Rhys Ifans on Playing Spidey Villain 'The Lizard'

Rhys Ifans (photo credit: Pascal Guyot/AFP)

Geoff Boucher of The Los Angeles Times spoke to Rhys Ifans, who will play Dr. Curt Connors, aka The Lizard, in The Amazing Spider-Man. Ifans gave his thoughts on director, Marc Webb, and how this Spidey is different from the first trilogy's depiction.

Ifans on Webb's vision -

Marvel Comics

Not to be disparaging to the other movies at all but they were kind of going a certain way and Marc has rolled it back to its delicate, human domesticity. Spider-Man is a working-class hero. He’s an everyman. And I think Marc as a director and Andrew in his performances are doing special — we’re reclaiming the poetry of the hero and of the story. - Rhys Ifans

The actor also spoke about how Connors isn't a one dimensional villain -

Curt Connors is a man with one arm and he wants to grow his arm back. He has access to a science that can enable that. But he has to make a moral decision, an ethical decision, to achieve that. In a story both he and Peter Parker are presented with these amazing abilities, and it’s about this gift that life gives us. More than any other super-hero, Spider-Man presents us with something very local in its ethics. It’s not messianic. It’s far more tangible. He is, again, a working-class hero. - Rhys Ifans

I've heard a lot of grumbling from fans of the first Spider-Man trilogy - about how it's too soon for a reboot and how no one can top Sam Raimi's version of Spidey. Well, I liked Raimi's films, but I'm totally on board for a different take. From what Ifans said, it sounds like this is going to be a grittier, more realistic movie, and that sounds great to me.

The Amazing Spider-Man opens on July 3, 2012 (USA)

Read the entire LA Times article at the link below 

‘Spider-Man’ star: ‘We’re reclaiming the poetry of the hero’ | Hero Complex – movies, comics, fanboy fare – latimes.com