Why Andrew Garfield Is Still Nervous To Talk About His Spider-Man: No Way Home Role
The surprise appearances of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," wherein the two actors reprised their roles as alternate versions of Peter Parker, were almost certainly a key ingredient in the movie's runaway success. Peter #2 and Peter #3, respectively, were praised by audiences across the world for the nostalgia and excitement that they brought to the film.
The arc of Garfield's Spider-Man, in particular, drew attention for the way it redeemed his portrayal of the character following the fallout of the two "Amazing Spider-Man" movies — with his redemption not just being with filmgoers, but also within the film itself, as his previous failure to save Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) leads to him being doing the perfect rescue of another Peter's great love, MJ Watson-Jones (Zendaya). Following the release of "No Way Home," fans were so thrilled by Garfield's Spidey that they even called for him to make a comeback in his own films, whether that meant an "Amazing Spider-Man 3" or a "Venom" crossover.
Yet, despite how beloved Garfield's role in "No Way Home" has become, the fact that he was even in the movie remained a closely guarded secret right up until its release. Indeed, while Garfield has expressed his gratitude at the outpouring of love from Spider-Man fans, the intense secrecy surrounding the film seems to have had a significant effect on him — as even now, he apparently still gets nervous discussing it.
Garfield says he finds it hard to talk about the role after keeping it a secret for so long
During a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Andrew Garfield recounted his intense 2020 and 2021 shooting schedule (in which he shot two films back-to-back, as well as the FX series "Under the Banner of Heaven") and admitted to still feeling nervous while talking about "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
As Garfield explains, "I finished 'Tick, Tick... Boom!' at the end of 2020. Then I went in the beginning of 2021 and visited a friend in Atlanta and had to make a movie there that I'm now allowed to talk about," Garfield explained. "But I'm still kind of weirdly like PTSD about — not talking about a thing that people know I'm now in."
Garfield went on to describe how "visiting a friend in Atlanta" was his original cover-story for when he went to film his scenes for "No Way Home," and that he used the excuse whenever Lin-Manuel Miranda (his director on "Tick, Tick... Boom!") asked him what his next project was. It's hilarious that Garfield still feels the need to use this ambiguous language to speak about his role, almost a half-year removed from the film's release, and is a further testament to just how committed he was to keeping his cameo a secret. After all, he did go out of his way to lie about being in the movie again and again, every time reporters tried to get him to spill the beans.
One has to hope that, in the future, he'll be able to shake off any reservations about discussing his role in the film — especially since he received such an overwhelming amount of praise for his performance.