Andrew Garfield Says He Lost This Role Because He Wasn't Attractive Enough
Andrew Garfield is getting real about the struggles of being an actor. The 38-year-old is currently enjoying the best spell of his career, thanks to his heart-wrenching role as "Rent" creator Jonathan Larson in Netflix's "tick, tick...BOOM!," which has garnered him critical acclaim (via Rotten Tomatoes). Of course, Garfield had steadily ascended to A-list talent a decade prior, having starred in "The Social Network" and "The Amazing Spider-Man," per IMDb. Garfield reprised his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," which is currently breaking box office records as one of the highest-grossing films of all time, according to Variety.
In an interview with The Wrap, Garfield said that misleading the public about his involvement in "Spider-Man: No Way Home" was fun. "It was stressful, I'm not gonna lie. It was rather stressful, but also weirdly enjoyable," he said. "There were moments where I was like, 'God, I hate lying.' I don't like to lie, and I'm not a good liar, but I kept framing it as a game. And I kept imagining myself purely as a fan of that character, which is not hard to do." While Garfield got to play Peter Parker/Spider-Man three times in his career, there was a significant role that he missed out on early in his career, and he's revealed why that audition failed.
Andrew Garfield did not have the right look for a role
When he was just getting started in Hollywood, Andrew Garfield was passed on for the role of Prince Caspian in the "Chronicles of Narnia" film series. During a resurfaced interview with Entertainment Tonight (via Variety) in 2017, the actor revealed that he was rejected in favor of actor Ben Barnes.
"I remember I was so desperate. I auditioned for Prince Caspian in 'The Chronicles of Narnia' and I thought, 'This could be it, this could be it,'" Garfield said of his early struggles as an actor in Hollywood. "And that handsome, brilliant actor Ben Barnes ended up getting the role. I think it was down to me and him, and I remember I was obsessed."
At the time, Garfield sought to clarify his rejection with his agent, asking her why he wasn't chosen. Noting that his agent "broke under [his] incessant nagging," she finally told Garfield, 'It's because they don't think you're handsome enough, Andrew.' " Garfield eventually accepted his fate and conceded that "Ben Barnes is a very handsome, talented man," and said, "[Barnes] did a beautiful job" with the trilogy (via Variety).
Considering that Garfield has just won his first Golden Globe Award for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture" for "tick, tick...BOOM!," per Buzzfeed News, it seems like he didn't need Narnia at all.