Actor Tobey Maguire, who played Spider-Man in a trilogy of films directed by Sam Raimi, felt insulted when he had to audition for the role initially, as the studio was not convinced about his ability to do justice to the action required in the films.
In an old interview with Howard Stern, Tobey revealed that he wasn’t afraid of being typecast. Talking about how he developed the physique of a superhero, he said, “I worked out for five months, six days a week, and was eating four-six meals a day. I had a nutritionist.” Tobey Maguire played the role of the web-slinger in Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), and Spider-Man 3 (2007).
Speaking about the process of landing the role, Tobey added that for director Sam Raimi, he was good to go as Spider-Man, but ‘the studio wasn’t sold’ on him. So Raimi had to work hard to convince the studio. “We first did an audition on a video tape in a little room. They got it, they took a couple of weeks to see it.” Asked if he felt insulted, he said, “My ego was a little rubbed.” After the studio saw the tape, they agreed that he could act, but also wanted him to do an action scene. “So we did a proper screen test, so I wore a blue unitard. The unitard compresses your muscles, so you couldn’t see that I was in good shape, I peeled the thing down, so I did the fight scene topless.”
After Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield played the role of Spider-Man in the two Amazing Spider-Man movies, before Tom Holland took over as the character in a new set of films set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, the third solo Spidey film in the MCU after Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home, released on December 16 in India.
