Tobey Maguire

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Tobey Maguire

When Tobey Maguire was first cast as Peter Parker, Spiderman in the Spider-man movie, die hard fans of Spiderman were aghast.
What?!?
That slight kid from Cider House Rules as.. Spiderman?
Hunky Freddy Prinze Jnr wanted that role. Heck, the studios were considering every other young star other than Tobey.

Sam Raimi stood by his decision and after 2 screen tests, Tobey got the role.

After the release of Spider-man, critics of Tobey Maguire have to admit that Tobey is perfect for that role. He portrays Peter Parker beautifully. As for the Spiderman superhero bit.. determined Maguire proved all his critics wrong. After 5 months of intensive workouts, he emerged totally buff. Filling out the skin tight superhero costume convincingly. Even doing some of his own very physical stunts. That slight boy, a vegetarian to boot transformed himself into a buff superhero. He definitely silenced his critics.

Actually, Sam Raimi, a true spiderman fan knew that for the film to work, you have to nail Peter Parker. Peter is the core of the Spiderman story. This is not the usual action hero casting. An empty shell of a Hollywood hunk that is big and hunky would not be convincing as the dork turned hero. On top of that, Spiderman is a complex character. You need a real actor. Someone with real talent. Someone who can portray Peter, the emotions he goes through convicingly, yet subtly.

Sam's wife saw Tobey Maguire in a movie and told Sam, who upon seeing Tobey's performance, knew he had found his Peter Parker.

Peter Parker has a good soul. A certain innocence about him. He is young. Boyish Tobey looked that part. Peter Parker is an outsider. A loner. Tobey's made a name for himself playing such roles.
When it comes to subtle but powerful performances, Tobey Maguire is it.

He exudes the emotions. Watching him perform is like watching someone really go through the emotions. I don't know how to put it in words. You have to see his performances for yourself. When the camera focuses on his face, it is like you can read the character's thoughts. His feelings. It is like he becomes the character he is playing. That, is a mark of a great actor.

Now, that is the kind of actor you need to make Spider-man a success.

In Spider-man, as Peter discovers his powers, you feel with him the sheer ecstacy he experiences, through Tobey's performance. The excitement, the sheer thrill of it all. During the most important moment to Spiderman comic book fans, where Uncle Ben tells Peter the famous line, With great power, come great responsibilities. That scene was perfect. No over acting or anything to spoil it. Done by both actors with the right touch. When he cries over his uncle's dead body, you want to cry with him. He draws you right into the story. He makes it work.

The bane of doing superhero movies is that if the actor is not careful, he could get typecast.

After Spider-man, he moved on to Sea Biscuit. Playing Red Pollard. A red hair, half blind jockey.
Guess what?
When you watch Seabiscuit, you see the story of Red Pollard, Charles Howard, Tom Smith and the little horse Seabiscuit. You see the trials they go through. When you watch Tobey's performance in that movie, you see the pain, the joy Red goes through. Not once do you see Spiderman on a horse.

Then, from a slight jockey (He lost weight to play the jockey convincingly), he bulked up again for Spider-man 2.

This time around, he gave an even better performance than in the original Spider-man. You can feel Peter Parker's pain through Tobey's performance.

A great actor is one who can make you see through his character's eyes, who can make you empathise, feel for and with the character he plays. That appears to be Tobey's specialty.

Tobey's story, or at least what we, the public know about it, is a very inspiring one. A real life rags to riches story.

Born in 1975. His parents divorced when he was almost 2 years old. He moved from place to place, from school to school, living with different relatives. His mom raised him as a single parent. They were perpetually broke. He had a rough childhood. He wanted to be a chef like his dad, but his mom scraped together $100 to bribe Tobey to study acting instead. Tobey took that up, eventually quit school to do acting full time. He started acting in TV commercials as a kid to bring in some much needed money, moved on TV roles and then the movies. Now, he is an A-list actor, earning millions for every movie he makes.

These are some of his works from 1989 until now.



Some interesting traits about Tobey in this day and age. He stays off cigarettes, stays off alcohol. He is focused on his work and is disciplined. A good role model for his many young fans.

He has moved on in his career to be a producer. He was the executive producer of Rock of Ages and of Seabiscuit. He is the producer for Whatever We Do and the 25th Hour

Other trivia: He is a vegetarian. He does yoga. He a good friend of Leonardo DiCarpio, whom he met at an audition for a TV series in 1990.

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