Now that the cat is out of the bag, Andrew Garfield has been able to really open up about his return as Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Prior to the movie's release, there were rumors of Garfield appearing in the movie alongside Tobey Maguire as his own version of Spider-Man. Maguire avoided speaking about the film in public to ensure he wouldn't spoil any big surprises, but Garfield was constantly denying the rumors amid his promoting of other films.
"It was stressful, I'm not gonna lie," Garfield says of keeping the whole thing a secret, per The Wrap. "It was rather stressful but also weirdly enjoyable... It was like this massive game of Werewolf that I was playing with journalists and with people guessing, and it was very fun... 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."
He added, "I placed myself in that position of, 'Well, what would I want to know? Would I want to be toyed with? Would I want to be lied to? Would I want to be kept on my toes guessing? Would I want to discover it when I went to the theater? Would I want to be guessing, guessing, guessing?' 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 theater when my instinct was proven right. That's what I would want."
Denying the Rumors Was Challenging But Thrilling for Andrew Garfield
"Like anyone who's played the game Werewolf knows, if you are the werewolf your heart kind of sinks because you know you have a stressful couple of hours ahead of you," Garfield said, referring to a previous denial where he similarly mentioned the Werewolf game. "You're gonna have to lie to your friends' faces and try to convince them that you are not the bad guy in the game. But it was thrilling, actually."
One of the biggest challenges for Garfield came when a photo had leaked which seemed to confirm the returns Garfield and Maguire. This was something brought up to Garfield in subsequent interviews, with the actor calling it a "photoshop" during an interview with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. Now that he can be more honest, Garfield opened up a bit more about sticking with the denials despite the leak.
"I worked so hard to keep it secret that I was in Atlanta shooting," he said. "All these leaks were happening, and I was like, 'Oh, my God, guys, what the hell is going on? I'm working so hard here to stay secret, and then here's an image of me with Tobey!' And they're like, 'No, no, we're gonna keep it quiet.' 'OK, I'll keep denying it."
"I was happy to do it, but it was a lot of work on everyone's part," the actor added. "It obviously gave people a big thrill in the theater, and what more do you want from a theater experience than a thrill?" He concluded with a laugh, "It's been a rare experience to play that mass game of Werewolf with every single Spider-Man fan in the world. That's been incredibly fun."