Andrew Garfield wasn't prepared for the scrutiny that Spider-Man would bring

A new profile of Andrew Garfield in Esquire spends a lot of time grappling with how much he doesn’t like fame. Sometimes he insists to people on the street that he’s not Andrew Garfield; he says he’s not sure he’ll ever have kids because of how the scrutiny on his life is. These are difficult woes to have if you’re a Hollywood actor, but he couldn’t have known the true extremity of fame until being cast in The Amazing Spider-Man. 

Back then, Garfield was so amped about earning the role of Peter Parker that he immediately called his parents at 3 AM their time and shouted, “I don’t need those fucking business studies anymore, Dad!” But he became disheartened by his interactions with the press, which seemed to overreact whenever he got too honest. “It felt like, ‘Hey, let’s all gather round for this guy’s mental breakdown,'” he tells the outlet. “In reality, I was nowhere near that. I was honestly just asking questions that everyone asks about life and existence and what matters and what doesn’t.”

In the end, it may have worked out that Sony scrapped a third Amazing Spider-Man film, because it allowed Garfield to step back and explore smaller films and theater projects. But because his Spider-Man story was “left dangling,” he found it “really healing” to return as the character in Spider-Man: No Way Home. And if someone ever wanted him to don the Spidey suit again, “For sure, I would 100 percent come back if it was the right thing, if it’s additive to the culture, if there’s a great concept or something that hasn’t been done before that’s unique and 
odd and exciting and that you can sink your teeth into,” he says. “I love that character, and it brings joy. If part of what I bring is joy, then I’m joyful in return.”