Tobey Maguire might have learned to throw a punch for his Spider-Man movies, but how
did he learn to boogie?
What's the story with Maguire's supposed back injury before filming "Spider-Man 2?"
This is Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man fitness journey.
Tobey Maguire went through a nearly unbelievable amount of training to portray Spider-Man,
but he didn't join the production without any fighting and fitness experience whatsoever.
After production had wrapped, Maguire spoke with Howard Stern about how he became a part
of the first "Spider-Man" film.
According to Maguire, director Sam Raimi wanted him for the lead role from the very beginning,
but the executives at Sony needed a little bit more persuading before they would believe
that he could convincingly play the wall-crawler.
Even after sending in an audition tape, there were some doubts about whether or not he was
athletic enough, or if he would believably be able to fight off New York's bad guys like
a flesh-and-blood superhero.
"They saw the tape and they said 'well, we know he can act, we wanna see him do an action
scene.'"
Amid those doubts from executives, Sam Raimi stepped in to help Maguire secure the role.
For the sake of demonstrating his capabilities, the two of them filmed a short video that
featured Maguire performing some general fighting moves and taking out some anonymous villains
while wearing a blue unitard.
Maguire wanted to show not only that he could handle some intense fight scenes, but also
that his body was convincingly muscular.
He wasn't too far away from looking the part already, so he pulled the unitard down around
his waist to show off the muscles he already had.
The tape did the trick, and shortly after sending it in Maguire was finally approved
to join the project and start his superhero training.
Tobey Maguire might have come into "Spider-Man" with some fighting capabilities and some muscle
definition, but that didn't exclude him from the task of going through a grueling amount
of training.
Maguire said that prior to filming the first "Spider-Man" movie, he spent five months training
six days a week to get into shape.
Every day, Maguire worked out for four hours, lifting weights and training his body to move
like someone with superhuman strength and agility.
Maguire explained in an interview with cinema.com before the movie's release,
"For someone like me who wasn't exactly a fitness freak, it was a chance of a lifetime
to work with top trainers in different disciplines to get in great shape.
I'm going to try to stay buff as long as I can, but it takes a lot of discipline and
staying away from your favorite junk food."
The amount of time and effort required to maintain that Spider-Man body would be too
much for anyone other than the most dedicated gym rat, but the actor was able to get there
for the short window of time he needed to for the sake of the movie.
Maguire can hardly be blamed for later admitting that he left his grueling training regimen
by the wayside when the film was finally done.
"You're not Superman, you know."
Tobey Maguire's primary trainer on the "Spider-Man" movies was celebrity trainer Gregory JouJon-Roche
of Holistic Fitness.
JouJon-Roche described his method as focusing on both body and mind for the stars that he
trained.
"It's about getting in touch with yourself, knowing your limitations, knowing how your
body works."
Of course, the training also ensured that Maguire looked the part, too.
Of the famous shirtless shot, JouJon-Roche said,
"I call it the champagne shot.
That was day one of shooting.
We did all that, and we were like, 'Oh yeah!'"
In a behind-the-scenes clip, Scott Rogers, the co-stunt coordinator on "Spider-Man 2,"
talked about the difficulties of developing Spider-Man's fighting style.
He wanted to rely on real fighting techniques without making Spider-Man look like a kung
fu or gymnastics expert.
The fights "really had to have Spider-Man's signature" on them.
However, because Tobey Maguire wanted to be able to perform as much of Spider-Man's fighting
as possible, he needed to familiarize himself with all of the techniques that were combined
to create the Spider-Man style.
Luckily he had the help of martial arts expert Steven Ho, who previously played Donatello
in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze."
The former ninja turtle had high praise for Maguire's work ethic when it came to his fight
training.
"He was into it as an art form as opposed to just, you know, learning the tricks he
had to learn to look good on camera."
Bulking up to play Spider-Man meant lifestyle changes for Tobey Maguire that went well beyond
simply spending several hours a day in the gym.
He needed to completely transform his diet to ensure that he was eating enough calories
and getting enough protein to transform his body.
Maguire told Howard Stern that while preparing for the role he had a nutritionist who helped
him plan every single one of his meals.
He would sometimes eat five times a day just to make sure he was getting enough energy
for his workouts to be effective.
The superhero diet was even more of a challenge for Maguire than for other actors because
he couldn't rely on eating traditional protein sources like chicken and red meat.
Maguire became a vegetarian in the mid-nineties, and he's never looked back.
To keep himself sane during the training process on each of the films, Maguire allowed himself
to break away from the intense diet and workout restrictions on a regular basis.
The regularly scheduled free days gave Maguire the reprieve he needed to keep his enthusiasm
going for months on end.
Sam Raimi's first "Spider-Man" was such a blockbuster success that Sony wanted to get
a start on the sequel as quickly as possible.
That arrangement worked well for everyone, but it had special benefits for Tobey Maguire.
The star wasn't shy about admitting that he let his superhero training regimen lapse after
filming the first movie.
When it came time for Maguire to start hitting the gym for "Spider-Man 2," he found that
he hadn't entirely lost his touch and was able to tone down his workout plan from the
original film.
He worked out "anywhere between two and four hours" while training for the sequel, which
was at least an hour less each day compared to his previous schedule.
Training for the sequel was less about getting ripped and more about getting back on his
feet.
Leading up to the production of "Spider-Man 2," rumors spread that Tobey Maguire could
potentially be replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal because of a serious problem with his back.
"My back.
My back."
After completing the film, Maguire clarified what had happened in an interview with Superhero
Hype.
Maguire said his lower back condition had been affecting him "for several years through
'Spider-Man' all the way until right now," but he could never be certain what would cause
the pain to flare up.
Maguire was intimidated by the amount of ambitious stunts planned for "Spider-Man 2," and he
felt that it was his responsibility to disclose his condition to everyone working on the film.
Maguire spent two weeks taking it easy on his back and worrying about whether or not
he'd be able to take part in the film.
During that time his back started to get better just as rumors of his replacement started
to spread.
Maguire started to work carefully with the film's stunt coordinators, and by the time
filming began, he was shocked by how good he felt.
He told Superhero Hype,
"In actuality the stunts were easier for me and my back was fine the whole way through
... I don't know what made them better.
I was more comfortable in them doing the certain stunts and the aerial stuff was easier."
"I thought you were sick!"
"I got better!"
Once Tobey Maguire had settled his concerns about his lower back condition, he wanted
to take on as many of the stunts in "Spider-Man 2" as possible.
He viewed it as his responsibility to be the man behind the mask onscreen as much as possible.
He told Superhero Hype,
"There are certain things I have to do and want to do because you're bringing life into
a character."
He also admitted to taking a certain amount of pride in being able to truly see himself
as Spider-Man in the film, saying, quote, "I like to point stuff in there so you could
feel me in there."
Maguire's commitment to the role clearly impressed his coworkers, particularly director Sam Raimi,
who occasionally had to hold Maguire back and let a stunt double take over in a scene.
Sam Raimi said in a behind-the-scenes featurette,
"Tobey did a tremendous amount of his own stunts in this picture, as much as I would
allow him to do.
He wanted to do everything."
For "Spider-Man" and "Spider-Man 2," Tobey Maguire had to completely transform his body.
He lifted weights, tirelessly worked on cardiovascular exercises, and mastered a wide variety of
fighting techniques.
But years of training still left Maguire unprepared for the most memorable moment in the trilogy's
conclusion: the dance scene.
The actor told Blackfilm.com all about the new training he underwent for the trilogy's
final film.
"I worked with some people, a choreographer and ... a couple of dance people."
He had to learn the right moves to bring Peter Parker's symbiote-inspired overconfidence
to life, and fans will likely never let him forget it.
Maguire explained that,
"...​​the basic idea of it was choreographed, and then we kind of riffed on that and had
fun from there."
Their fun riffing became the most infamous scene in just about any superhero movie.
Maguire may have approached the dance training with the same enthusiasm as his fitness training,
but audiences haven't yet appreciated it on the same level.
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