Tobey Maguire Talks 'SpiderMan 2' Role

Was it harder establishing the character of Peter Parker in the first movie or continuing it in the second?
Maguire: It was more work in the first movie because I had to learn about it. As I said in interviews from the first movie, I hadn't read Spider-Man comics. I mean, I was familiar with Spider-Man and the Peter Parker character, but I didn't know it. So, for the first movie, I read the first four years of the comic book and did all the research on the characters and the relationships and the villains and all that stuff. So there was a lot more preparation getting to know the story and the people for the first movie. And it was much easier going into the second film.

Peter Parker seems to be a conflicted character. Is it hard to develop all that emotional turmoil on the set and then let it go of it at the end of the day?
Maguire: It is difficult sometimes to get into the head space of the character and to build up the conflict of what's going on for him. I don't, like, carry it home with me or anything like that.

I am constantly involved, though. When I start working on a movie like this, you can't help but think about it all the time when you go home. But it's not like I'm trapped in his conflicts. I'm just thinking about the relationships or what can I do and make it better.

The trick is to stay relaxed and energized throughout a work day so those emotionals can be accessible to you when you're called upon. Because so much of the time you're just sitting around waiting, and the hardest part is just to stay open and ready at any time. They go, "OK, Tobey, we need you. Here's your closeup. Now's the important moment of the movie. Go!"

And Sam (Raimi, director) will do that stuff to me, too. Sam is awesome. He'll say like, "OK, I hope you're prepared to be better than you've ever been in your life." But he does that almost every scene.

And talk between you and Sam about part three?
Maguire: Yeah. I think we're doing it. I've actually seen a graph of the timeline of when we're supposedly have to have everything -- the script being written at this time, pre-production, production and release date. They already have it all planned out.

And Sam has given me a version of what he is thinking for the third movie. And I can tell you guys the whole storyline now. (laughs). Who's the villain? I won't say anything.

When I read the comics books, Doc Ock was always my favorite villain for the movies. I also like Sandman. I'd think he'd be a really cool villain.