Andrew Garfield Reveals the Fun of Lying About Spider-Man: No Way Home

It’s no secret that the lead-up to Spider-Man: No Way Home featured a lot of speculation about casting. Before the movie was released, it was confirmed by Marvel Studios that Alfred Molina (Doc Ock), Willen Dafoe (Green Goblin), and Jamie Foxx (Electro) would all be reprising their villain roles, but no one knew for sure if former Spider-Men, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, would be showing up in the movie. Garfield was doing press for other projects around that time and constantly lied about his appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home. The Oscar-nominated actor previously admitted he enjoyed lying about it, and recently explained to The View why it was so fun.

“The company makes you do it. But also it’s kind of fun to do, too. You’re planning a surprise party for people and they’re, like, tell us the surprise is happening and you’re, like, there’s no surprise party happening,” Garfield explained. 

Garfield previously expressed a similar sentiment when speaking with The Wrap. 

“It was stressful, I’m not gonna lie,” Garfield shared. “It was rather stressful but also weirdly enjoyable.” He added, “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.”

Garfield continued, “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.”

Garfield may have enjoyed lying to the press, but Tom Holland found it difficult.

“I am a very honest person, by nature,” Holland recently explained on Late Night with Seth Meyers. “Which has gotten me into trouble in the past… Every time I say like, ‘So, Tobey…’ I’m like ‘Shhhh. Shut up! Don’t say that!’ So, yeah, I’m just very honest. So, on the press tour, journalists are like, ‘So, were Tobey and Andrew in this movie?’ I’m like, ‘No, they’re not. Stop asking me that.’ And I go home and almost can’t sleep. I’m calling up my mom. ‘I just feel so guilty for all the lies.’”

Spider-Man: No Way Home is available for home purchase.