When Marc Webb directed “The Amazing Spider-Man” in 2012, many audiences felt ambivalent. It had only been five years since Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 3,” so that seemed like a very swift turnaround time for a continuity reboot of a well-known superhero. Little did audiences know in 2012 that only two years would elapse between Webb’s 2014 sequel “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” and Anthony and Joe Russo’s “Captain America: Civil War,” which featured yet another rebooted version of Spider-Man. That meant there were three mainstream theatrical versions of Spider-Man in nine years. To put that in perspective, there were only three Indiana Jones movies from 1981 to 1989.
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That also meant there were three versions of Aunt May, Peter Parker’s long-suffering aunt who struggles to pay the bills and doesn’t know her nephew is Spider-Man. In Raimi’s “Spider-Man” films, Aunt May was played by Rosemary Harris. In “Civil War,” she was played by Marisa Tomei (who’s credited Robert Downey Jr. for her landing the role). In between them, in Webb’s “Amazing Spider-Man” films, May was played by Sally Field. It was unusual to get such a celebrated actor to play such a small role. Aunt May is important to the traditional Spider-Man narrative, but she doesn’t drive any of the theatrical Spider-Man stories, serving mostly as a feet-on-the-ground family member that Peter feels he must protect.
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Field might agree. In a 2016 interview with Howard Stern, Field picked apart her role in the “Amazing Spider-Man” films, stating that Aunt May isn’t very complex or rich. Indeed, no one in those movies seemed to be three-dimensional. She also admitted that she’s not really into superhero films, implying that such characters can’t really bring a lot to the table.
Sally Field thinks that Aunt May isn’t a very interesting character
In the Howard Stern interview, Field admitted that she took the role of Aunt May largely as a favor to her friend Laura Ziskin (who served as a producer on “The Amazing Spider-Man”). Ziskin, who died in 2011, founded Fogwood Films with Field in 1984, and the pair produced “Murphy’s Romance” together. Ziskin had also produced Raimi’s three “Spider-Man” movies, as well as films like Frank Oz’s “What Abut Bob?” and Gus Van Sant’s “To Die For.” Field, as it turns out, wouldn’t have thought to appear in “The Amazing Spider-Man” if Ziskin hadn’t been involved.
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Field also noted that it was easy to play Aunt May, as the character had so little complexity. Indeed, the whole movie was kind of thin in her eyes. “It’s really hard to find a three-dimensional character in it,” she explained. “You work it as much as you can, but you can’t put 10 pounds of s*** in a five-pound bag.”
Harsh. At the very least, Field said she loved acting opposite Andrew Garfield, who played Peter Parker in the film and has remained open about portraying Spider-Man again in the future. Garfield was, it seems, a generous scene partner, and Field found they responded to each other well. As Field put it:
“You have to try to make it as much of a logical performance as you can, and Andrew, under those circumstances, is such a lovely, lovely actor. We found the relationship in who we were, and that was fun.”
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Many Spider-Man fans have found plenty to criticize in Webb’s “Amazing Spider-Man” films, with some citing their strange re-characterization of Peter Parker as a cool skater kid (as well as the filmmakers’ need to explore the workings of Peter’s dead parents). Field merely felt the movie’s characters were flimsy. But she did her job; she doesn’t sleepwalk through either of Webb’s films.
