Emma Stone Discusses "Modernizing" Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man
Posted 06.30.12 by Ryan
The upcoming adaptation of The Amazing Spider-Man won't be the first theatrical representation of Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker's first love from the Marvel comic books (prior to Mary Jane Watson and with apologies to Betty Brant), as Bryce Dallas Howard played the character in 2007's Spider-Man 3, the final installment in director Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. A few years later, Emma Stone is playing the blonde-haired object of Parker's affection in the upcoming reboot, which takes Parker back to high school and his radioactive spider-bite beginnings. Talking with THR before the movie's Los Angeles premiere, Stone admitted that her version of Gwen, as well as the reboot itself, will be very different from the trilogy that ended five years ago.
We go from the very beginning, when he was orphaned and all through his first love, who we met her in Spider-Man 3, but this is a very different version of Gwen, so going through all of that and Dr. Connors as the Lizard, there's a lot in this one.
Modernizing [Gwen] was a major thing because she was, you know, around almost 50 years ago, so that was a big element and all of those things that aren't necessarily happening in comics books like tense quiet moments between two teenagers who are falling in love. Those kind of things were, you know, what we tried to bring to it.
While The Amazing Spider-Man re-examines the origins of Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), the impact of Gwen Stacy on Parker's life took place later in the comic book chronology when Stacy died after the Green Goblin threw her off a bridge. While it would seem that Stacy's fate won't be dealt with until, possibly, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, though Stone admitted to Collider that Stacy's death was a huge reason for her accepting the role in the first place.
That was in the front of my mind, actually. That was what made me go 'I want to play this part.' It's just such an incredible stamp on pop culture history and such an incredible choice for Marvel. And I really found that story so fascinating — that effect on Peter and how he moves forward with that knowledge. So that's right up there even still.
Even though The Amazing Spider-Man has yet to hit theaters, its sequel already has a release date set, which Stone pronounced as "bizarre."
[It's] bizarre because you know you have to shoot by a certain date in order to make the release date which is something that I've never experienced before. I've never experienced so much as a sequel, much less one that's, like, on a time frame already. It's kind of interesting and a little bit daunting, but I mean I'm excited for this next go at it.
Of course, things could drastically change course if The Amazing Spider-Man fails at the box office on July 3rd. Until then, here's the THR interview below.