Shailene Woodley has recalled the unexpected phone call in which she learned that her scenes as Mary Jane Watson had been cut from 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, despite having already filmed the role alongside Andrew Garfield.
Woodley, a two-time Golden Globe nominee, revealed that she had shot three scenes with Garfield’s Peter Parker before being told, roughly a year later, that she would no longer appear in the film.
“Oh, we shot it. That was a fun phone call,” Woodley said in a recent interview, according to Deadline.
The actor recalled that being cast as Mary Jane had been a major career moment for her, particularly because Spider-Man was her favourite superhero and Mary Jane her favourite character growing up.
“I was cast as Mary Jane for Spider-Man, which was my dream. Oh my god, Spider-Man’s my favorite superhero, Mary Jane was my favorite character growing up. So, when I got it, I was like, ‘This is so exciting!'” she said.
Woodley said she and Garfield filmed three scenes together before she received the news that her character would not be part of the finished movie.
“And then, we filmed like three scenes together, me and Andrew Garfield. And then, like a year later, they were like, ‘So, you’re not in the movie anymore.’ And I was like, ‘What? What do you mean?'” she recalled.
According to Woodley, she was told the decision was linked to the number of new characters introduced in the film and the storyline involving Garfield’s Peter Parker and Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy.
“And they’re like, ‘We’ve introduced a lot of new characters in this last one, and we’re going to wait for whatever happens between [Emma Stone] and Andrew [Garfield],'” Woodley said.
“They were like, ‘Let’s wait for her to die, and then we’ll introduce Mary Jane.’ Which made sense, but then they didn’t make that film. So, there was no reintroduction,” she added.
Woodley acknowledged that she does not know whether that explanation fully reflected the circumstances behind her scenes being cut.
“That’s what I was told, but again, who knows what the truth is? I could have been terrible, and they were like, ‘We can’t do this,'” she said.
Garfield’s version of Spider-Man later returned to the big screen alongside Tom Holland and Tobey Maguire in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.
However, Garfield has previously dismissed speculation that he will reprise the role in Avengers: Doomsday, which is scheduled to hit theatres on December 18.
He has not completely ruled out returning as Spider-Man in another project.
Speaking last year, Garfield said he still loved playing the character but would want any potential comeback to take an unconventional direction.
“I really love playing Spider-Man. I would love to play the character again in some capacity, but I think it would have to be very weird,” Garfield said. “I think I would want to do something very strange.”
Source: Khaleej Times