Comic Book Resources talks with the Spectacular Spider-Man‘s Josh Keaton about comic books, voicing Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and what fans can expect to see in the show’s second season. Here’s an excerpt:
Q: How did you get the part of Peter Parker/Spider-Man on “Spectacular?”
A: For this one there was a lot of auditions. I basically went in and I auditioned for three parts. The first time I went in, I auditioned for the dual roles of Spider-Man/Peter and Eddie Brock/Venom, and Harry Osborn. They called me back for Eddie as well as Peter. I went in, did the call back and they put me on tape again. I think they had a process where they started out with like three thousand people that they auditioned and it’s just a system where they keep narrowing the pot down. They’ll go through and do a round of auditions, they’ll make they’re picks and they’ll re-audition those picks and just keep narrowing it down until they arrive at their final choices.
A: How do you approach the dual role of playing both Peter and Spider-Man?
I really just looked at my whole High School career, because aside from having the proportional strength, speed and power of a spider and shooting webs from web-shooters, I was pretty much Peter Parker. I had kind of a similar double life where I was a dork in high school — and I’m still a dork. I was totally into geeky things and was never the popular kid. You know how school is in general, once you get pegged as this, that’s pretty much who you are until you’re an adult. If you’re a dork in elementary school, you’re probably going to be a dork all the way through high school.
But then I had this whole other life where I was a child actor. I had a whole other set of friends that were in the entertainment industry outside of school and among that group of friends I was not an un-cool guy. I was just doing my thing. So I totally understand that whole thing of this group thinks you’re this, then there’s this whole other life out there. A lot of the same things happened to me. I was totally oblivious to girls who may or may not have had crushes on me. So it was really just looking back on a lot of these early High School days of my own to get that same motivation.
Q: Is there a voice change or any other audible distinction between Peter and Spider-Man?
A: As far as the difference in voice, there really isn’t. It’s more of an attitude shift.
Spectacular Spider-Man airs Mondays @ 7:30 PM (EST) on Disney XD. The complete first season of the show releases on DVD July 28th and includes two behind-the-scenes features on the show’s production.
Related post: 3.20.2009 — Josh Keaton is Spider-Man.