, kind of heavy moment of like she’s terrified I’m going to die and I’m terrified of what I’ve done to my mentor. At the end of that scene it’s – ‘Let’s just get out of here. We’ve got to get out of here.’
In a previous version – we shot a lot more – we have a date night where it’s expressive and free and teenage and romantic and silly. But that feeling is something that I really wanted to capture, especially in those moments between Gwen and Peter.
So, “Teenage”. Check out that book. It’s too expensive. Find someone who has it and look at the pictures. You’ll be like, ‘Oh god – I remember that feeling.’
[Q] Can you compare and contrast kissing scenes with killing scenes and doing romance as opposed to doing death-defying action on screen?
[AG] They’re all pretty scary things. Hah. Yeah, they’re all pretty scary. I actually felt more safe when I was swinging around because you have a very, very strong safe pair of hands holding you up. In the romantic scenes, I’m free-falling in a way, as they should be. They have to be spontaneous and free and terrifying, because that’s what first love is.
First love is the scariest thing to ever go through and the most exhilarating. You’ve got so much to lose. So they were actually more frightening than swinging through the buildings, in a weird way. And especially because it’s Emma, and she’s terrifying.
[Q] Could you talk about the physical transformation you had to go through, the training, and the stunt coordinating? Was there a particular moment you’re really proud of?
[AG] It’s so nice to be able to look at a movie and feel ownership. It’s a really nice thing to be able to feel that, because of Andy’s trust and his encouragement of me. There was something specific that I wanted to do with the physicality that wasn’t just a guy in a suit throwing kicks and punches and saying cheesy lines.
[AG] I wanted it to be a “Spider-Boy” in the way that if we ground this film in reality, then what happens when spider DNA is running through your bloodstream? What happens to the teenage boy who is fidgety and nervous and can’t really keep still? He discovers that he can now have patience, like a spider.
[AG] There was another scene that they cut out which was awesome, which is me and when the Chinese thing goes in the trashcan when I’m on the computer, but I was doing something with all my limbs – doing different things – and they melded two shots and I thought it was really, really cool. I was moving a lamp with my left, I was typing with my right foot, I was eating Chinese, and I was reaching for something behind me, and it didn’t get in the movie. Maybe I’ll cut my own movie on bits that I like. *laughter*
So, yeah, that was really fun.
[AG] And there was a lot of great physical stuff that made it, like for instance the scene where I get all the food out of the fridge. The kind of spatial awareness that you have in this film is like, ‘Peter doesn’t move like that. Peter doesn’t glide like that before the spider bite.’ And the way he’s moving around the space, he’s kind of walking by the wall as opposed to walking straight through the room. He’s kind of got his back to the wall.
That kind of thing is fun to play with, but then of course the training is horrible. Like the physical training changed my body because I’m a lazy guy. I’m vain, but I’m not vain enough to care about the gym. And Armando Alarcon was my trainer and he’s a fantastic trainer and a terrible person. *laughter*
I have very confused feelings about Armando. Wherever he is, he knows that. He’s hiding from me because he will be murdered one day. No, but we had a great time. I was thankful for him. He kept me on an even keel all the way through, and that combined with the whole stunt team was a pretty awesome experience.
[Q] Did you have any issues with the costume that you were aware of at all, were you wearing it out in public, anything like that?
[AG] You know, I had many issues with that costume. *laughter*
But every actor who plays a superhero is like, ‘the costume sucked.’ Like, we should just get together to talk about it because it’s so inappropriate to talk about in public. It’s like – how dare we complain? We’re the ones that get to wear it. It’s the dream.
But, it was so terrible. No – Let me just put it this way: the fantasy of wearing those costumes is really awesome. We should just enjoy that.
Catch our whole Spider-Man series of interviews as the week goes on right here on SlashGear, and don’t forget to hit our Entertainment portal for more big-ticket film action through the future as well. Finally, don’t forget to check out The Amazing Spider-Man as it hits theaters July 3rd here in the USA!
Earlier this month we got the chance to shoot some questions at several of the stars and crew of The Amazing Spider-Man, one of these talks being with Emma Stone, who played comic legend Gwen Stacy in the film. She spoke about how she got to know the character Gwen only after having spoken about playing Mary Jane as well as how the big change in working on her first big-name effects film is really in the press tour action. Have a peek at this un-cut interview below.
[Question] What first drew you to this role, this famous role [of Gwen Stacy]?
[Emma Stone] At first I had met Laura Ziskin really early on, just about two weeks after it was announced, [but] for Mary Jane [rather than Gwen Stacy]. And I had always wanted to play Mary Jane. Mary Jane was so great. Then a couple of months went by and he called back and he said we’d like to to audition for the part of Gwen Stacy.’ I was like ‘erm, well, I don’t know who Gwen Stacy is.’ – Because I hadn’t read the comic books growing up. So I looked into the story of Gwen and I just fell in love with Gwen’s story because it is so incredibly epic and tragic and incredible in the way that it affects Peter moving forward with Mary Jane who was another character that I love, obviously, who was enormous. So I took the opportunity to audition, and met Andrew at the audition and got to act with him for the first time. “I hadn’t read the comic books growing up. So I looked into the story of Gwen and I just fell in love with Gwen’s story because it is so incredibly epic and tragic…”
He is one of the best actors I’ve ever worked with, I instantly knew how much I could learn from him and that really, really drew me. That challenge, rising to meet him every day was something really exciting and was a huge learning and growing experience for me, so it was a combination of things.
[Q] When you read the script and first realized that she’s not just the damsel in distress – she’s a big part of saving the day in this, were you more interested in doing the part when you realized you’d be a very strong woman?
[ES] I was cast before I read the script.
[Q] Well were you happy then when you did realize that, then –
[ES] Yeah, yeah, I read the sides, and Sargin had written the sides, who is a genius, wrote Ordinary People and Paper Moon so he’s not too shabby of a writer. And she had felt that way in sides – there was a heartbreaking scene where was an exchange with them that was really sweet, the dinner table scene, that was all kind of in there when I read the sides, so I instantly knew that it was something very different. Obviously he’s such a brilliant writer – I didn’t even know it was written by him, but I was like ‘god these are well written scenes.’ I really, really liked her from those sides.
Emma Stone in the photo-call during the NYC Press Junket earlier this month with other members of the cast and crew.
[Q] Whenever someone talks about Spider-Man you hear the words ‘Iconic’ and ‘Much-Beloved’, it seems like he’s a hero that so many people idolize, especially young boys – from a female perspective, what do you think it is about Spider-Man that makes him such a beloved super-hero?
[ES] Well he’s the only teenage super-hero, which is major, because a lot of the time when people start reading comic books, you are a kid or a teenager, so he’s the most identifiable, instantly, you can relate to him. Not to mention: he’s bullied, which is huge, for a girl or a boy, I think everyone has experienced something along those lines. And the fact that he is bitten by this spider, and this kind of wish fulfillment comes true – that he’s able to fight back to the bullies that he wasn’t able to before, is symbolism for kids. “The fact that he is bitten by this spider, and this kind of wish fulfillment comes true – that he’s able to fight back to the bullies that he wasn’t able to before, is symbolism for kids.”
They have so much power within them to… speak out, to stand up for themselves, to stay unique, and to stay true to who they are – as Peter does. He finds those elements within him with or without his powers. Which is what I think in this movie spurs Gwen and Peter’s first interaction which when he’s standing up for a kid that’s being bullied and takes that fall for a kid who’s being humiliated in front of a group of people. He has these heroic qualities long before he becomes an actual super-hero.
So yeah, I think that’s why it’s been so resonant and has been for 50 years and will continue to – even to having Barack Obama having him be his biggest inspiration in pop culture.
[Q] In addition to Spider-Man being so iconic, Gwen Stacy is pretty iconic herself. You said you went through and did some research on her and looked into her story. That was very apparent on-screen where everything down to her iconic thigh-highs, her look, and the feel of the character, seemed to come right off the comic book page. How much of that was your own preparation, and how much of it was stuff that you worked with Webb and the others with on?
[ES] Well costumes were done by Kym Barrett who’s fantastic – we worked together to, kind of, make sure Gwen felt like Gwen – that also made sense in the real world. And obviously I’m a lot less voluptuous than Gwen unfortunately, so, it didn’t really go to those heights. But you know, the signature headband, and the thigh-highs, and the coats; all of that was important to stay present, down to the makeup. Ve Neill was incredible and, hair and makeup we really tried to attain that as well, to keep her realistic and, you know, still keep her earthbound. I’m not, by no means a supermodel, or like an unattainable looking person, so that element of Gwen was a bit different from the comic books in some ways because she was such a beauty queen in the comics and I’m more… next door.
[ES] So that we worked on, and in terms of her as a character, it was just a hodge-podge of different versions of Gwen. I know she’s not very hippy-ish in this, and I don’t think she will ever be birthing Norman Osborn’s twins, I don’t think that’s going to be happening, or moving to London. So we tried to keep some of that moxie in there, and some of that self-assuredness, and she’s the daughter of a police chief, she’s the oldest daughter, so there’s that responsibility thing that kicks in when she thinks her father could die everyday. And I think it’s important that she took on that energy of being in charge, for her family, like she could be there should something happen. And then she unwittingly is drawn to a man who is in the same position. [She’s got an] Electra complex thing going on.
[Q] Your character Gwen is a scientist / physicist, I was wondering how familiar you are in that field, does that interest you at all?
[ES] That’s a great question because I was home-schooled and wasn’t really exposed to anything like that. My aunt and uncle are both scientists that worked for Merck and they had a hand in creating a cervical cancer vaccine – so they’re both incredibly intelligent, fantastic minds, you know. I’d always been fascinated by what they did, and I myself – this is going to sound a little bit strange – but I had really, really bad acne a couple years ago, really bad, and it was during a really stressful time period so I went online and tried to find what causes this kind of thing. The course of production and how things change in your body, and medical power – and they took us to these labs, this is the first time in my life that’d I’d been really angry about not going to college because I went to these labs and I, was, fascinated.
[ES] And I knew what they were talking about, we looked at bio-photonics and what happens when cortisol fires off in your brain, and – the same thing that causes acne can also cause diabetes and they’re proving that stress is a link and I was learning about regeneration and we were injecting axel models and we were seeing how they remove their arms and studying regeneration. We looked at stem cells that they’ve wired to beat like a human heart. And they’re finding ways to do this stuff and I was fascinated! I was like ‘what do I need to do to intern?’ ‘You need to be a college graduate.’ And I was like ‘but I know what you’re talking about! I can learn’ and it made me so upset, it’s like the Peace Core, you have to be a college graduate and I was like ‘f*ck!’
It sucks – ‘I can learn, I swear!’ And so now I’ve gone on my tangent about the word “smart” which has really been bothering me for the past year – I don’t like the word “smart” anymore because what does smart mean? Does it mean you’re able to learn or does it mean that you’ve graduated college? I didn’t graduate college: doesn’t mean I’m not smart.
So I really really, I got so interested in biology. One of the most exciting parts of this process was learning about medicine and regeneration and stem cells and all of it just expanded my mind in so many ways so now I’m gonna take biology class. And now what’s amazing is you can do it at home! …Doesn’t mean I’m not smart… “One of the most exciting parts of this process was learning about medicine and regeneration and stem cells.”
[Q] Dennis Leary was in here earlier and he said that at one point in filming, Marc Webb told him he’d have to step it up because you and Andrew were so good. A lot of people have been raving about your improv skills and I was just wondering what some of the improv moments were in this film? And also – do you think you could convince Andrew to do Saturday Night Live?
[ES] Pfff, you’re telling me – yeah, I can’t convince Ryan Gosling but I’m working on Andrew. I guess some of my favorite improv moments were the hallway scene… which was written, but there were a lot of moments that we got to add in the scene where we’re like asking each other out, but not.
[ES] And then there was that awful, that was just such a hammy bit, they let me go off the cuff to keep Dennis out of my room. So I, of course, when you give me an inch, it’s not good. So I was like ‘what is the one thing that would keep a dad out of his teenage daughter’s room’ – anything related to that. Anything related to hormones. I knew in an instant, from my own life experiences that you can just be like ‘sorry, its just that i…’ ‘OK alright, I’ll let you go!’ Dad’s don’t want to talk about that.
[Q] One of the iconic lines and great themes of Spider-Man is ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. Now that you’ve won the Trailblazer award, is that something you can relate to in your personal life? Responsibility with your stardom?
[ES] I don’t in any way, shape, or form think that I’m any type of a role model, or anything like that, but for whatever reason, when you’re put into a public place, you have to figure out what that purpose is in your life, why that may have happened, or what you can possibly do with something like that. And I’m not political, and I’m not going to talk about those kinds of things, and I know that that’s never going to be my job as an actor to be championing any specific cause, except for originality. That’s the one thing that I identify with as maybe my responsibility, per-say.
And I know it’s not my responsibility and I know all of that, but there’s something that came with – getting a Revlon contract, actually, and I thought – why in the world would I be approached for a beauty campaign? Because I’d always been the funny girl. And that’s not to put myself down, that was just always the way that my brain worked.
And I thought about Diane Keaton for L’Oreal and Ellen Degeneres for Cover Girl and how sometimes real beauty gets to be celebrated. Like what’s inside is what counts, and so you can still feel beautiful and you can still put makeup on but because it makes you feel good, and not for anybody else. And that was something that I was like ‘if I had an opportunity to reach people or reach young girls in a way that makes them feel like what they are is enough,’ and what those parts of their personality that set them apart and make them original, if they feel good about that, in any way, if that affects one person, then that’s a game changer. That’s something that I’m proud to be helpful in any way in – of looking real, or being a real person.
Obviously I have a stylist, that puts me in clothes like this, and I have a hair and makeup artist that’s doing things like that – so there’s all of that going on too, and I’m not eloquent right now, at all, but yeah I do feel a slight, not responsibility, but a privilege, to be able to speak to younger girls and hopefully make them feel like it’s ok to be themselves.
[Q] Why do you feel that Peter was attracted to Gwen other than, you know, she’s a beautiful blond with courage and other qualities – what’s that all about?
[ES] I think that elements of Gwen and Gwen’s family line are things that Peter didn’t necessarily have. Just a sense of stability – I know Aunt May and Uncle Ben are a very stable environment for him, but Peter has abandonment issues, I mean he was left when he was 5, so there’s something where he doesn’t feel he can be totally honest with Aunt May and Uncle Ben because they never stay on the subject, you see that when Peter comes in and Uncle Ben says ‘sorry we don’t talk about this.’ He doesn’t feel comfortable expressing the pain to them, and he sees someone steady in Gwen and someone who can understand what it’s like to lose a father on a daily basis – as you see in that bedroom scene where she doesn’t know if he’s gonna come home every day, so she feels that sense of abandonment as well and I think they find an incredible – they’re so different – but they also relate on love of learning, and things like that and I think he can see something in Gwen that becomes a confidant that he can trust.“I know Aunt May and Uncle Ben are a very stable environment for him, but Peter has abandonment issues.”
[Q] Piggybacking off of that question – we’ve seen you playing a highschooler in love before, in Easy A and Superbad, but this story felt different, it felt young, it felt goofy, it felt sweet – how did you approach this love story and what traits from love people in love inspired you to put into this movie?
[ES] Well in Superbad and Easy A – in any movie that I’ve done, there hasn’t been a love story like this, I mean Superbad with Seth, that’s kind of a totally different thing that’s like ‘oh he’s cute’ and in Easy A it’s like ‘oh Woodchuck Todd, he’s cute’ but they’re focused on their own story, really, in most of the movies that I’ve been a part of. This kind of swept me off my feet because she truly is really in love with him. And I think the approach was – I wanted again to feel that experience of “first love” before you know what it feels like to get your heart completely shattered, or that “life or death” love where you’re like ‘I KNOW WHAT LOVE IS’ – you know that, except where in the circumstances where it actually is life or death.
So I wanted to feel that again, I wanted to unlearn and go from the very beginning of where ‘oh my god there’s an attraction to another human being in a way that I’ve never felt that before’, that uncomfortable *ugch*, I wanted to feel that again. So it was a matter of unlearning, of really becoming 17 again and letting yourself be 17 in this moment, it’s fun! You guys should try it! It’s pretty cool! It’s pretty cool to feel that way.
[Q] How would you describe the difference between working on a film like Easy A where there’s no visual effects whatsoever and moving up to this where it’s, first, a completely different thing where it’s a blockbuster film, but it’s also a major effects film? Especially in regards to 3D?
[ES] My character wasn’t as involved in the special effects – my storyline was really very human, so it actually didn’t feel all that different other than the days where I had to swing – which was fun. Or the days on a bluescreen, which when you’re acting with another person, you can be in a cardboard box, it just tests your imagination. But in terms of shooting in 3D the only big difference was, the only thing different was that it takes a little bit longer because you need two cameras, and the camera is huge and reflective. “It’s nice to know that even when you’re shooting a movie like this that you approach the character the same way.”
So it’s like acting with a mirror right next to you, which is very bizarre. If you’ve ever had a conversation with a mirror right next to you, you keep catching yourself and it’s just awful. But then you get used to it, and it’s a little bit better. But it’s nice to know that even when you’re shooting a movie like this that you approach the character the same way, and you’re trying to tell the… tell the truth, all the time, about who that person is and what they’re feeling. So it’s comforting that under any circumstance no matter what the budget that that remains the same.
THIS feels different. The PRESS feels different. This is where it really strikes you that you’re in Spider-Man.
[Q] In regards to the first trilogy and MJ, was there any pressure for you to make Gwen’s first kiss as memorable as it was with MJ in the first film? That became a very iconic moment in the film.
[ES] I know, and obviously there’s no comparison there. Of course I thought about it, because… I just did, I thought about the kiss but I, you know, just trusted them to write it, so it was just what they wrote, we just kind of went with what they wrote.
[Q] Did they purposefully make that a little nod to Indiana Jones?
[ES] I think it’s cool because Peter kind of reminds me a little bit of that mischievous Indiana Jones character, but yeah, that’s a little, a little tango move.
[Q] Marc said earlier that he cast the chemistry between Andrew and you, and you said earlier that Andrew is one of the best actors that you’ve ever worked with – how would you explain the chemistry between the two of you?
[ES] Can one explain chemistry?
[Q] I knew you were going to say that for some reason.
[ES] It’s hard because with any person in life that I’ve had chemistry with I don’t know exactly what it is, and that’s why they do chemistry tests for movies. Because even if they’re not playing a love interest, even if they’re playing parents or best friends, sometimes it either just clicks or it just doesn’t, it doesn’t matter how good the actors might be. So it really isn’t definable, it really is just what they call it. It’s something else entirely, it’s just some soul thing, I don’t know. I don’t know what it is.
[Q] Could you tell us what Marc Webb brought to this film as he wasn’t the obvious choice given his background.
[ES] I think that Marc, clearly, I mean from 500 Days of Summer, you can tell that Marc cares about love, and he cares about humanity, and that was incredibly important for this movie. He prioritized the relationships just as much as the action. And I know he had a million voices in his ear – there’s a lot of opinions all the time, and he would come in on Sundays to work on the scenes with us, and break them down and build them all the way back up until we got the same scene that was written on the page but we had analyzed it to death. He was incredibly kind and willing to work on that relationship, so from my experience, I was very grateful that he came from that background.
[Q] I was wondering if they rigged you up for that big swing or if most of that was CGI?
[ES] Which?
[Q] When he took you on, kind of that…
[ES] Oh yeah yeah yeah! Yeah, we swung. We were swingin’.
[Q] Are you afraid of heights or were you..
[ES] No, it was awesome, I really loved it, yeah. Thankfully I’m not afraid of heights, it would have been horrific, it would have been awful actually because you’re so out of control. But no, I loved it – other than the bruising – I loved it. Artists do bruise, you guys. Yikes.
Don’t forget to catch The Amazing Spider-Man starting July 3rd in the USA!
This month we had a chance to take a look at an early screening of the upcoming blockbuster action film The Amazing Spider-Man, and what little we can tell you at the moment includes this: the visual effects here take the cake. While the refresh of the Spider-Man movie series has a story that is thrilling in its relative newness, it’s the mise en scene that will strike you hardest. If The Avengers proved to us that its prime time to bring the Marvel Universe to the big screen in a massive way, Spider-Man is the knife that cuts all the sweetest bits of this delicious visual cake and serves them up with the friendly neighborhood kid this superhero was always supposed to be.
There’s not a whole lot we can say about the individual characters without giving away the plot of the movie. That said, there’s no holding back the fact that Spider-Man takes the great high-flying feeling you get in the first three movies and keeps ahold of it fully. Though instead of seeing Peter Parker doing all manner of rubber-bodied wobble-flips like we saw in Spider-Man 1, 2, and 3, we’ve suddenly got a whole new generation of web-slinger in which he looks one heck of a lot more real, and feels that way too.
You’ll find Peter learning his skills fin a complete reboot of the Spider-Man storyline, with his physical transformation being shown clearly in his bent-body calamitous crashes and bloody bashes galore. This movie has Andrew Garfield getting cut and bruised more than the other three Spider-Man movies combined, and the audience is certainly going to have a great time while he does it. The most important thing this movie does is make you believe that Spider-Man is born of the same kid hero that went big in the 1960s when an adult hero was the only kind there was.
As far as the presentation goes, this is certainly a film you’re going to want to see in IMAX 3D. The screening we had a peek at today was presented on one of these massive screens with stadium seating, (the only kind any theater should have these days, of course), and RealD 3D. While I’ll never get over how odd it is to wear 3D glasses of any kind, or that these glasses make the whole movie just a bit less bright, the third dimension here is top-notch.
Have a look back at our talk with 3ality Technica about their involvement with Prometheus to see what kind of gear the crew was using to make The Amazing Spider-Man’s 3D camera setup a reality. This film was made with a couple of RED cameras on every shot where there’s 3D, with 3ality Technica’s gear allowing the filming of this movie to be no more difficult than a 2D movie would have been – and it shows. There’s no holding back here when it comes to effects shots and all manner of building-crawling angles here. Expect a ride, and you shall receive it.
We’ll be having a more involved look and review of The Amazing Spider-Man once the film is actually out in theaters early next month. Meanwhile, stay tuned for several more features – including interviews of all the stars and some of the crew, too – we’ll be producing right here in the main news feed in our fabulous [Entertainment portal] – web-slinging action coming at you for weeks!
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
