I’m rarely a fan of when actors, directors, etc., tell obvious bald-faced lies to journalists and fans about upcoming projects. The most infamous example will likely forever be J.J. Abrams and Benedict Cumberbatch’s promise that the actor wouldn’t be playing the villain Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness; comparatively, Andrew Garfield’s constant assertions that he wasn’t reprising his role as The Amazing Spider-Man’s Peter Parker in No Way Home after photos of him appearing in costume on set seemed merely mischievous — especially since he apparently had such a good time doing so.
“It was rather stressful but also weirdly enjoyable,” admitted the actor in an interview with the Wrap, who also called the experience “incredibly fun” and ”thrilling.” “There were moments where I was like, ‘God, I hate lying.’ I don’t like to lie and I’m not a good liar, but I kept framing it as a game. And I kept imagining myself purely as a fan of that character, which is not hard to do.”
Garfield had been a long-professed Spider-Man fan even before he got cast as the superhero, and he decided he would want to be surprised by the arrival of multiple Spider-Man in the film: “I would want the actor to do an incredibly good job at convincing me he wasn’t in it. And then I would want to lose my mind in the theatre when my instinct was proven right. That’s what I would want.”
Unlike the Khan fiasco, which had a million signs practically screaming the truth, all No Way Home had was a few rumours and a couple of leaked photos — little enough that not only could Garfield have some plausible deniability, but he also wasn’t grossly insulting everyone’s intelligence when he insisted over and over again he wasn’t in the film. Honestly, I’m glad he had a good time lying about a million times in 2021 instead of getting exhausted and miserable about it, since probably every human being who got within 6.10 m of him asked him the same question.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is currently in theatres and available on digital demand.