Alden Ehrenreich has had a pretty impressive career, and he’s only 36. Between playing a young Han Solo to working with the likes of the Coen Brothers, Christopher Nolan, Woody Allen and Francis Ford Coppola, a lot has gone right for him. However, I just found out he also went up for Spider-Man way back when. This week he recalled his audition story, and why he thinks he “blew” it. All I have to say is: oof!
So often we hear about the success stories of Hollywood, so honestly this is sort of a refreshing story to hear. As Ehrenreich remembers it:
Yes, I went up for I think it’s that I went up for the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man…. I remember him coming walking in when I was walking out.
That would have been around 2010, when Ehrenreich had just started his career in Hollywood. From what we’ve heard from the auditions for The Amazing Spider-Man in the past, it featured some stiff competition. Josh Hutcherson was in the mix, along with Logan Lerman reportedly being on the shortlist. Joe Jonas has also talked about auditioning for the movie, too. Ultimately, though, it was Garfield who landed his dream role.
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When Ehrenreich shared the audition story with Josh Horowitz, he admitted he didn’t really want to play Peter Parker because of where he was at “internally” at the time. He also said that at the time he was auditioning for it, it seemed to be “the same story” as Tobey Maguire’s version to him. Here’s what he said about the audition itself:
I’m not suggesting that I would have gotten the role. I think Andrew Garfield is one of the best actors in my generation, easily. He’s incredible, and I’m sure he would have gotten it anyway. But I showed up woefully unprepared for that in a way that I would never do later. Like, I was 22, I think, or 21, and I kind of showed up not memorized and got there and there was a full set. There was a scene with 10 actors having dinner, and they were off book, and I was not. So if I did have a chance for that, then I think I blew that up.
When the Weapons actor reflects on the audition, he doesn’t sound regretful, though. He pointed out that getting really famous at the age of 22 “would have been a really bad idea.” He has much preferred having a “very gradual” rise to fame instead. As he added:
I think I also felt that it wasn’t my role and that it wasn’t right for me. I didn’t want to do it.
Instead, Ehrenreich went on to do movies like Beautiful Creatures, Blue Jasmine and Hail, Caesar! in his early twenties. 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story was the big moment when he became more recognizable, and he was 26 at the time. And he did actually join the MCU for Ironheart last year!
As of late, the actor has been on a winning streak of movies as well. He was in Best Picture winner Oppenheimer, arguably the best horror movie of last year, Weapons, and his new movie now in theaters, A Talent For Murder, has him working with Helen Mirren. Plus, as we look to the future, he’s going to be in Miami Vice ‘85 with Michael B. Jordan, Austin Butler, Danny Ramirez, John Leguizamo, Walton Goggins and Haley Lu Richardson.
While it may look like Alden Ehrenreich missed out by not being prepared for his Spider-Man audition on paper, it sounds like it all worked out as it should, and he’s perhaps even grateful he didn’t get it.