Andrew Garfield Talks About Playing a Teen Spider-Man at 26, Calling It "A S**t-Ton to Take On"

Andrew Garfield is finally taking a break after a very busy year. In a 14-month span, the actor starred in the movie Tick, Tick… Boom!, based on the Broadway musical, as well as The Eyes of Tammy Faye. He returned to the role of Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and he scored an Emmy nomination for starring in the TV miniseries Under the Banner of Heaven.

Garfield sat down with GQ UK to talk about his career up to now, and his well-deserved rest. One major talking point was the role he returned to in 2021, seven years after the release of his last Spider-Man movie. When asked what it was like to play Peter Parker again in No Way Home, Garfield said:

“Doing [No Way Home] was really just kind of beautiful. I got to treat it like a short film about Spider-Man with buddies. The pressure was off of me. It was all on Tom’s shoulders. Like, it’s his trilogy. And me and Tobey were there to provide support and have as good a time as possible, actually, and be as inventive, imaginative, and kind of dumb as possible. Y’know, between the three of us, I was like, Oh shit, this is going to be interesting. You have three people who feel real ownership over this character. But it was really, like, brotherhood first, I think. And I think that comes through in what we shot.”

When mentioning the actor’s age of 26 when he was originally in the role, Garfield responded:

“I feel that about myself as a 26-year-old. I’m like, Fuck, that was a lot to take on. It’s a shit-tonne to take on. And I wanted to take it on. I was ready. I was so up for it. It didn’t feel heavy. But I think there were elements that felt very... I sensed danger for myself, in terms of fame and exposure.”

But he felt grounded in knowing that as this may catapult him to fame (and it did), he would have been happy to do the part, and return to theater for the rest of his career.

“Even as I took [The Amazing Spider-Man] on, I was like, I wanna make sure I get to do Angels in America and Death of a Salesman in a few years’ time. I wanna be a theatre actor first, because that feels evergreen. If I can do theatre for the rest of my life to an audience of 50 people a night, I know that my life is going to be satisfying. That’s not me being glib – I really know that. If everything else fell away, we weren’t able to eat here [he gestures to the breeze-swept dining room, the ocean view beyond] I’d rent an apartment in London, and I can do theatre.”

I think Garfield can do whatever he wants at this point. He has proven his chops as an actor, and I enjoy the stories and characters he has taken on. Whatever he does next, I look forward to watching.