What made you want to play the Green Goblin in "Spider-Man"?
I talked to Sam [Raimi], after I knew he and Tobey were involved, which really identified what they were doing to a great degree - because Sam especially wasn't a usual suspect to be at the helm of this great summer movie. It was set up as a courtesy call, where Sam was going to feel me out. I was shooting in Spain, and he was in LA. We talked at a weird hour, and I thought it was going to be a ten-minute phone call. He started to tell me the story, and told it in such incredible psychological detail, talking about the relationships without getting to the action or the Green Goblin/Spider-Man stuff. He kept saying, "You wanna hear more?" Two hours later he had told the story. I thought, This guy is not cynical about this story. He deeply loves his characters, and feels an obligation as a "Spider-Man" fan to present these characters truthfully. So I thought, there's something else going on here besides a hardware movie.
Are you particularly interested in comics?
Not specifically. Sometimes cinema is strangled by naturalism, so I am interested in tapping into what's magical about the cinema, and that often means finding new styles and ways of telling stories that aren't measured in terms of naturalism and behaviour we recognise.
Why do you think "Spider-Man" is so popular?
You have these characters that people can identify with. Peter Parker being the classic, because he's a nerdy Everyman. And even though Norman Osborn [Dafoe's character] isn't an Everyman, he's someone recognisable from the business section of the papers and from politics. So we get let in through the door by being able to identify with these characters, and their concerns get set up, and they get played out in this fantastical way.
"Spider-Man" opens in UK cinemas on Friday 14th June 2002.
