Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield made their names known in what is termed the coolest Spider-Man movie ever, The Amazing Spider-Man. Set a little different from Tobey Maguire’s original bunch of movies, it tells the story of the masked superhero and his first love in the comic books Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone.
As such, according to the La La Land actress, she was a little nervous about how their chemistry would be perceived in light of the iconic Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst duo. Especially, as Maguire’s movie featured the Spider-Man kiss, that is, the upside-down kiss which became a legend all in its own right.
According to Stone, she did not want to recreate that scene with Garfield in their movie, for one, she was not playing Mary Jane, and secondly, she wanted to try something new to leave their mark. Dunst herself has spoken on many accounts about just how difficult that scene was to shoot and how that was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing that even she might not be able to recreate. So, Emma Stone’s apprehension does not come as a surprise so to say.
Emma Stone’s The Amazing Spider-Man journey
The actress has been known to share her thoughts about her role in The Amazing Spider-Man in various interviews. Emma Stone mentioned on such an occasion how she initially wanted to play Mary Jane. However, after learning the character she’d be bringing to life, allegedly fell head over heels in love with her. Stone explained, “Because it is so incredibly epic and tragic. And Andrew is one of the best actors I’ve ever worked with. And I instantly knew how much I could learn from him. And that really, really drew me to, you know, that challenge.”
She also explained her unwillingness to incorporate the famous Spider-Man and Mary Jane kiss in her own movie saying, “Why would we do an upside-down kiss? I’m not Mary Jane. I’m Gwen Stacy in the Spider-Man film.” She wanted to create their own moments that would showcase her and Garfield’s chemistry in the movie. As she said, “New girl. New kiss. I wanted to do different kisses to make our mark.” Well, given the insane chemistry, Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield managed to form while working in the movie, this does not really come as a shock to many.
Kirsten Dunst’s concern about recreating the kiss like Emma Stone
Turns out, just like Emma Stone, Kirsten Dunst herself was apprehensive about recreating that very scene once again even though it was her own. In the Spider-Man sequel featuring Tobey Maguire and Dunst, there was a scene where they had to recreate that kiss, and according to Dunst, she was nervous about it. She felt that she didn’t want it to, “come off like, I don’t know, she’s marrying this guy and she’s trying, you know.” But thankfully once she saw the movie her worries lessened as she thought, “It was okay.” However, that’s not even half of it as she explained further the difficulties they had endured during the initial shooting of that scene.
According to her, she didn’t feel that it would be a very special kiss given the circumstances during the shooting. “Water was getting up his [Tobey Maguire’s] nose because of the rain, and then he couldn’t breathe in the Spider-Man suit, and then… And it just felt very late at night,” she added. However, the director Sam Raimi made her realize just how special he wanted that scene to be, “Even though it wasn’t necessarily feeling that way with Tobey hanging upside down.”
Later, though, when she watched the movie she realized just how futile it would be to try and recreate that and so they focused more on other elements to showcase the relationship between Mary Jane and Peter Parker. She noted that they thought, “If we try to outdo that kiss we’re just setting ourselves up for a disaster anyway.” As such, that scene remained in the history books with no other successor be it Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield or Tom Holland and Zendaya trying to ever pick it up and make it their own.
Source: Showbiz CheatSheet
