Shailene Woodley Reflects on Losing Mary Jane Role in ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’: ‘It Was My Dream’

More than a decade has passed, but Shailene Woodley is still processing the disappointment of being cut from “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” The actress recently opened up about learning her scenes opposite Andrew Garfield were removed from the final film.

During a recent conversation as part of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations series, Woodley shared that she discovered she would not appear in the film approximately a year after principal photography wrapped. The movie hit theaters in May 2014.

“That was a fun phone call,” Woodley recalled with visible emotion.

She explained that being cast as Mary Jane by director Marc Webb represented a dream fulfilled. “That was my dream because I really—oh my god—Spider-Man’s my favorite superhero. Mary Jane was my favorite character growing up. So when I got it, I was like, ‘This is so exciting.'”

Woodley revealed she filmed approximately three scenes alongside Andrew Garfield before receiving the devastating news. “And then like a year later, they were like, ‘So, you’re not in the movie anymore.’ And I was like, ‘What? What do you mean?’ And they were like, ‘We’ve introduced a lot of new characters in this last one, and we’re going to wait for… whatever happens between [Emma Stone’s character, Gwen Stacy, who is Peter Parker’s girlfriend in the film] and Andrew.” (Spoiler: Gwen Stacy dies in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.”)

She was also informed the filmmakers planned to introduce Mary Jane after Gwen Stacy’s death. “Which made sense. But then they didn’t make that film,” Woodley noted.

According to Woodley, the decision to remove Mary Jane stemmed from concerns about having too many romantic interests for Peter Parker. “Well, that’s what I was told, you know,” she said. “But again, who knows what the truth is. I could have been terrible and they’re like, ‘We can’t do this.'”

At the 2014 New York premiere of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2″—which featured a Mary Jane-themed cocktail—producer Matt Tolmach told Variety about the decision to remove Woodley’s scenes: “We bit off more story than we could tell. We had a 148-page script. We were in the middle of that, and we realized this story [with Mary Jane] is not going to be in this movie.”

In Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy, the role of Mary Jane was portrayed by Kirsten Dunst opposite Tobey Maguire.

Throughout her nearly 90-minute SAG-AFTRA Foundation interview, Woodley also discussed her performances in “Divergent,” “Dumb Money,” “The Descendants,” “The Fault in Our Stars,” HBO’s “Big Little Lies,” and the second season of Hulu’s “Paradise.”

Watch the full interview here:

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