TASM: Marc Webb Says He Knew Andrew Garfield Was Right For The Role Based On How He Ate A Burger!

Matt McDaniel: For you, what was the moment when you just knew that Andrew was the right guy to play Peter Parker?

Mark Webb: We tested a lot of really talented, wonderful young actors. And there was a moment when -- I mean this sounds ridiculous, but it's true. We were doing a scene that's not in the movie, where he was eating a cheeseburger and telling Gwen to like calm down or to -- trying to put her at ease, while he is eating food. And the way he ate this food -- it was such a dumb task -- such a dumb independent activity that you give to an actor to do, and he did it — [Laughs] -- I just felt like we were in a diner. We were in the back of the soundstage and I felt like there's something in the way he embodied and committed to that really tiny minutia -- I just hadn't seen before. I can't explain exactly what I felt like it worked, but that was it.

And then beyond that, I just felt he was a new face. That people didn't have a lot of baggage [with him]. And there was this — he sort of checked all the boxes. And there was this humor that he had and that he can do, and there was this emotional weight that he can do, but there's also a physical capability that he can do. I think the moment was just watching that over and over again. There was something just compelling about his behavior, his physical behaviors that I thought people would really react to. I think that there's the language of the script, which is words, often in dialogues. And then there's the behavior that those words have to emerge from. And he's a master of understanding of what's going on underneath the surface.