Tobey Maguire stars in Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN
© Sony Pictures
Raimi plays head-games with Maguire on SPIDER-MAN
By: Christopher Allan SmithDate: Monday, April 29, 2002
Source: Calgary Sun
In a quick interview with the CALGARY SUN, SPIDER-MAN star Toby Maguire and director Sam Raimi thankfully side-stepped the normal boosterism of creatives hyping their next film, and let us in on how directors sometimes mess with the heads of actors to get the best performances.
It seems the spider playing the genetically engineered arachnid that gives Peter Parker his powers was actually a black widow made up to appear with the traditional Spidey blue/red coloring. In the famous origin scene, the spider bites Parker's hand, thus giving him his amazing abilities. Rami asked Maguire not to utilize a hand-double, but do the scene himself.
"The black widow spider was definitely the best visually," Raimi said, recalling his decision to go with the poisonous breed over other potentially castable spiders, "but we needed the red markings on it. We couldn't paint the spider or it would die so we had to make it a little costume...The spider wrangler told me if the black widow bit Tobey it wouldn't actually kill him, but it could make him ill. I didn't go into all those details with Tobey."
Raimi then instructed Maguire, "it was pretty safe as long as he kept his hand perfectly still... it's some of the best hand acting Tobey's ever done."
To which Maguire chimed in, "there was talk about there being some potential danger in using the spider and that it was a black widow, but if I recall correctly those discussions came after we'd shot the scene."
