Who Is That Masked Man?

By Jess Cagle

Tobey Maguire, as many have noted, is an unlikely action hero. Then again, so is Spider-Man. Maguire's own background as a lonely California kid may have been better preparation for his break-out role as the angst-ridden Spidey than hours in the gym. Before Spider-Man made him internationally famous, Maguire was known as one of Hollywood's go-to actors for troubled-youth parts: a neglected loner in The Ice Storm (1997), a teen yearning for escape in Pleasantville (1998), an orphan searching for a home in The Cider House Rules (1999), a self-destructive college student in Wonder Boys (2000). His performances were enigmatic, unpredictable and haunting--hardly swaggering leading-man turns wherein he saved the day and got the girl.

There were other, more natural choices for the red cowl. A Knight's Tale's Heath Ledger and American Beauty's Wes Bentley--both of whom seem to be born for billboards--were among the possibilities. But director Sam Raimi knew from the beginning (or at least as soon as his wife showed him a videotape of Cider House Rules) that the 5-ft. 8-in. Maguire, 26, was his man. "We needed someone who could play 17 years old," says the director, "and if you think about the available actors, that knocks out about 90% of them." But the studio wasn't sold. "We made Tobey do a test because he's not the first person you think of," concedes Columbia chairman Amy Pascal. "He did a test, he took off his shirt, and then we all said O.K."

That now seems like a smart call. The cheers from movie critics who singled out Maguire's reserved, brooding performance may have played a role in enticing moviegoers beyond the film's core audience of young males. The very qualities that until now have kept Maguire from becoming a bigger star are integral to his portrayal of the unassuming student Peter Parker. "Tobey's an Everyman," says producer Laura Ziskin. "He's adorable, but he's not the classic hunk. He's not a model. He looks like an ordinary kid." Somehow, Maguire's quiet ordinariness gives a glimpse of his character's roiling inner life. "He doesn't really act," says Raimi. "He just is. I think he has the confidence that the audience will perceive his feelings and thoughts, and he's right."

Though Maguire says he never read the comic book until he got the part, he saw in the character "a really good-hearted, typical underdog who I could certainly relate to." Like Peter Parker, Maguire comes from a broken home. After his parents' divorce when he was 2, he spent his childhood being shuttled up and down the West Coast, from parent to parent, school to school. His mother encouraged her angry, rebellious son to study acting, and he soon began appearing in one-line parts on sitcoms. After ninth grade, he dropped out of school to become an actor and made his feature debut alongside his pal Leonardo DiCaprio in 1993's This Boy's Life.

Now Maguire is being compared to DiCaprio--another serious actor turned teen idol following a big mainstream hit. But though audiences may cling to Maguire as Spider-Man, it's unlikely they'll embrace his quirky persona in standard leading-man roles. He simply isn't as warm as Tom Hanks or as dashing as Tom Cruise. "I just want to make good movies," says Maguire. "If there's a script I like with a character I like and a filmmaker I like, I would do the movie. I'm not really concerned about money. You could say I'm even less so now. I'm a single guy. If I had a family of eight to support, it might be a different story."

There are already signs that Maguire's life and career have changed dramatically. Just days after he showed up on 7,500 screens as Spider-Man, he appeared in the spotlight again--this time on the cover of a tabloid, walking arm in arm with Nicole Kidman. A headline screamed: NICOLE AND SPIDER-MAN RED-HOT ROMANCE! Maguire is a movie star now, and his life has become a spectator sport. He has been romantically linked to a leading lady (Spider-Man's Kirsten Dunst), and now he's a major player in the Kidman-Cruise celebrity-gossip sweepstakes. Of Kidman, he says, "We're friends." Of his radically heightened recognizability, he notes, "It's kind of surreal, because it's pretty drastic. It's a more definitive difference than I expected. I feel like a lot of things changed within a three-day period." And no one knows better than Spider-Man that change is never easy. --Jess Cagle