Spider-Man: No Way Home sound designer Tony Lamberti shared in a new interview that they made a major last-minute change to the scene in which Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man saved Zendaya’s MJ.
“It was scored with a giant choir, but when Tom Rothman, head of the studio saw the playback, he told the room and everyone involved that we were selling ourselves short by not making it a real catch-your-breath moment,” Lamberti told Variety.
Lamberti further explained that the conversation led him and fellow sound designer Ken McGill to strip the music out completely during MJ’s fall, noting “We turned it into a sound design moment at the 11th hour.” Lamberti also suggested that timing the music perfectly made the save even more impactful, explaining, “Andrew catches her and they come to the ground. They have their little emotional moment, and then it’s back into music.”
Fans who’ve seen No Way Home will recall that Garfield’s version of Spider-Man saved MJ from falling to her death during a major fight near the end of the film. The scene was especially poignant considering that Garfield’s Spider-Man failed to save love interest Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) from a similar fall in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
For what it’s worth, Garfield recently admitted that scene, in particular, convinced him to return for No Way Home. “The main image that they pitched me was catching Zendaya, catching MJ,” he said at the time. “That was the first page I saw and I was kind of like, ‘There’s no way of not doing this,’ because that’s profound. That’s a profound moment, like an older brother saving his little brother from [the] same fate across the universe. If that portal hadn’t been opened up and my Peter Parker hadn’t been there at that moment, it’s arguable that he would have had the same fate.”
Garfield said in another interview, however, that Tobey Maguire’s involvement in the project also helped seal the deal. “Well, I was just waiting to see if Tobey was going to do it, and if Tobey was going to do it, then I was like, ‘Well, I have no choice,’ you know? I follow Tobey to the ends of the Earth. I’m a lemming for Tobey,” Garfield explained. “That was sincerely a big part of it when I was approached about it.”
Directed by Jon Watts from a script by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, No Way Home is in theaters now.
Source: Variety
About The Author
