vowed comic-book fanatic and director Sam Raimi (Darkman, The Gift) brings his childhood superhero to life when Spider-Man swings into theaters May 3. Starring Tobey Maguire as webslinger Peter Parker and Kirsten Dunst as girl-next-door Mary Jane Watson, the film allows Raimi to breathe new life into the franchise, while remaining true to the four-decade-old Marvel Comics series.
Maguire, best known for thoughtful coming-of-age roles in films such as The Cider House Rules, had to fight studio opposition to win the coveted starring role. But he worked out for months to bulk up to play the superhero and eventually won over studio executives. Maguire brings a mixture of innocence, bravado and melancholy to the complicated role.
Dunst—who turns 20 on April 30, the day after Spidey's world premiere—was a more natural choice to play Peter's love interest, the spunky heroine who motivates Peter's transformation into a superhero. But her casting came at virtually the last minute, when Raimi, Maguire (who was recovering from the flu) and the film's producers flew to Berlin to read her for the part during a break in filming of Dunst's independent period film Cat's Meow.
With anticipation riding high for Spider-Man, the principals have all already signed on for an expected sequel. Maguire, Raimi and Dunst sat down recently with Science Fiction Weekly to talk about Spider-Man.
Tobey Maguire, how did you get that buff?
Maguire: I worked very hard. I trained for a little while before I even screen-tested or before I got the role, because I knew the screen test was coming up. So I just went on a little bit of a training routine and a diet myself. Then I was cast and worked out for five months, six days a week, anywhere from an hour and a half to four hours a day, a combination of gymnastics, martial arts, yoga, weightlifting, high-end cardio, like cycling and running, and I had a very specific diet, worked with a nutritionist.
Have you maintained that regimen?
Maguire: Not nearly on that level. I like being active, so I'll go on a run, or I'll go to the gym and work out a little bit, but it's not as regular. I don't have time. I set aside the rest of my entire life to do that basically for five months, and then did it as much as I could throughout the film. It's different now. But I like it, and I'll probably have to get back to it at some point.
Christopher Reeve will be forever associated with Superman. Are you concerned about being associated with Spider-Man forever?
Maguire: Well, I don't think of Christopher Reeve quite like that, but I understand your question, and I'm not worried about it.
Why did you choose to do Spider-Man?
Maguire: I did Spider-Man not because it was an event film, although that was part of
the attraction. I wouldn't have done it unless I felt as passionately about it as I did working with Ang Lee on The Ice Storm and Ride With the Devil and Curtis Hanson on Wonder Boys and Lasse Hallstrom on Cider House Rules. I feel like this character is as strong a character as any of those, and his journey is as interesting for me to play and more challenging to blueprint the entire role than any of those other movies, actually.
What was it like to work with Kirsten?
Maguire: Well, first of all, we met with and/or read with a lot of different girls for the role, and that was something that was very important to them— ... the chemistry and seeing me read with those girls. There were some people who we liked and thought were interesting, but when we went to Germany to read Kirsten, it was just great. We all knew that that was the real deal, and that's what we had been waiting for, because we weren't quite satisfied, but it was coming down to the wire. We had to cast somebody immediately, and we went out
there, and she just brought it to a whole new level. It's like anything. If you meet somebody, and you just click, you have good conversation, it's easy to get along with somebody. She's really fearless as an actress. I respect her and admire her work. She's a lot of fun. She can be focused and serious. She can be goofy and fun.
Was it hard to shoot the upside-down kissing scene?
Maguire: It was a challenging scene. ... I was hanging upside down, it was five in the morning, rain was going up my nose or down my nose. Then when she lifted the mask up, the mask was sitting on my nose so I couldn't breathe through my nose. She was kissing my mouth, so I couldn't breathe through my mouth. And there's no other places to breathe from. So I would have to suck air out of the corner of our mouths. And I still managed to derive some pleasure out of the scene. But, it was really actually tough to breathe, because even in between takes, when they'd pull the mask back down ... the material would become [impermeable], so I couldn't breathe in. I had a second when I had free breath when she lifted it up, I'd be like [breathes]. It was a really nice moment.
Was the potential exposure from this film an attraction or detraction from the role?
Maguire: That itself, I don't know if it's either. As far as it being an event, I'm excited about that. I'm excited to go sneak into the theater and watch people's reaction to the film. I'm excited about the anticipation. I think we made a good film. As far as my profile goes personally, I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's complicated.
You value your privacy?
Maguire: I do. As far as professionally, I look forward to it possibly opening things up for me or just making it less of an issue. For instance, me and Sam had to convince the studio to hire me on this picture. If it makes that process a little easier, then that's a good thing. As far as personally, I don't know, I'll just adjust.
How was Willem Dafoe, who plays the Green Goblin?
Maguire: He's great. He's somebody who is such a good actor that I can't really see his personality through his work. So I really didn't know what to expect. I think I started getting into that silly imagination of mine thinking about, like, some brooding character actor coming on set. In truth, he's very easygoing and has a good sense of humor. He's very committed to his work, and you could rarely find him in his trailer. He was always floating around the set, like, just wanting to work constantly, which is great to be around that kind of energy. It was amazing doing scenes with him, because he's good. It makes my job easier. Then every once in a while, I'd look at him and think of some character he had played, and I'd get kind of tripped out.
Did you ever wish you had super powers?
Maguire: I'm sure I did that, fantasizing about having greater powers than I do have,
but I had never read a comic book before I was cast in this film.
What challenges were the special effects?
Maguire: Well, I think of it all as one big thing and, in particular, working where I'm
not looking at anything real, you just have to have a tremendous amount of focus. Having Sam as my partner in that and talking in my ear was very helpful. It's interesting, because you shoot that stuff, and then you get to see it come to life, so in that sense it's fun. Otherwise, it just requires a whole lot of focus and imagination.
How did they make your costume?
Maguire: In the beginning I did a cast of my entire body, which was not fun, because I
had to stand there for a couple hours, and then the stuff stuck to the hair on my body, and they ripped it off. It was extremely painful.
Was the suit hot?
Maguire: No, the suit was fine, and by the time I got to wearing it on the set, I was fine, especially if you're moving around and doing the action. You don't even think about it, and it would give me a freedom that I didn't otherwise feel. I mean, if I was moving around the way Spider-Man moves without that suit on, I think I'd probably feel a little silly. If I started crawling across this table with my clothes on, I'd probably be a little embarrassed about it.
How could you act with your face covered?
Maguire: That was one of the bigger challenges: ... How to keep the audience invested in the character and feeling what the character was feeling while he was masked and you couldn't see the expression. That's something Sam and I talked about a lot—just doing it with body language and doing it with little pieces of dialogue, and that's where looping [post-production dialogue recording] helped a little bit, because where we felt it was missing or we needed something, we could go in there and do a little extra touch to help, without overdoing it.
Did you do any stunts?
Maguire: Yeah, I did do stunts. I did a lot of wirework, where they're picking me up, putting me down, sticking to walls, doing some flips. If it gets into a thing where it looks like it would take the ability of a really seasoned gymnast, then it's probably not me.
What can we look forward to in Spidey 2?
Maguire: You'll have to talk to Kirsten. I won't talk about it.
Sam Raimi, what did you keep from James Cameron's or Chris Columbus' earlier treatments or story ideas?
Raimi: I was aware of James Cameron's treatment, which I read. He wrote a very long and detailed, about 80-page, treatment. In fact, the first draft script that Columbia had at the time was based on his treatment. So that's what I was aware of. I don't know about any of his other plans, but that must have been a large part of it. ... The differences are too many to talk about, but what carried over are two very important ideas. One is that in James Cameron's treatment, Peter Parker doesn't build his web shooters. He simply emits web from his wrists. That stayed. And the other big idea of James Cameron's that I've kept is that it wasn't a radioactive spider, that it was a genetically altered spider. That seemed to make more sense from the science we know today than the science of 1962.
Have you been a big fan of the comics?
Raimi: Yes. I've been reading Spider-Man comic books since I was in second grade, and
I'm a giant fan. I kind of stopped reading them when I got to college, but I would occasionally pick up an issue when I'd see it for sale. I've tried to be faithful to the comics as much as I could, and yet everybody knows that when you take a literary work or even a comic book and translate it to the screen, there are changes that the filmmaker feels they have to make. Not to make it their own, because that's not what I wanted to do. I just wanted to tell the story the best that I could. In fact, I didn't try and imprint the movie with my style. I knew there were a great 40 million fans out there who love Spider-Man, the character, and I didn't want to get in the way of them. I just wanted to put the two of them together, but sometimes you've got to make changes.
Talk about the myth of Spider-Man.
Raimi: The theme of Spider-Man, which I guess the myth must be centered around, is that with great power comes great responsibility. So the myth is of a boy, like any boy, from this lower-middle-class American family. The girls don't like him. He's kind of an outcast at school. He's unpopular. He probably has acne and is probably a member of the chess club. He's picked on. This kid comes from a broken family, his parents aren't there, is relatable to most of us. And something extraordinary happens to him. He's bitten by a radioactive or genetically altered spider, and he
takes on these incredible powers. But he doesn't necessarily jump to using these powers for good. He's still ... self-interested. Not a bad kid, but somewhat limited in his scope as far as the vision of what these powers could be used for. And his selfishness and lack of understanding and lack of wisdom ... is a contributing factor to the death of his uncle. He learns that he's been actually given a gift, and he tries to spend the rest of his life paying down the guilt of his uncle's death and trying to live up to the man his uncle thought he could be. And trying to listen to these words that his uncle spoke in every action that he performs forever more. ... The movie ends as he finally achieves some
small level of responsibility for these new powers.
Did you feel you had great responsibility in directing Spider-Man?
Raimi: I had a responsibility to the kids of America, who are going to this movie, who are going to look up to the character that was up there and say, "That's my hero," regardless of whether this movie had earned it enough. It's wrong, but it's how it works. You put a superhero in a costume on the movie screen, the kids want to be like that, even though he's not necessarily ... a proper person. I'm not one to say I know what proper is or what moral is, but I wanted to make sure he was worthy of their admiration, and that's where I felt the internal pressure. Can I deliver somebody that, when dad brings the two kids, and I'm that dad with my kids, I can feel great about bringing my kid to this picture? That they've presented someone who learns a lesson of morality, that maybe you don't have to be so selfish? That you could look outside yourself? I think it's actually the growth of him as a human being, in my mind, that makes him into a hero, not because he beats up the bad guys. That's the pressure I felt that no one on the Internet was writing about, because of my own situation. Yes, I was aware of the kids writing about, "He better not mess it up. He better put this story point in, he better not cast Tobey Maguire." I was aware of that stuff, very much aware.
What made you choose Tobey Maguire?
Raimi: I was very lucky to work with Tobey Maguire. I really think he's a ... great Peter Parker, because the strength of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's creation has always been that Spider-Man is one of us. He's one of us who grows to become a hero, so we can soar with him when that happens. And so I needed somebody that was identifiable to the audience, somebody whose ability to act was invisible, no artifice. And Tobey's smart. He has a high regard for the audience and the camera, and a great respect for the camera. I think he believes, without him saying so, that if he simply believes a thought or is in the moment, that the camera records it, and the audience receives it. Most actors don't work that way. They present. But Tobey's always playing up to the audience. He's never playing down to them. So you watch a take, and you think, "Tobey, you're supposed to be feeling kind of sad here, aren't you?" He's not always apparent, but neither are our emotions. I don't really know what any one of you are thinking, but if I spent a little time with you, I probably could glean that. And Tobey's aware of the power of thought.
How do you trace your progress as a director from Darkman to Spider-Man, which were both comic-book-influenced movies?
Raimi: Yes, Darkman is a movie I made in 1989 and 1990. I love Liam Neeson and Frances McDormand and had a great experience making that movie. It was a great learning experience for me. My approach between that movie and this movie, well, I've learned a lot since I made that movie. I was 29 when I made that picture. And I've spent a lot of time with Liam Neeson since then and Frances McDormand and some other great actors, like Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett, and I've learned a lot about performance. Television has taught me a lot about storytelling and character. And I've tried to take what I've learned and apply it to this latest motion picture. I don't think I could have made Spider-Man 10 or 12 years ago. I don't think I had the ability to as a filmmaker.
Is modern visual-effects technology another necessity?
Raimi: My first thought [was] ... "Gee, we were lucky that the movie was tied up legally for all these years, because I don't know how we would have made it 10 years ago." That's always the first thought I have. And then I think, "And yet, Richard Donner did such a brilliant job with Superman 25 years ago." When I saw that, I believed Superman could fly, circle the earth, come from the planet Krypton, so I hope that we would have been smart enough to find a way.
How does an actor convey emotion when his face is completely covered?
Raimi: That was impossible. I didn't know how to fight that. I was trying not to
make a Power Rangers movie. ... I thought about subtly animating the ... the shape in the head to communicate different expressions. If you look at the comics, it's a technique they use quite effectively in subtle ways. But that didn't work, and it was quite frightening actually when you'd see it. ... We tried to then go to a performance style that was more, you could call it silent-movie acting or kabuki theater. But there's a style of acting with masks that you can achieve with body language and poses that in broad strokes can communicate. ... I never got that proficient in it, but in broad strokes I could direct the body language of the actor to communicate what I needed, but I'm not good at that. That was hard.
How did you find the middle tone between wisecracks, being reverent and revisionist?
Raimi: I was just trying to take all the things I loved about the comic book and all
the great things the writers had done in the drafts of this script and put them up on the big screen. A director just does it with what they think works or doesn't work. Most of it's in the comic books. The great character Peter Parker, his interesting relationships with Mary Jane Watson. So I don't really know if I had a technique or not. It's just like if you go to tell a joke that you heard, or if you read 40 years of Spider-Man comic books, and now it's your turn to tell the Spider-Man origin story, if you said, "Well, there was this radioactive spider that bit this kid ... " If that's how you chose to tell it, you'd be telling it a very different way than I would tell it. I would have to start with who the kid was, what his problems are and what things meant to him. So I understood what the transformation meant to him. I think everybody just tells it differently, and I didn't have a good plan for how I was going to tell it. I just told it the way I saw it.
It seems like Spider-Man appears in many classic poses in the film. Did you talk about recreating those from the comic books?
Raimi: Absolutely. ... Myself and my associate film producer Grant Curtis selected all of our favorite poses from the different comic books and gave them to the animators to explain [that], whenever he stops, he's got to stop in a classic Spidey pose. Through his movement, we want him to achieve these looks. Then I also did storyboards with my storyboard artists and even animatic moving storyboards to give to the animators to show them, these are the poses from the comic book, this is the angle, these are the movements that he's going through. Now, show me your first pass of animation. That's really how it worked.
Was some of the Americana in the movie added in light of Sept. 11?
Raimi: Well, I was devastated by Sept. 11. ... I didn't know anybody in the buildings. I was moved like every other American when I watched the real heroes go in there and help those people in the tragedy at the attack site risk their lives and many times lose their lives. ... After Spider-Man has been misunderstood by the New Yorkers throughout the course of the whole movie—he does nothing but risk his life for them—I wanted a small group to appreciate him, because I thought it would give him back something. I had put in, before Sept. 11, a bunch of New Yorkers seeing what Spider-Man was doing, risking his life to save these kids, and helping him a little. ... Then there was Sept. 11. And I decided to add and slightly change their dialogue, because I really wanted it to be a tip of the hat to those brave rescue workers who risked their lives to be heroes. So the dialogue has been tweaked slightly. Although it may not fly in other countries, I don't know, but I really wanted to give something to those heroes, the real heroes.
I put the American flag in after September 11, but I've always been a big American, and I think I would have had that flag in anyway. It didn't come out of, how can I put the flag in? It came out of, where is he going to land? How about a building top at the end? Yeah, land at the building top. What'll be there, a spider? Oh, I'll put a flag there, yeah. Yeah, Spidey and the flag, he really is a great American or represents a great American who's not real.
Kirsten Dunst, what was it like acting with all the visual effects and against green screen?
Dunst: Well, it was definitely difficult. I've done it before though, but ... you've got to commit fully to what you're doing. ... You're up there, you're hanging there, and you're looking at nothing. So it can really be a weird circumstance. And if you're not, like, committing completely ... you're going to look silly. Cables, harnesses. For like a month I did that. And then I saw the movie, it was like, "Oh, that's all that they used?" I was, like, "Great, all that work for that." Like, one shot or two shots.
Were you ever scared?
Dunst: We had the best stunt guys. But it's scary sometimes. I would be at the top of the soundstages, and they were high soundstages. And I'm looking down at the whole crew. ... And they'd count me down, which was even scarier. ... "One, two, three!" And then they'd drop me! ... It was creepy in the beginning, and I don't think I ever really, really got used to that.
What was it like shooting the upside-down-kiss scene?
Dunst: You know, that was actually really uncomfortable. Because, and this is why, we were in the rain, and it was cold, first of all, and Tobey couldn't breathe, because I had pulled his mask like to there [indicates upper lip], and he was hanging upside down soaking wet. So ... [he had this] head rush kind of thing going on. So, yeah, he couldn't breathe through our kisses, so it was like .... Kiss kiss kiss, breathing out the side of the mouth kind of thing.
How many takes were there?
Dunst: You know, you always do bunches of angles of different things, and then you never use it. But, we did ... a good amount. ... They'd drop him down in between takes ...
Did you feel on a movie like this that you're like just a piece of the technology?
Dunst: Yeah, like sometimes ... I feel like a prop, like, hanging here. Like, "Scream now, or do this," like a little dog or something. There was this one scene where I was sitting down. I felt like such an idiot. I actually cracked up laughing, I think, during one of the takes. I was sitting down, and lying back, and I had to just like flail my arms and legs and scream, and I think the camera was coming down towards me. I just felt really weird.
Sam ... said in our meeting, when I first met him, and then he said again, at my screen test ... "You know, you're going to be doing a lot of flying and la la la." And I'm like, "Oh, it's fine, Sam, I have no problem with that," and I'm thinking to myself, "Yeah, how much flying are they going to make the actors do, like? I'm going to have a stunt woman and probably, and all that." And then I did so much stunts. I didn't expect it to be so much of that kind of stuff.
How much did you know about Spider-Man?
Dunst: I mean, I knew his story, I knew how he got bit, I knew that whole thing. But ... I really didn't know Mary Jane well. And I didn't know, you know, all his background story. ... I read Mary Jane's stuff, and see where she entered in, and kind of like read what I thought, you know, dealt with our film.
What attracted you to Mary Jane?
Dunst: I think ... it was that I could, like, make a superhero for the girls to look up to, and that she had a good journey of her own, and I really felt like the romance was, like ... the core emotional drive of Spider-Man during the film. I really felt that it was an important part, and not like, just, you know, the girly girl, like flying around helplessly.
You read for the part in Berlin?
Dunst: I was doing the Cat's Meow, and they all flew out to Berlin: [producer] Laura Ziskin, Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire. And Tobey was really sick, I remember. And ... I'd been working all day. I was really tired. But I was so nervous for my reading. And then we did some scenes together. And the chemistry was there, I guess, and Sam thought it looked good. ... I called the hotel, ... just give him a note, like, "Thank you for coming, I know that you're sick, and I hope you feel better. And if you need any ... vitamins," you know? I mean, I was very appreciative. I mean, being sick and getting on a flight and flying, how many hours ... to get to Berlin from L.A. ... I mean, that's a brutal journey when you're sick, and then you read with somebody, and then you get back on the plane and go home?
Did you have to dye your hair red for the role?
Dunst: My hair wasn't completely red. It was only red in the front. So it kind of just looked like, you know, a little punk rockish or something. It was cool. I liked it. ...
What was it like working with Sam Raimi?
Dunst: Sam Raimi, like, he really inspires you on set. ... He's so passionate about Spider-Man and so passionate about what he does. And he's just such a good man, and he really makes you want to do the best job you can for him.
What was it like working with Tobey Maguire?
Dunst: I think there's a lot going on behind his eyes, and the camera really catches that. He's very subtle, but ... it means a lot in the subtleties. And I think that he's just very funny and charming and professional, and he brought that charming side of himself to Spider-Man. I think a side of that people haven't really seen him as is as that funny kind of guy. So I think it's really good for him.
There were rumors that you and Tobey were involved romantically?
Dunst: On every movie, it's pretty much [the same]. ... It happens to Tobey. He always gets written up about this girl or that girl. ... Whatever. I take it with a grain of salt, like it doesn't really [affect me].
So that's not true?
Dunst: No.
There will be sequels?
Dunst: Two more Spider-Mans, yep.
When does production start on the next one?
Dunst: Next year. January, February.
What can you tell us about the sequel?
Dunst: I think ... there will always be that dynamic between Peter and her with that love story, and keeping them apart, because it makes it more interesting, when the lovers aren't together. So I'm sure there'll be a lot of controversy with that. But also they're going to bring in another girl, I think, too in the next one, which I'm really happy about it. Because I'm like, "All right, Sam, you can have her do the action, and I don't need to be saved, and you can have some other chicks being saved a lot." I think they might bring in the Black Cat or something. I don't know. I don't know for sure.
I think I'll have a new boyfriend, and Tobey will have a girlfriend, so it'll be awkward and weird. ... You see at the end of this film, she's, like, more of a woman, and he's more of a man. And so I think it will be interesting to see Spider-Man as more of an adult in the next film and in the third one, if we get there. So I think it will be interesting to see them, like, in the adult world, like him becoming successful, she, I think, hopefully, I think Sam wanted to make her become successful in acting maybe or something like that.
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