After months of rumors and a stressful guessing game, Spider-Man: No Way Home managed to deliver the surprise returns of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Both actors had dealt with the rumors in their own way, but Garfield had a tougher time dodging them as he continued to work during the height of some of the biggest leaks.

Garfield appeared on many late-night shows, where he routinely denied his involvement in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Garfield's coyness managed to convince many people that he was telling the truth, which resulted in a satisfying surprise in the theater. Garfield has now spoken out about what lying to the world felt like, and it's exactly what one would expect.

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In speaking with The Wrap, Garfield admitted that lying to the world about his involvement in Spider-Man: No Way Home was taxing. "It was stressful, I'm not gonna lie," Garfield said. "It was rather stressful but also weirdly enjoyable." Garfield continued to express the conflicting emotions he experienced while attempting to mislead the world but mentioned that he knew the payoff for fans of Spider-Man would be worth it. “I placed myself in that position of, well, what would I want to know? Would I want to be toyed with? Would I want to be lied to? Would I want to be kept on my toes guessing? Would I want to discover it when I went to the theater?” Garfield asked.

Jaime Foxx and Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Garfield went on to answer his own question. “I would want the actor to do an incredibly good job at convincing me he wasn’t in it,” Garfield said. “And then I would want to lose my mind in the theater when my instinct was proven right.” For many fans, this is exactly what Garfield was able to make happen. His global game of Werewolf (a game where a few people are selected as the werewolves and must conceal their identity to the others) resulted in what would become an emotional and nostalgic return to the screen for both Garfield and Maguire.

Spider-Man: No Way Home has already earned the impressive milestone of becoming yet another Marvel Studios film to be one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. As narratively beautiful and equally heartbreaking as Spider-Man: No Way Home is, part of its success can be attributed to the rumors surrounding it, particularly in regard to Garfield and Maguire. Garfield admitted that withholding the truth gave many people the ultimate theater experience. “It obviously gave people a big thrill in the theater, and what more do you want from a theater experience than a thrill?” he asked.

Garfield admitted that there were moments when he struggled with keeping the Spider-Man: No Way Home secret. “I worked so hard to keep the secret that I was in Atlanta shooting,” Garfield said. “All these leaks were happening, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, guys, what the hell is going on? I’m working so hard here to stay secret, and then here’s an image of me with Tobey!’ And they were like, ‘No, no, we’re gonna keep it quiet.’” The response led Garfield to continue on with denying his involvement in No Way Home, and given the success the film has seen, it’s difficult to stay mad at him for keeping the secret. Without it, the viewing experience for many Spider-Man fans would’ve been much different.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is now in theaters.

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Source: The Wrap