Andrew Garfield was the guest on this weeks Empire Film Podcast to discuss his newest film, the wildly divisive Under The Silver Lake. Whilst promoting the film the subject naturally moved onto Spider-Man, given the star’s complicated past as the web-slinger. Garfield gave his thoughts on Spider-Verse, whether we might see him in the franchise’s future, his time spent with Stan Lee and about that scene from Under The Silver Lake.

Garfield’s Thoughts on Into The Spider-Verse

I loved it and I thought it’s what Spider-Man should be. Wildly inventive. True to not just one but several versions of the character and the comics. Funny, irreverent and creative and I think maybe you can only really do that with an animation. They could take more risks, I was envious.

Being approached about being part of Spider-Verse or the sequel

I’m forever a Spider-Man fan, I’m never going to compute that I got to play that part for 2 movies. I’m never going to fully be able to understand that and comprehend that. But no I wasn’t talked to about it but we’ll see. To be honest I’m really happy just being a fan again, I’m not gonna lie.

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Stan Lee

He was larger than life. He was like Mickey Mouse, in a sense that he’s like a symbol and I think he was comfortable with that. We were all just in awe of him and he was this kind of cartoon character of joy and creativity and soul and heart. Everything that he wrote into those comics is so, ideas and ethics to live by. Very simple, mythological ideas. Just to be in his presence was like being with Mickey Mouse, in a good way, the best way. He’s just a cuddly guy and I’m very very grateful that I got to spend anytime with him.

Please be warned the following contains very slight spoilers for Under The Silver Lake

One scene in Under The Silver Lake see’s Garfield’s character wake up with a Spider-Man comic stuck to his hand. Tired and disgruntled, his character tries unsuccessfully to fling the comic off of his hand and number of times before it eventually un-sticks and soars across the room.

Spider-Man in Under The Silver Lake

I think it was in the script before I was attached to it. And actually when he (David Robert Mitchell, director) asked me to do it (the film) and I said I wanted to, I brought it up. I was like “tell me about this moment” and he was like “I know, should we take it out?” And I was like “no, no no no no. I fucking love it.” It gives me an opportunity to play with that meta thing a little bit. So no, it definitely wasn’t intentional on his part, but maybe unconsciously it was. But I loved it, I love that shit.

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– @CiaranRH / @WebbedMedia