Teenager

[DGrayson]

I know they already cast tobey maguire to play the part in the movies, but I was wondering if the movies could have been better if they gave the part to an actual teenager. I mean the whole point of spidey was that he was a teenager with problems and we haven't seen that in the movies. What do you think?

 

[webhead731]

I don't know.

Maybe.

 

[Lex Luthor]

I am personally not much on the whole "lets get a total unknown" for a lead role in a big movie like Spider-Man. Thankfully, that did not happen, but your question leaves open that possibility. Basically, if the teenager was something of a Chris Bale, where he was actually a good actor even before hitting puberty, then ok. But after seeing SR, I really would prefer someone older, who can play someone younger, and with a bit more acting experience.

 

[Chris Wallace]

As long as he's not so obviously too old (Think "Head Of The Class") then it doesn't matter. Movies are full of young twentysomethings playing teenagers. It doesn't bother me in the least. Wasn't Tom Welling something like 25 when "Smallville" hit the air?

 

[Lex Luthor]

I believe that "Look up in the sky!" documentary about Superman stated that Welling was 24 when he was cast as Clark in Smallville, but close enough.

 

[Chris Wallace]

But depending on when his birthday is, he could've been closer to 25.

 

[Lex Luthor]

Yeah.

Like I said, close enough.

 

[Splicer]

I think it would have either been about the same, or worse.

Choosing an established actor with a track record proves he can take on the role and acting with no problem, plus they were looking for someone who had on-screen chemistry with Dunst, and apparently he had it.

 

[Chris Wallace]

He was cast before Kirsten, so you got that backwards.

 

[Splicer]

Ah okay, my bad.

 

[Robin91939]

I believe that "Look up in the sky!" documentary about Superman stated that Welling was 24 when he was cast as Clark in Smallville, but close enough.

Yeah, he plays a guy ONE year older than me lol. I was in 8th grade when Clark was supposed to be a freshmen IN HIGHSCHOOL, and he was already 6'4" and jacked. Freshmen in highschool are supposed to be around FOURTEEN years old. He was 10 years older lol. I guess Ma' Kent fed him his veggies.

-R

 

[Chris Wallace]

Was he a freshman in Season One? I thought he was supposed to be about 16.

 

[DACrowe]

Ah Maguire pulled it off. Though in SM3 by the looks of the trailer it is starting to get hard to believe he is still in college. I mean c'monw now. But in the first two he got away with it pretty well....and we did see Pete in two movies now as a teenager, a dorky one....with a lot of problems. I don't get the complaint? Most of what I hear is he doesn't have enough wise cracks and half of the ones he does get sound pretty bad. But I suually don't hear "his Peter Parker didn't have enough problems" though.

 

[spideyman101]

i think Tobey was perfect...

 

[Orko Is King]

Didn't Sam want to cast Wes Bentley?

 

[Chris Wallace]

No-Tobey was Sam's choice. I think Wes, like Dicaprio, Prinze or Ledger, was a name the studio threw out there. From what I read, Raimi had to fight to get Tobey a screen test.
Supposedly, the way it went down was, Raimi's wife rented "Cider House Rules" & watched it while he was asleep. After viewing it, she woke him up & insisted that he had to see this "kid", & that he had to make a movie with him. After watching "Cider House", Sam knew he had his Peter Parker.

 

[Future Prez]

That's some good info, Chris. I've always thought Tobey was a good choice for Parker. And as far as Tobey beginning to look to old for his part in SM3, I think the emo look tends to add age to the appearance.

 

[PalmerTheThing]

Tobey was close to 19 when they hired him.

 

[mickmike]

Tobey was close to 19 when they hired him.

He was way older than that.........at least 26

 

[Chris Wallace]

He was 25. He just made 31 & they hired him in 2000.

 

[PalmerTheThing]

Still pretty close.

 

[Slimy Wall Crawler]

This kinda stuff has always been going on. I know in the comics Peter was a sophmore in high school but in the movie Peter was a senior in high school. So back then I could reasonably buy a young looking 25 year old playing 17 or 18. So then in the 2nd movie he was 28/29 but playing 20 or 21, I could accept that.

I'm assuming that the movie Peter Parker graduated high school in 2002 and they are aging the character in real time. So as the movie Parker gets older, it's not even any big deal to me that Maguire is 7-9 years (depending on when he shot a scene) older then what he is playing. He's right around 30 and playing a Peter Parker that is about 22/23? I can still buy that. Tobey looks so freakishly young anyway, he looks younger then a lot of real 23 year olds and he's 31. It's like he made a deal with the devil.

Tobey's situation (starting out as mid 20s playing 18) was actually not as bad as others.

Remember back in the '90s what they did with Beverly Hills 90210? They had people on there playing 10th graders that were way older then 15.

Then other shows like Party of Five and Dawsons Creek had much, much older people pretending to be teenagers. Dawson was a high school kid with a receding hairline and beard stuble.

And Tom Welling is playing a super kid type character, but Brandon Routh is 2 years younger then him and he is playing the real deal,...SuperMAN.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I didn't know Brandon was that young.

 

[klown23]

at least it's not like the lead role from fast and furious tokyo drift... They hired like a late 20's guy to play a 17 year old teen

 

[Chris Wallace]

at least it's not like the lead role from fast and furious tokyo drift... They hired like a late 20's guy to play a 17 year old teen

Actually that kinda is the same thing.