During a recent podcast appearance, the actor alfred molina revealed which scene of Spider-Man: No Way Home it made him cry. Let us remember that Molina was able to play Doctor Octopus again in this film 15 years after the first time in Spider-Man 2.
Molina revealed her love for the scene where Andrew Garfield punches Tobey Maguire on the back, calling it a perfect little moment, but also shared her interest in finding out how much of it was improvised.
Yes, it was brilliant. I’d love to know, I don’t know Tobey or Andrew well enough to phone them and ask, but I’d love to know how much of it was improvised. When I saw the movie, the audience just loved it, it was just perfect. It was a perfect little moment.
The British actor described the emotional reunion scene with Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker, while sharing how the two joked that they might be too old for this.
I got a little excited, actually. There was a scene where I was suddenly running into Tobey, and he was like, ‘How is he, doctor?’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s good to see you. I started crying at that scene. I kind of said, ‘Oh shit, this is such a moment.’ And it was lovely. And it was, of course, a pleasure to see Tobey again. We laughed on set about this. I think I said something like, ‘I’m terrified he might be too old for this.’
The interviewer went on to ask if Molina intended to replicate his performance of Spider-Man 2 2004, and the actor revealed that this was not really his goal. Molina claimed to have initially questioned how he would return years after his character’s death, before recalling a conversation he had with producer Avi Arad while filming his 2004 debut, in which he told her that no one dies in this universe.
No, it wasn’t really that. My first question was, ‘How are you going to bring me back? I mean, I died. She died ‘. And then I remembered a conversation I had with Avi Arad, who was running Marvel at the time, and was overseeing production with Sam Raimi. And I remember saying to Avi at that point, ‘Well, I guess once we’ve shot this scene, I think your choice of me is null and void.’ Because I had been signed up for two movies and I was like, ‘I’m dead, there’s no way I’m going to be in the second one. And he said, and I’ll never forget, he said, ‘Nobody dies in this universe.’
The actor went on to share how the director of Spider-Man: No Way HomeJon Watts, blew his mind as he explained the concept of what the multiverse is.
So he kept all his options open, and it turned out to be prophetic. So when I talked to Jon, I said, ‘So how are we going to… what are we going to do? Will I come back 17 years after my death? ?’. And he said, ‘No, we’re going to pick it up right before where you left off. Something is going to happen’. And then he started explaining all about how these different universes exist, and that just blew me away. The movie did the most extraordinary thing by uniting all these universes into a Multiverse. And I thought that was kind of exciting.
The interviewer wanted to highlight the film’s ability to surprise, also transferring the typical question that the public asks about “Who is your favorite Spider-Man?” to the screen itself.
That’s how it is. And I think in some way, in a sly, maybe indirect way, it’s almost also a commentary on all the wonderful magic of the movies themselves. The idea that you can ask the audience questions, as long as you pay them back with your creativity and entertainment, the audience’s ability to suspend their disbelief is endless. So these movies, when people say, ‘Oh, how can you do another one? How can they make another one of these movies?’ Well, it’s obvious because our imagination is infinite. And as long as you can introduce the audience to something that’s exciting and different and engages and intrigues them, you can go anywhere with that.