Page 2
Taking Time for His Young Audience of Spidey Fans: Tobey Maguire joked that he’s been asked plenty of times to show up at kids’ parties, but said he doesn’t even own a Spider-Man suit. But Maguire does really appreciate the younger generation of Spider-Man fans. “First of all, I love kids and it’s a lot of fun interacting with kids, but it’s a little confusing sometimes because I want to take the lead from parents. Because sometimes parents will want to explain that, you know, I’m an actor and sort of the reality of the situation. Other parents like to keep the illusion alive. So, that’s always a tricky spot - the younger they are, especially.
I did have a thing were at the time I thought the right thing to do was to explain. A kid asks me and I’m honest about it. They said, ‘Well, how do you do that?’ ‘Well we take the building, the vertical building and we turn it on it’s back and I’m crawling across it,’ and the kid just was like really bummed out (laughing). I was just like shattering his whole thing, and then I had to work to get back in there. But we ended up hugging and him telling me he was going to miss me and it was really sweet. It ended up being a really sweet thing, but for a while I felt really bad about it.”
Working with Kirsten Dunst: Maguire says having an onscreen relationship with Dunst comes easily. “I had a good time and I felt really at ease during the whole shooting process, and working with Kirsten is great. I love what she brings to the role and to the movie. So, it was a lot of fun.”
Getting Some Laughs with Bryce Dallas Howard: The two share a funny scene and Maguire explained how that went down: “There was a different tone at first to the scene. It was kind of more confrontational. And we thought it would be funny - we were kind of getting along strangely. There were some awkward moments, but I thought it would be a better tone if we were getting along better. You know, Sam is always coming up with gags or different jokes so I think everybody was throwing in some ideas here and there, and it did change up a bit. There [are] some adlibs in there. That was a lot of fun. And I thought Bruce [Campbell] was fantastic and the best appearance of the three appearances for him in these movies.”
On Not Letting Success Go to His Head: Peter Parker does, but Maguire doesn’t. “I think Peter and I react differently to that aspect of it. He’s really sort of loving it and bathing in it and getting that kind of arrogance and self importance. And, to me, I enjoy playing it and thought it was funny and fun to do. Personally, we just have different experiences.”
Don’t Look for Tobey Maguire to Take on Another Comic Book Character: Maguire feels that would never work. “I don’t think I’ll be playing another iconic superhero from a comic book. I mean, I think that would be kind of odd and I would guess that it would be kind of odd for audiences to accept me in that way. But, sure, what was that thing with Viggo Mortensen? That was from a graphic novel wasn’t it? A History of Violence, yeah. There are a lot of things that take on a different tone. Like I said, I wouldn’t go and be in another film where I was an iconic superhero. I mean, it would be weird. I don’t think it would work.”
Spider-Man’s Take on Real Spiders: “I’m fine with spiders. I respect their place in the world. I don’t kill spiders if there is a spider in my house. A lot of times I would just let spiders… I saw a huge spider in my house last night and just left it there. But now Jen, my fiancee, says said I needed to get it outside because of the baby. So, you know, I’ve got to escort the spiders outside now.”
And Speaking About His New Baby: “It’s definitely amazing,” said Maguire. “I love being a dad and having a daughter. It’s amazing. It’s like everybody says. All the clichés are true. It’s indescribable and you just have to be there to understand it. You don’t really get it till you were there.”
Maguire’s not sure if having a daughter will affect his choice in roles. “It may, I really don’t know right now. I think that the greatest affect it will have is on what the locations of movies are, more so than what the content is, although it may affect my decision about the content as well. I don’t know.”
Parade magazine carried an article on Tobey Maguire in which the actor addressed his troubled childhood. Maguire was reluctant to give advice to kids now but did say, “I think each individual experience is different. I do think it’s important to… I don’t know, it’s hard for me to say. I was fortunate enough to find different people along the way, whether it was through movies or books or people that helped buoy me when things were a little bit down. I never wanted to be a victim or kind of wallow in the harder things. I always wanted to move forward. I was pretty ambitious. I felt like I had pretty good imagination and vision for my life and I had people telling me, ‘You are driving the vehicle of your life here. You are the master of your own destiny in a sense. So, do whatever you want to do.’”
