Andrew Garfield grew 'really horrible beard' and wore 'f---ed up clothes' to deal with Spider-Man fame

Garfield had plans to confront the paparazzi.

Andrew Garfield looks better these days for a reason.

"With all the Spider-Man stuff, I kind of had this allergic response like, 'I know I'm not ready for this,' in a way," Garfield, who portrayed the web-slinging superhero and his alter ego Peter Parker in several of films, told The Iron Claw actor Harris Dickinson on a recent edition of The A24 Podcast.

Garfield said "'I know I'm not ready for this level of scrutiny,' so 'I'm gonna grow a really horrible beard, and I'm gonna wear really f—ed up clothes, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna chase down paparazzi and try and talk to them.'"

After the last part, Garfield laughed at the mid-20s version of himself. He had a plan, though, to ask the photographers, "Why are you doing this?"

He remembered being "really scared."

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"I think I was really like, 'I don't, I don't wanna lose the thing that, the thing that matters, which is the self...," the British-American actor said.

Then he joked that he sounded like "a complete wanker" saying that.

Garfield first took on the role for 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man, and he reprised it in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014. In 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Holland had taken over the part, but Garfield and another former Spidey, Tobey Maguire, made memorable cameos.

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The We Live in Time star also looked back on one of his earlier films, the 2007 political thriller Lions for Lambs, in which he costarred with acting heavyweights Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, and Tom Cruise.

While Garfield said all his scenes were with Redford, he had good things to say about Cruise, whom he met on the press tour.

"He was just nothing but kind and lovely and funny," Garfield said.