Andrew Garfield has "had to work very hard" to distance himself from Spider-Man.
The 41-year-old star played the superhero in three movies but admits that he never wanted the role to define his acting career.
Speaking at the Marrakech Film Festival after being quizzed about the web-slinger, Andrew said: "I had to work very, very hard to have fewer people ask questions about Spider-Man, and I'm still working on it. Obviously, it's an imperfect process. I am grateful for that."
Andrew underlined that his main aim as an actor is to "vanish into a story".
The 'We Live in Time' star star said: "I want the focus to be on the story that I am telling, rather than anything else."
Despite his attempts to move on from the franchise, Garfield revealed that Spider-Man was a role that he was never going to reject irrespective of the possible drawbacks.
He said: "I was never going to turn the opportunity down, even though I knew the pitfalls and the traps that that would create and the pigeonhole that could create."
However, Andrew believes that his portrayal of Spidey allowed him to pursue other opportunities in the movie industry, such as his collaboration with legendary director Martin Scorsese on the 2016 flick 'Silence'.
He said: "Marty probably was able to get a passion project made with a guy who played Spider-Man in the lead about a Japanese priest... The fact that the film got made with the help of Spider-Man is a kind of beautiful thing."
Garfield has a desire to live several lives with the help of storytelling - a feeling that he believes many performers have in common.
He explained: "We all long to live as many lives as possible, touch as much of the world as possible, and as many perspectives as possible. It's never achievable, but it's within that longing that I feel the most alive."
Andrew recently suggested that he would be willing to return to the role of Spider-Man - which he last played in the 2021 movie 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' - so long as the conditions were right.
Speaking to Esquire about his potential return, he said: "For sure, I would 100 per cent come back if it was the right thing, if it's additive to the culture, if there's a great concept or something that hasn't been done before that's unique and odd and exciting and that you can sink your teeth into."
Andrew added: "I love that character, and it brings joy. If part of what I bring is joy, then I'm joyful in return."
The 'Eyes of Tammy Faye' star takes on his first movie role in three years opposite Florence Pugh in 'We Live in Time' and explained that his hiatus has provided him with a renewed enthusiasm for making films.
Asked if he is out of his sabbatical now, he told The Hollywood Reporter: "I think so. Yeah, I think I’m excited to work again in a different way. I feel looser, I feel less precious. I feel more joyful. I feel more aware.
"I feel established enough as a person in the world, as an actor within myself and within the world. I know myself well enough now to feel more enjoyment… I’m still a headcase — when I’m on a set, I’m like a dog with a bone and get taken over by some weird spirit that is never satisfied — but that’s never going to change, and I don’t want it to, but within that, I can feel a lot more pleasure and a lot more enjoyment, play and freedom."
