From The Incredible Hulk to Marvel’s two Spider-Man films, Martin Starr has slowly become a fan favorite in his role as high school teacher Roger Harrington. The character that always seems as if he’s down on his luck had a much larger role in Far From Home than his two previous MCU appearances and in support of the film’s physical home media release, we caught up with Starr to chat all things Spider-Man.
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Keep on scrolling to see what the character had to say about his increasing role in the Spider-Man films, the final season of HBO’s Silicon Valley, and more!
Surprise Appearances
ComicBook.com: Between the two Spider-man movies, your role has grown quite substantially. Is it safe to say by this point, Spider-Man 3 is going to be titled Harrington’s Day Off orย something like that?
Martin Starr: I wish. Yeah, if it keeps growing at the rate it is that’s great. I don’t know. I’m curious to see what happens as this series continues. The first few have been so much fun. I’d love to see more of Mr. Dell and Mr. Harrington hanging out with these kids. I’m glad that they haven’t graduated yet.
Right?
That would be a real curse for me.
It would, absolutely. Regardless of Spider-Man 3 involvement, is there a member of Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery you’d really like to see on the silver screen?
I loved Spider-Man growing up.ย Honestly, I’m most excited that J. Jonah Jameson is back. That little reveal at the end of it is so fun for me. I like J.K. Simmons so much too, as a personย and I think he’s a phenomenal human being and phenomenally talented. He’s so good at that character. And so, the antithesis of it, if you meet him in real life, he’s so sweet. But he does that thing so well. So, I’m excited to see where they might take that guy.
Was that in the script? Did you get to read that part in the script or was that something you didn’t get to see until the final cut came out?
As far as I hear, there is some secrecy that goes on and I certainly experienced some of it, but that wasn’t in the script anyway until towards the end. That was an added kind of bonus notion that was thrown out later. I want to say that it was maybe even after the movie was finished. It’s such a luxury on movies like this where the budget allows space for reshoots, you know, they factor that in, in the beginning. So, they intend to do reshoots and that was something that was allowed, I think by the budget, by the reshoot budget. That’s a fun little moment that was nicely added. In independent movies, you don’t get that luxury. If you have had an afterthought and the movies done, too bad.
Oops, right?
It is very cool to see reshootsย done, especiallyย after getting to know Jon Watts in the process of making these two movies and seeing him explore and enjoy the luxuries that you get on these movies, that he didn’t have prior and that is fairly unlikely to be sustainable throughout a career. You know, to be able to enjoy those and make the most of them, I think it’s really fun for him as a storyteller.
Filmmaking and Deleted Scenes
You bring up that good point. Jon’s been kindย thisย indieย powerhouse. Now, all of a sudden he’s got a multi-billion dollar budget or whatever…crazy amounts of money. As an actor, is the filmmaking part something you’d eventually want to get into? Like are you chomping at the bit to direct your very own superhero movie?
I am not chomping at the bit for that opportunity. I enjoyed producing, I think more finding the pieces and bringing them together. I can feel directing is something that I will enjoy. Honestly, I love Spider-Man so much I’d feel so much pressure. I don’t know that I could handle it as well as Jon did. But who knows, maybe as I start directing smaller things, build my way up to that level of pressure and excitement.
With Far From Home,ย weย gotย the regular release and then sometime later, weย got an extended re-release. Was there a particular scene you remember filming that you really enjoyed that didn’t make the final cut of either the regular or extended version?
I’m curious to see the extended version. I haven’t seen it yet. I mean honestly, we set so much stuff. For me, it was less about scenes that got cut. There was one thing which may be added in the extended version because it was so close to making it in the original cut, where we see the big monsters fighting in the middle of London. We’re running along the river and we all stop and look up at them fighting. I tell all the kids to run away, to save themselves. It’s me, I’m cursedย and then I look at the monsters and I say, “Take me. I’m the one you want.” And like it’s this big impassioned moment, and then almost die as like random pieces of debris start landing around me and I thought it was a funny feat. Then watching it, I get why it may not have fit in the rhythm of those moments. But I think it, there’s a chance it’s in the extended cut. I know it came very close to being in the movie. But that was very fun. I just kept laughing as we doing it, so, that’s a good sign.
Teasing Silicon Valley
Switching gears to something else quick, it’s only a matter of time before the final season ofย Silicon Valley comes out. What can you tell us about that?
Oh, right! Yeah, that is. We’re still shooting it, so I forget that that’s coming out soon. We’re having a great time. They’re still good at leaving these cliffhangers at the end of the season and I feel like already and within two or three episodes we’ve built up such huge moments and then ripped it all away again already. Like the end of this season, we haven’t read the final episode yet, but so far, it already is more climactic in three episodes than at the end of any season. So, I’m sure our finale is going to be rather incredible.ย We just had a table read for the second to last episode and it is the most laughter I’ve heard in one room, at one time, ever.
Awesome.
So, we’re off and running. I’m excited for people to start seeing that and honestly, I can’t wait to see how it’s all cut together. We do so much improvising, you never really know what you’re going to get from the page to the screen sometimes.
Improvising the MCU
Compared to Silicon Valley,ย were you allowed a certain amount of on improvย whileย filming both Homecoming and Far from Home?
Yeah, I was surprised at how much room there was for it. I mean I did a small part in the Hulk a long time ago, which was through a friend ended up just kind of popping up to Toronto for a day to shoot that. I knew Ed Norton and so it feltย like it was like a small little thing and that was pretty to script. I didn’t really know what to expect. I guess I just assumed that this was very, very scripted, like very choreographed. And getting there and seeing how much Jon loves comedy and how much, in general, there is an appreciation for comedy from the producers and executives there. There was more freedom than I anticipated and I enjoyed kind of leaning into and finding where there was wiggle room to play, and Jon always encouraged it in both movies. And then JB [Smoove] coming on, obviously that’s something he’s very good at. So, we have to play even more. I wonder whatย will end up in whatever unrelated footage there is. I know there’s some digital stuff going up online and of course, the extended cut. I’m curious to see what ended up in it.
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Spider-Man: Far From Homeย is now available digitally ahead of a physical home media release October 1st.
What was your favorite part duringย Far From Home? Share your thoughts in the comments below or by tweeting me at @AdamBarnhardtย to chat all things MCU!
Photo byย Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
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