“The Uprising” co-stars Jamie Bell and Andrew Garfield stopped by Monday night’s episode of “Watch What Happens Live!” and opened up for the first time about their experiences auditioning against each other to play Spider-Man.
During a Q&A segment, one member of the “Watch What Happens Live!” studio audience asked Bell if he and Garfield had ever talked about the fact that they were both in the running to play Spider-Man after Tobey Maguire’s tenure as the character ended. Garfield ended up landing the role and went on to play Marvel’s wise-cracking webhead in 2012’s “The Amazing Spider-Man,” 2014’s “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” and 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”
Much to the surprise of “WWHL” host Andy Cohen, Bell revealed that he and Garfield had actually started talking about their shared Spider-Man experience for the first time just a few seconds before the audience member asked their question. Cohen confirmed that he had heard Garfield and Bell mention it during a commercial break but asked, “That can’t have been the first time you discussed it?”
“I think it was, yeah,” Bell replied. He went on to note that there was one brief moment during the Spider-Man audition process when his and Garfield’s shared competition for the role was indirectly acknowledged.
“There was a dinner while [Sony] were kind of [still] deciding,” Bell revealed. “There was a big table with a lot of people and a salt shaker fell off the table and me and Andrew both kind of reached for it, and everyone was like, ‘Whoa, spidey senses!’”
Laughing, Garfield confirmed that he remembered the moment. For his part, Bell took the opportunity to just further praise his “Uprising” co-star.
“I think it was pretty obvious it was gonna be [Andrew],” Bell said. “But I mean, they clearly chose the right guy. He’s unbelievable. He’s a phenomenal actor.”
