Andrew Garfield Once Used Bruce Lee as Inspiration to Get into Shape for ‘The Amazing Spiderman’
To become Spider-Man, actor Andrew Garfield had to go through an intense training regimen to do the wallcrawler justice. But as a reference, Garfield used legendary action star Bruce Lee to get an idea on how to shape his physique.
Andrew Garfield had to get back into shape to put back on the Spider-Man costume
As some know, Andrew Garfield made his return as Spider-Man in the recent MCU film No Way Home. But fitting back into the spandex was a point of worry for Garfield, who wasn’t exactly in the best physical condition.
“I had to get in shape,” Garfield said on Happy Sad Confused. “I was like, no one wants to see an old, fat guy in a Spider-Man costume.”
Fortunately, Garfield was able to achieve his desired physique through hard work.
“I still fit, bruh,” he said.
Bruce Lee helped Andrew Garfield get into shape for ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’
No Way Home wasn’t the only time Garfield had to get into shape to play Spider-Man. In the first film, The Social Network star had to undergo intense training to look like a superhero. According to Amazing Spider-Man stunt coordinator Andy Armstrong, Garfield had a long way to go to change his body.
“When we first met him, he was quite nerdy, a skinny guy: a young kid, really,” Armstrong told MTV News. “He wanted to get genuine strength. Our only reference point when approached [by producers] to help create the character was an early ’60s picture of Bruce Lee’s torso. That was the form they’d love this character to be based on.”
Armstrong would then instruct Garfield on what he felt they needed to do to build Garfield his lean physique.
“I showed this [photo] to Andrew, and brought him a trainer who told him he could do this Hollywood-style: bulk up, and six weeks into training [he’d] have huge chest, shoulders and arms, but no real strength,” Armstrong continued. “Andrew and the trainer went the other way. They stripped him down to probably around 100 pounds, then built him back up in core strength. He was the same size when he started, but his strength was incredible.”
As far as Armstrong was concerned, the results paid off.
“It was a fantastic moment,” he recalled. “One of my riggers just said, ‘Wow. Look at him!’ [He became] that picture. It was that ’60s picture of Bruce Lee’s body, nothing but sinew and muscle. He realized this as well. He became an inch and a half taller, just in posture.”
Andrew Garfield created a music playlist for his Peter Parker to help him through workouts
Achieving these physical results meant that Garfield had to spend a lot of time in the gym.
“For four months prior we did – don’t get too excited – seven hours a day, for four months,” Garfield told Total Film (via Digital Spy). “But two hours was body work and the next three or four hours was…the harness stuff, gymnastics, parkour training, wire work and all that.”
To further immerse himself into the character, the Silence actor created a playlist of what he thought Peter Parker would listen to.
“The music I was listening to was linked to what I wanted the character to be, the feeling I wanted the character to have,” Garfield said. “I was listening to a lot of Arcade Fire, I was listening to a lot of Sleigh Bells, Odd Future collective… those guys are crazy. And then some more melancholy stuff, like a lot of Ryan Adams and Bright Eyes, and a lot of hip-hop, like Nas and The Pharcyde. An eclectic array of stuff. A lot of modern stuff.”
