Tobey Maguire went the extra mile to convince producers that he was the perfect guy for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. Several actors from Leonardo DiCaprio to Yellowstone‘s Wes Bentley were considered for the role, but Raimi was impressed with Maguire’s performance in The Cider House Rules. The studio didn’t think Maguire was the adrenaline-pumping superhero for the film, but The Great Gatsby actor proved them wrong.
First, he showed off his acting abilities which impressed the studio. He later demonstrated his action skills, displaying his well-toned body in the process, which alleviated any doubts that the studio had about his abilities. He went on to become one of the most beloved portrayals of the Marvel superhero.
Tobey Maguire Put In Dedicated Effort to Build His Body to Land The Role Of Spider-Man
Sam Raimi was convinced in his mind that Tobey Maguire was his Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Sony, however, was not sold on the actor as he did not meet their expectations with his physicality. Raimi was not ready to give up on Maguire and went ahead and shot a few scenes with him as Spider-Man. Maguire was asked about this particular information while appearing on The Howard Stern Show.
Maguire confirmed that when the studio wasn’t convinced, Raimi shot an audition tape with him in a room and sent it to the studio. They took their sweet time to see it, which Maguire admitted hurt his ego a bit. After seeing his performance, the studio next wanted to see whether he could do an action scene. Maguire shared on The Howard Stern Show:
In Sam’s mind I think I was the guy but the studio wasn’t sold on me. It was a bit of process. We shot an audition tape in a room and it was sent to them. Took them a couple of days to see it and even if it rubbed off my ego a little bit. But then they saw the tape and they were like, ‘We know he can act let’s see if he can do an action scene’.
The Seabiscuit actor shared that they did a proper action sequence where he wore a unitard that showed off his defined muscles. He wanted to show the studio that he was in pretty good shape and therefore stripped off the unitard. He did the action scene topless and finally seemed to impress the studio completely. He shared with Howard Stern:
So we did a proper action scene and I wore a blue unitard which compresses the muscle so you could see the definition and I was in pretty good shape so I peeled the thing down, tied it around my waist and did the action scene topless.
He also revealed his routine which helped him achieve the physicality of Spider-Man. His ripped body was a result of five months of continuous workout and diet. He revealed that he did the workouts 6 days a week, up to 4 hours a day. He shared that he had a nutritionist and ate 6 meals a day during this time.
Tobey Maguire Signed a $4M Deal Which Kicked Off His High-Paying Spider-Man Days
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Tobey Maguire was paid a respectable $4 million to play the titular superhero in Sam Raimi’s first film. But when he returned for the sequel, he negotiated a much higher salary owing to the massive success of his first film. For Spider-Man 2, he received a $17.5 million fixed salary and a 5% cut from the film’s box office profits.
His Spider-Man 3 fixed salary was slightly lower at $15 million, but he negotiated a better backend cut at 7.5%. It is estimated that his total pay from the trilogy amounted to $75 million, which is also his current reported net worth. According to StyleCaster, both Maguire and Andrew Garfield were paid $1 million each to appear in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The Spider-Man trilogy is now available for streaming on Disney+.
