Tobey Maguire:

Spider-Man Unmasked

by Lynn B.

Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man You probably met him first as a very young actor...all big blue eyes that could melt your heart. But after the mega-successful hit film Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire is firmly imprinted on us all as a vulnerable but very hot super hero. He took a detour around the track last year to play a troubled jockey in the touching horse opera Seabiscuit. In the sequel Spider-Man 2, the young actor is again poured into that blue and red spandex Spidey suit and he’s facing more than Doc Ock (the super villain scientist with more built in gadgets than a Swiss Army knife). Spidey’s alter-ego Peter Parker just can’t face losing the love of his life Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst).

This time around it’s get hooked up or move on and Peter is going to have to let his true love know how he feels. Both Dunst and Maguire are much more comfortable in their roles and in acting out the developing romance and emotional turmoil that is so much at the core of the new film. When we chatted with Tobey at an L.A. studio a few weeks ago, he caught us up on the changes in his life since jumping on the superhero roller coaster. Here’s the picture, pale blue shirt, hair fluffy with little feather bangs and drinking coffee to tide him through a long day with the press, Tobey let us fire away….

AGW: Do your friends treat you differently since the huge success of the first Spidey film?

Tobey: My buddies, one of whom I’ve known for 10 years and the other for 14 years, could give a (he whistles) about any of it. They just wanted to see the film. They liked it.

AGW: Can we get a final word from you on the back problems that might have kept you from doing this film?

Tobey: This is a back condition I’ve had for three or four years, on and off. Sometimes it doesn’t really bother me at all. Sometimes it bothers me a little, sometimes, a lot. I saw the animatics and the storyboards of the stunts I was to do on this movie and I was a little concerned about it. Then I went in with the stunt guys and worked on a few of the stunts to see how I would do. I was fine. I felt good. I think because having had the experience of doing it before made it easier for me and the harnesses that I wore were better and the wire rigs were easier for me.

AGW: Were you worried about making this film as big a hit as the first one?

Tobey: No. It was a pleasure for me. None of my feelings had to do with the success of the first movie. What it has to do with is that I really love working with Sam Raimi (the director). He is a lot of fun. His sense of humor and mine kind of work together. Also, he’s very collaborative and very open to me contributing my ideas. I like working with all the other people on the show, too. I like everybody. It feels like a family situation. There’s not six of us or nine of us who all have the same tattoo or whatever (making fun of Elijah Wood and the LOTR actors who got matching tattoos), but I really like working with these people.

AGW: How have both you and Peter Parker changed since the first film?

Tobey: I’m a few years older and I think I’ve changed a little bit, as one would. Peter Parker is just in a different place in his life. I think it’s wearing on him being Spider-Man and not having a life of his own. He doesn’t want to put his loved ones in danger and also, just being honest with people, at first causes him pain. He wants to have some kind of balance in his life, but he also has these gifts and wants to use them responsibly.

AGW: Can you identify with him?

Tobey: I guess. It’s a bit of a stretch. I get really busy and can feel somewhat overwhelmed at times, but my life is not at all like his. I have friends and family I’m close to. I’m an actor (not a superhero).

AGW: At one point in this film, Peter loses his Spidey superpowers. What is behind that?

Tobey: I think it’s psychological and it starts to happen because he really doesn’t want it anymore. His system is rejecting it. It’s causing him so much personal inner turmoil and pain that his system is rejecting it. And then I think it becomes a conscious choice, and when it becomes a conscious choice the powers really start to go away.

AGW: Some people think that movie trailers give way too much. What about the Spidey 2 trailer? Does it give too much away?

Tobey: I don’t think that this trailer gives away too much. I think it teases you with a couple of things. You see the thing in the alley and he says “Spider-Man no more.” That’s a big plot point that it implies, but there’s not context to it. You don’t really know what’s going on. I think it’s a good tease. And then when Harry says, “Let’s see who’s behind the mask,” you don’t even know if that’s me there. I’ve had people ask me, “Is that you? Does he see you?” So I think it’s a good tease-y thing.

AGW: Are you definitely set against doing a fourth Spidey movie?

Tobey: Look, I think that three is probably enough for me, but you never know. If they sent me a script that was better than any other script I’ve ever read and offered me a piece of Sony Corporation... Never say never, you know? Sony is a big company.

AGW: Doctor Octopus is a really cool and interesting villain. Did you enjoy him and actor Alfred Molina who plays him?

Tobey: I thought Alfred did such a great job. I think that the character of Doc Ock is a more interesting character, cinematically, than Green Goblin was. I loved Willem (Dafoe) and I thought he did a great job, but I think that Doc Ock is one of the best movie villains ever. Alfred got to play that and he did it extremely well. I’m a fan of his and I’d seen him in some movies. I think he’s a terrific actor. He gives you those delicious one-liners perfectly and he has the right humor and the right kind of sinister thing going on. And he’s also very human. You care about him. I think that Doc Ock is just way cooler than the Green Goblin.

AGW: There is a lot of emotion and character stuff in this film in addition to the great action. Was that exciting for you as an actor?

Tobey: Well, from my standpoint, it’s all about characters and relationships. That’s all I think about or all I come to work to do. I think that there’s a lot to this movie. It’s very well balanced with character and relationships and action and excitement and all of that stuff.

AGW: There is an awesome sequence in the film where you are trying to stop a runaway train. How hard was that to shoot?

Tobey: The train sequence was pretty difficult. I don’t even know how they put it together exactly, but I know they started in Chicago shooting plate shots of the train. I don’t even know how long we shot the train sequence for; it seemed like forever. We were on top of a train that was on a sound stage, with green screen all around us. The train was on some kind of hydraulics so it would rock. And they had wind machines and all that kind of stuff. Some of it was wire work and stunts. Some of it was (computer generated). It was difficult mainly because it took so long and it each little piece of the puzzle was such a tiny little piece. Each shot was probably one, two, three seconds of screen time. So, for however long the sequence was, it just took us forever to shoot it.

AGW: Are you getting more comfortable with your celebrity, with people following you around?

Tobey: I guess maybe I’m slightly more comfortable with it, but not much. It just is what it is. I experienced some celebrity prior to Spider-Man, but after the release of Spider-Man 1 I was jarred by it for literally like two days. It was a little shocking, like “Oh my gosh,” there are four or five cars following me around.” There have been a few moments like that. Now I pretty much just try not to pay attention to it. I don’t particularly love that side of it, but it just is what it is.

AGW: What kinds of movies do you just enjoy watching?

Tobey: I love scary movies. I really love them, thrillers, just scary movies, but not like horror films, although I’ll watch a horror film and like it. I like a Marathon Man kind of movie. I love The Shining. I like those kinds of films. I like comedies. I like romantic comedies. But I like the best of everything. I like a romantic comedy like When Harry Met Sally. I like a big epic kind of movie like Doctor Zhivago.

AGW: Would you like to do more smaller films rather than these big blockbusters?

Tobey: I guess. I definitely would like to do a film where I didn’t have to work out three or four hours a day. I don’t mind it if the film itself is kind of physical, but (it’d be nice) if my physique didn’t matter as much. I’ll take an hour a day.

AGW: We’re seeing Spidey without his mask in this one. Do you think that will mean big changes for the character?

Tobey: I think it’s significant to Peter and his relationships, and it definitely affects him in this one, with Mary Jane. I think his honesty with Aunt May, which is an unmasking of sorts, affects him greatly personally. I think he’s trying to learn how to live with it, which was something that was very difficult for him in the start of the picture.

Tobey: Are you one of those actors who has suffered a lot for your art in your career?

Tobey: I think being an actor you have those insecurities about never working again or how your career is going to go. I haven’t suffered that much lately, but I have through my career a little bit, probably when I was a teenager or a little later than that. I think you can get a little discouraged, but it’s been a while. The work I do is interpretive. It’s different than being a writer or a painter or something like that, where you’re creating from a blank canvas. I’m getting material and I’m interpreting someone else’s material. So it’s a different kind of art form.

AGW: If you, Tobey, could have one superpower, what would it be?

Tobey: I guess I’d like to fly. That would be kind of cool. That would be fun. (note: Darn, they’re looking for Superman…guess Tobey picked the wrong superhero!)

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