Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield Improvised in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ for Their on-Screen Relationship
Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield’s chemistry in The Amazing Spider-Man, though natural, didn’t come easy. Because of the nature of their characters’ relationship, Stone and Garfield had to do a lot of improvisation for the film.
Andrew Garfield looked forward to working with Emma Stone
Stone and Garfield ended up working together on The Amazing Spider-Man due to a simple screentest. Garfield was already cast as the Marvel superhero, so Stone just had to prove that she was the right choice for Garfield’s love interest.
“I went and did a screen test that was very elaborate,” Stone once told MTV News. “It was full hair and makeup and with the [director of photography] and different angles, and Andrew was there. We read a couple of scenes together. We did that scene at Oscorp — ‘Why are you here?’ — and a sad one.”
Garfield was more than grateful that Stone ended up getting the part thanks to the instant connection he and the co-star had.
“Obviously I was so happy that she got the role and decided to do it,” Garfield chimed in. “Those are the days I’d look forward to, you know? For Peter as well, because Peter goes through some horrible stuff in the movie. There’s some joy to be had when experiencing his first love.”
Emma Stone once shared she improvised a lot with Andrew Garfield to build their relationship in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’
Stone felt that her chemistry with Garfield was something that needed little work. The La La Land star believed that chemistry was something that couldn’t simply be developed. The pair simply had it.
“Well, I think the thing about chemistry is – I might be wrong, other people might disagree with me – but it’s kinda hard to build chemistry. To build a relationship is one thing, but chemistry is so…You either have that thing – that rapport, and you get each other – or you don’t,” she once said in an interview with Total Film.
Because of their chemistry, Stone and Garfield were trusted to improvise to build their onscreen relationship.
“And Marc [Webb – director] giving us the opportunity to improvise a lot was really beneficial for building that relationship, just because falling in love for the first time as those people is awkward and uncomfortable and you’re 17 and you’re finding your footing in that way, so it was nice to be able to build that,” she recalled.
Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield pranked each other on set
Stone and Garfield may have been focused on their roles, but more than anything the actors enjoyed themselves on set. The co-stars entertained themselves by pulling pranks on each other behind the scenes, which was partially inspired by Brad Pitt.
“We were just inspired because Jonah Hill and Brad Pitt had just done Moneyball, and Brad Pitt’s, like, a super-prankster and one of our make-up people had worked on Moneyball and she was like ‘Oh my god, you guys, you should hear about all the pranks’, and we were like, ‘We wanna do pranks too,'” Stone said.
Some of those pranks included the Cruella actor stopping her co-star from being able to enter his trailer.
“I think Andrew and I pulled a couple of pranks on each other like parking my car in front of his trailer so he couldn’t get in, and then he put my car on one of the soundstages with a note on it that said ‘Move your car, asshole!’ In the middle of the stage,” she recalled.
