Part 2
Exclusive Interview: TOBEY MAGUIRE GOES DARK & LOVES TWICE AS MUCH IN SPIDER-MAN 3
Actor talks romance, symbiotes, and acting in general with a baby face
By: EMMANUEL ITIER
Contributing Writer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published: 3/16/2007
Tobey Maguire the man behind the mask of SPIDER-MAN is more confident than his slightly meek film counterpart and he doesnt think about anything other than making a good movie. In this third film, Maguire faced a love triangle, new villains, and a much darker Peter Parker thanks to an alien symbiote which bonds itself to our favorite web-head. iF MAGAZINE rips off Maguires masks and gets to the meat of what its like to play roles of teenagers when youre 32, and what this new movie means to his acting career.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
iF MAGAZINE: How difficult is it for an actor to play a superhero, a romantic, and a villain?
TOBEY MAGUIRE: It sounds more complex that it feels like when I play him. I dont know.
iF: Youre 32, and you still have a boyish face, is that a hindrance in your career?
MAGUIRE: I think definitely, I look however old I look and thats going to exclude me from certain parts and give me the opportunity to do other parts. I dont feel like its been a hindrance in anyway so far, I do think that historically the meatier roles are for people in their thirties and forties, so in that way, I have that to look forward to it. But I feel very fortunate with the films Ive gotten to work on.
iF: Do you feel any pressure because this was such an expensive movie to make?
MAGUIRE: I dont even know how much this movie cost! Im just trying to make a good movie.
iF: When did you become aware of how important this movie was to so many people around the world?
MAGUIRE: I guess I was aware of that during the release of the first movie. I knew leading up to the release what the expectations were, because they do tracking and test audiences. I knew then it was going to have a big opening weekend. I knew from the activity on the Internet.
iF: Would you like your daughter to enter the industry?
MAGUIRE: Well, shes three and a half months old so not for a while. She can do whatever she wants to do.
iF: How do all the new characters affect your character?
MAGUIRE: I dont know how to sum that up. Specifically it affects me however it affects me in each storyline I have with all the characters.
iF: Does the love triangle between Peter, MJ, and Gwen get lost in all the other individual dramas?
MAGUIRE: I think we try to balance all the stories and make it all part of one movie that is all going in one direction. Of course we have different threads and storylines we are trying to give substance to and I think we do a pretty good job and it all should support each other, like each story should support the other for the most part and work towards the overall themes that we are going for.
iF: What is easier for you as Spider-Man?
MAGUIRE: I prefer doing the scenes with the actors rather than hanging in stuff like that. I couldnt tell you what is easier, really. They are two totally different types of things and it depends exactly what Im doing.
iF: Was there any empowerment in wearing the black suit?
MAGUIRE: The suit or the alien symbiote would enhance certain things and make Peter/Spiderman feel stronger and more powerful, but would also shade his attitude and that was the part I had fun with. Because then it was how he was reacting to the other characters and how I would react to things that would happen or how I would speak to them and finding the right kind of tone for that, which I dont think you guys saw a lot of that. I think you guys saw more of the introduction of it. There is a lot that happens in between.
iF: Did you get in touch with your dark side?
MAGUIRE: Im in touch with it enough to access it for the movie and specifically the trades are a little different for Peter than things in my life or things that I may have experienced. No examples though.
iF: What about the whole idea of him being the hero?
MAGUIRE: It was certainly something we would talk about and that was one of the things with finding the tone of it because Sam and I would have a really good time with it and we had to restrain ourselves so we wouldnt go too far or we got too dark or did things that were hard to come back from. Youve got to always care about Peter, even when hes going down the wrong path, so to speak. And you cant make it scary or unforgivable. I dont know what that means exactly, but you know what I mean. So we had to meter ourselves or govern how far we would go, and to make it fun and funny and bright, but still dark. So it was fun finding the tone, both for ourselves and the idea of keeping our audience etc.
iF: Have you been involved in the story writing at all?
MAGUIRE: Yes. They came up with the basic storyline for the movie and I came on when I read an early draft of a screenplay so I didnt do much work. I discussed a little bit with Sam about where he was going with it and what some of my general thoughts were, but I didnt get too specific until I would get a screenplay and then I would start to talk about it on all levels, from the level of what the overall storyline is within the structure of a movie for the character, what Id like to see less of, more of, specific tone for the character, what might be able to help that, suggest specific scenes or ask for scenes not to be there, all kinds of stuff. And then suggesting dialogue for funny stuff, for dramatic stuff, for anything and I was there to try to contribute everything I could and Sam is the captain of the ship, taking everybodys ideas and fitting them into his vision.
iF: What was it like having two onscreen girlfriends?
MAGUIRE: Im not going to sit here and talk about the whole movie like that. The sort of general answer I gave in the beginning is the idea, which is taking all the spinning plates and bringing them together for one meal. All I can really give you is a real general answer on that, which is we try to have all the stories support each other and fit within the same movie. I feel like I answered this question already!
CHECK BACK HERE AT iF MAGAZINE FOR PART 3 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW SOON!
http://www.ifmagazine.com/feature.asp?article=1968