Emma Stone returns to the big screen as Gwen Stacy in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” out this Friday May 2.
In this sequel Gwen and Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) have a tumultuous relationship and are at a crossroads now that they have graduated from high school.
Read on to see what Emma had to say about working on the film.
How did you develop the comedy in Gwen’s relationship with Peter Parker. It reminded me of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.
For the most part, a lot of it was in the script this time because the writers had seen the first movie, so they knew what our dynamic was. But Marc has always kept it very open and it’s always been a pretty solid environment to improvise and play around and kind of find it as we go, so it was a combination of factors of those things.
Talk about Gwen’s emotional progression in the sequel. She has a lot to deal with.
Yes definitely. And I think because of her father dying in the first movie, she’s much clearer and much more mature at the beginning of this next one. She knows she wants to go off to college and she knows what she wants to do with her life and Peter is pretty tortured and so their relationship is going through very emotional ups and downs and I think they’re trying to come to some type of clarity between the two of them.
What do you think we see in Peter and Gwen’s relationship in this movie that we didn’t see in the last one?
There’s more solidity to Gwen in this movie where she’s very clear eyed about what she wants out of the relationship and what she wants out of her life and Peter is coming and going all the time. So I think you maybe see the core stability of Gwen and her influence in Peter’s life in a way that maybe wasn’t as present in the last one.
Do you see your portrayal of Gwen as a role model for an academically-minded, strong-willed teenage girl?
Yeah absolutely because she’s not staying behind to wait around and see what her boyfriend is going to decide. She’s making her own decisions. And again I think that sort of feeling that comes with losing someone that you love that’s close to you, all of sudden … your awareness that life is short no matter how long you live tends to come into sharp focus, so I think she’s following her destiny whether it’s Peter’s destiny or not and hoping that he can figure out how to work into the balance of that. So yeah absolutely I would say she’s a role model just in the sense that she’s a modern woman who’s making her own way in the world and not just waiting around for a guy.
Where do you think Gwen gets her strength from?
I go back to her father a lot, but he was the chief of police, so he was saving the city, so she understands I think that heroic impulse. And I think she has that also in her because she’s going to school for medicine and obviously she wants to save people in the best way that she can, which is with her intelligence. She’s a wonderful student and has a great mind for science and so she’s using that gift.
Can you speak about working with Jamie Foxx in the elevator scene and getting to know him on the press tour?
Well that was the only scene that we really had together … he’s the man who’s good at everything, so he comes onto the set and he’s making everybody laugh and then he’s DJ-ing and then he’s dancing and then he’s doing stand-up and seems to be good at everything. The other day we went to Sirius Radio to do a cast interview and I thought we were going to be interviewed by a Sirius Radio show host and then all of a sudden it was Jamie asking us questions In The Foxxhole, which his Sirius radio station and then I was like ‘What the F-ck? You have a radio station?” He does not ever stop. It never stops, it’s another thing that he’s excellent at, so it was really fun.
In an interview you mentioned taking a biology class and actually being interested in science, so how much of that did you bring to the role?
Well when we first started shooting this movie last year, I was talking to a guy that they had known through production who works at Columbia and he sat on the phone with me for about three or four hours and I was getting ready to go take some classes at Columbia just to learn more about it. She’s learning about molecular medicine, so it gets pretty intense. And I have a GED. So I was on the phone with him and he was explaining to me how the brain works and I was like ‘Ohhhh Kaaay’ and taking notes and it was so much information and it was so interesting, but I realized that I wasn’t really fully understanding at a college level what was happening. And then I was working all throughout last year and learning things for other movies so no I haven’t been able to get any biology tutoring yet, but I have some down time now and I was thinking about taking some classes this summer or tutoring or things because yeah I want to look more into biology. There’s sort of an innate interest and connection that I have to it and I think I would have absolutely loved it in school even though I don’t understand math really. So I think that component is difficult if you want to be involved in science.
It looked like you were drawing from that interest and curiosity in science for your performance.
Well that interest and curiosity is huge, but Gwen in this movie is it’s also a different phase. She’s now looking at grid specs and it has to do a lot with electricity, which she’s understanding. I think that was also kind of cool to expand what she’s learning about as an intern to Oscorp. But thank you for saying that.
What did you love about shooting in New York? “Spider-Men” is a New York tale.
I can’t believe we didn’t shoot the first one in New York, it just feels like this is meant to be, this is home. It was great, we were shooting all over the city and there are people who come from far and wide to watch Spider-manand see him in the streets. And Andrew, dressed as Spiderman, played basketball with the kids and we got to do some things around New York City and it was really great. There was also a recreation of Times Square on a back lot in Queens, which was one of the most surreal experiences in my life. The TKTS and everything. It was crazy.
Can you talk about the importance that you guys felt of bringing some levity and joy to the relationship? How did that play into the overall tone of the film?
I think what Peter and Gwen bring out in each other, you see why they are so drawn to each other because of that joyful spark that happens between them, because they’re both going through really hard times in life. And they’re able to find this levity with each other even if it’s that kind of tenuous thing that’s happening right now because they’re going through so much individually. I think it’s important because otherwise it would be just so bogged down.
Did you talk with Marc Webb about bringing some joy to their relationship despite the challenges that they face?
A lot of that was in the script … we’re breaking up, we’re apart for a year, we’re just seeing each other again. So a lot of the things that you see, are reuniting moments, the moment in Union Square, which I think probably has the most levity. Just seeing someone for the first time in a year, that you really love, and the feelings that come with that, no matter what’s happened between you, if you love somebody, and they bring that out in you, it’s brought out that much more after having not seeing them in all that time. It’s one of the beautiful things about Gwen and Peter and why it’s so devastating what happens, because they sort of seem like a perfect match, with all the hardship, they really get each other and I think are a really wonderful support system for each other. They make each other laugh.
Did you walk in knowing what you wanted to do in each scene? Or were they many takes with different tones?
For most scenes, it was pretty clear what we wanted to do. The break up scene went through a couple different tones, there were some where I was just bawling, saying “I break up with you!” Mark was coming up to me saying “Gwen is stable, she’s the strong one. She’s not freaking out here.” I had a couple takes that were that way … The rest of it was more clear cut, I think we felt like we understood what was happening for the rest of the story.
What was your reaction to what happens to Gwen throughout the story when you first read it?
I knew. I had a feeling ahead of time of what was going to occur. I didn’t know how or when, but I had an inkling. I loved it, when I read the script, I thought the way they got to it was so beautiful, and after the valedictorian speech … I sort of wish that it wasn’t so tortured between Gwen and Peter, sort of wish that they had more time together and that relationship could be explored … I wished for more of that, but other than that, I thought it was really beautifully done and it felt right in some way.
Why do you think people keep coming back to these super hero movies?
I think there’s a combination of factors, which is seeing something so big and visually exciting on screen is fun and it usually comes out in the summer and it’s hot, and you want to go into the theater and have a removed experience, and feel like you’re escaping a little bit. I think people love heroes, they either want to be a hero or they feel like they need a hero depending on what kind of day they’re going through. I think mythology is a big part of it, too, we’ve always loved stories of things that are bigger than us that are kind of metaphors for these experiences that we have as human beings and that’s sort of what these heroes are, all of them are like a different Greek god or something.
What do you think is this “Spider-man” series’ mark on the superhero genre?
Superhero movies in general seem to be getting more and more human as time goes on, and this one is an example of that. I think that Andrew’s Peter Parker is an incredibly relatable and emotional, diverse, interesting character that sets himself apart from other superheroes that I’ve seen. You really feel for him throughout his journey and the fact that he’s a teenage boy adds a big element of relatability to it for everybody of any age. His personal relationships, the love story, the relationship with Aunt May, all of that lends itself to caring a lot more about the guy underneath the suit, I think in those big action sequences. I would just hope that the heart of the story would be big draw.
What do you think makes Gwen and Peter complement each other so well?
There’s something magical in their connection, they obviously have similar interests, they’re both science minded, and they love to learn and to invent. Peter Parker is a pretty great amateur inventor, he comes up with web shooters and all – a whole bunch of nifty gadgets. I think they share that, but they also have a similar sense of humor, they also seem to just get each other in a way that’s undefinable and magical no matter what the circumstances are. There is that sort of indefinable thing that is love in between them.
Did you go back and read the old comics to get a sense of what the audience might be expecting?
Yes, I read back through the old comics, especially Issue 121. There was this compilation book they did called “The Death of Stacys” which I had read early on, obviously with Captain Stacy dying in the first movie leading into this. Yeah, I read it and saw it, it’s a great story and I’m happy that we got to modernize Gwen because this happened in the early 70s so we were able to update the character, but still follow that same arc.
