L.A. Times Young Hollywood Roundtable: Andrew Garfield on ‘Spider-Man,’ Carey Mulligan on Mario Lopez

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Actor Andrew Garfield received some of the biggest news of his career earlier this year, when he found out he’d landed the role of Spider-Man in the upcoming installment of Sony’s popular franchise.

Up to now, Garfield, 27, has been best known for his roles in smaller, more performance-oriented films, like this fall’s “Never Let Me Go,” or “Boy A,” which earned him the best actor prize in 2008 from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Sitting amongst his peers Carey Mulligan and Jesse Eisenberg at a Young Hollywood Roundtable at the Egyptian Friday night, Garfield told Los Angeles Times entertainment writer Amy Kaufman that he wasn’t planning to approach Spidey any differently from his prior roles.

“I’m just gonna still approach it like I’m doing a short film of ‘Spider-Man’ that my friend is directing,” he said. “And that’s kind of how I have to approach it, or I’ll lose my mind and crack under the pressure.”

Meanwhile, Mulligan –- who had her first role in a larger studio film this year with “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” –- said she had no pearls of wisdom to pass on to Garfield about making the jump from indies to the big leagues. (The food on set is better, and sometimes you have more time to rehearse, she offered.)

But she did have a funny anecdote to share about adjusting to life in Los Angeles, where she arrived at age 22 after growing up in England.

“I could see the Hollywood sign from my window, and I was thrilled. It was the best day,” she said of her room at the Century City Intercontinental.

And then a shady incident put a damper on that glittery view.

“…[A]t a bus stop on like my second day in LA, a car pulled up with black windows, and they rolled down and somebody pulled out a gun and pointed at me, and then laughed, and then rolled down the window and drove away,” she recalled.

The event was particularly traumatizing, she said, because it shattered the illusion of L.A. which she had formed during a family trip to the city at age 11, when she saw actor Mario Lopez (a.k.a. A.C. Slater, of “Saved by the Bell” fame) at Muscle Beach.

“I’m always thrilled when I see him,” she said of Lopez, who now is a host for the celebrity news program “Extra.” “He hosts a show and every time, all the way through awards season, every time we did a red carpet and I saw A.C. Slater, I was like a complete disaster. I went bright red … and they make you stand really close to these people -- uncomfortably close -- and because of the camera angles, I was always within sort of kissing distance. Every one of my dreams has come true this year, including that.”

Check back for another clip from the event on Tuesday.

Related:

L.A. Times Young Hollywood Roundtable: Jesse Eisenberg gets feedback

L.A. Times Young Hollywood Roundtable: Getting into character