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He may play a superhero and be drop-dead
good looking, but sweet, sensitive Tobey Maguire is no
rabble-rouser. Bless, says Kate Spicer
A fire alarm keeps going off at the Dorchester. It happens just as
Tobey Maguire is attempting to explain why he won’t be answering one
of my questions. My question is: will he be putting his weight
behind any political causes in the manner of his old friend Leonardo
DiCaprio? “Basically, I don’t want to discuss politics,” says
Maguire.
CLANGALANGALANGA!
“I’m here to fulfill my responsibility, to make your experience as a
journalist a good one, so it is not aggravating or frustrating for
you, while maintaining certain boundaries of my own . . .”
CLANGALANGALANGA!
“It can look a little silly for actors to talk politics. I don’t
mind if it comes off the right way; but look at Michael Moore, the
way he twisted up some public figures. They’re not thinking; it’s
just off the cuff, and he makes them look an ass.”
The fire alarm seems to have given up, but the tension it has
stirred up remains. There is some nervous throat-clearing. “Um,
yeah, um. I would love to have a positive effect on people, but it’s
not my place. There are more educated people, with better facts,
figures and arguments at their disposal . . .” He trails off.
“Anyway, I’m not talking about it.”
As the tape sucks up this charming monologue, I get a chance to
scrutinise Maguire’s face: crisp, soulful blue eyes and quite the
most flawless skin I have seen on a 31-year-old man. He is polite,
respectful and boyishly beautiful in a way that speaks of inner
intensity. For a certain kind of vulnerable- man-loving woman,
Maguire is irresistible.
His acting skills have never been in question. He has rarely done a
bad film: Wonderboys, This Boy’s Life, The Ice Storm, Pleasantville,
Seabiscuit and the Spider-Man series, which has elevated the
superhero genre to something tender and human. If only he would
reveal a little more of himself. He seems almost phobic about it.
And yet those sweet blue eyes make you utterly complicit in his
unrevealing game. “I don’t want to give my personal life away to
whoever decides to pick up a magazine,” he says. “I’m not a zoo
animal on display. Some people obviously welcome that, creating
behaviour in order that a certain type of press attention never
fades.”
We talk about his work because it is safe territory. Perhaps it is
no surprise that Maguire does his own crying stunts. He has never
needed, he tells me with wry pride, an onion or fake glycerin tears
in his 18-year career.
DeNiro is an acting icon to him, as he is to DiCaprio, whom Maguire
has known since they became actors in their mid-teens. But by the
time Maguire was 19, he knew he wasn’t cut out for his friend’s
carousing lifestyle, so he went teetotal, a move partly decided by
his need to focus on acting with his full intensity. “I’m a healthy
person, a vegetarian, near vegan. I don’t drink caffeine. I do
yoga.”
For Seabiscuit, he lived on 1,200 calories a day and worked out for
up to four hours daily. The ensuing bingeing when filming was over
was painful.
It took him 18 months to get back to normal eating patterns, “to
maintain a level of health physically and mentally. My ideal weight
is 155lb, roughly”, he says, not roughly at all, but with the
specific digits of a control freak. The conversation wanders towards
pressure on women in body-fascist California.
But look, we’re on political territory now. How to take this line of
questioning further? Maguire ums and ahs. His evasiveness is almost
charming now. “It is important to be your authentic self and to
respect and care for yourself. That is beautiful.”
For the past four years, he has been going out with Jennifer Meyer,
a jewelry designer and daughter of a big exec at Universal Pictures.
The couple are only ever really papped looking less-than-glamorous
courtside at Lakers games — her with no make-up and a scraped-back
ponytail, him with stubble and wearing nondescript T-shirts,
sweatshirts and jeans.
Cynics have suggested that hooking up with Meyer was a smart move on
Maguire’s part, but it is hard to believe he is capable of sleeping
his way to the top.
All he is interested in is taking great roles and keeping as much
anonymity as possible. “I have other aspects in my life now,” he
says. “I have a little daughter, and that changes things
tremendously.”
At this point, the atmosphere in the room starts to feel kind of
heavy and intense. “I didn’t do anything for three weeks
after she was born, literally — I didn’t go anywhere or leave where
she was for more than an hour, other than to go to another room.
Then, for six weeks, I wouldn’t do anything that meant leaving her
for more than a few hours. I love being around her and her mother,
so, you know, it’s great. Something else.”
Tobey Maguire falls incredibly silent, then his eyes well up, and
Mr. Incredibly Secretive lets go of one of those bona fide Maguire
tears.
IN PRAISE OF SENSITIVE MEN
Giles Deacon
Designer Deacon is hypersensitive to the needs of fashionistas the
world over. Tall, handsome and bespectacled, this man really gets
women — and he’s straight.
Michael Buble
The Canadian crooner is a huge hit with the mums and grannies. Cites
his grandpa as his childhood best friend, and recently proposed
tremulously to girlfriend Emily Blunt live on telly.
David Cameron
On behalf of the Conservative party, Cameron cares. He cares about
women, kids, cyclists, hoodies and the earth. And most of all, he
cares that we know that he cares.
Jamie Oliver
Not just the perfect dad to his own children, this culinary
superstar has taken the nation’s school dinners in hand, and set
inner-city kids on the road to gastro-pub freedom. Don’tcha just
love him?
Spider-Man 3 is out on May 4
© Kate Spicer, Times Online |
