The actor says he started listening to Fela the moment he landed the role, and the rhythm made its way into how he carried himself in the suit.
Andrew Garfield says Fela Anikulapo-Kuti helped him find his Spider-Man. Speaking on the Track Star Podcast's "Testing Andrew Garfield's Music Knowledge" episode, the actor explained that the Afrobeat pioneer's sound and rhythm settled him into the role physically, all the way down to how he carried himself in the suit.
Garfield keeps a playlist for every character he plays. Fela went on the Spider-Man list the moment he was cast.
"I create a playlist for every character I play, which is a lovely fun thing to do anyway," he said. "So I started listening to Fela Kuti when I first got Spider-Man, and there was something about the sound and the rhythm that was really useful to me for that character."
The pull was more than a good groove. "There was something about suddenly being in touch with the body, but also justice-seeking, because obviously he was a revolutionary figure," Garfield said. "And the way that I moved in that film, in the suit, has some inspiration from Fela and his music."
This is not a fresh discovery for him. During promotion for The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012, Garfield told interviewers he "listened to a lot of Fela Kuti and that helped somehow," pointing to the music alongside athletes like Muhammad Ali and Cristiano Ronaldo as guides for the confidence and physicality he wanted in the character.
Garfield played Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and its 2014 sequel, then returned years later for Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). He has long kept his reading of the character wide open, arguing that anyone can be in that suit.
Water No Get Enemy, from Fela's 1975 album Expensive Shit, was among the tracks played in the segment. Decades after his death, Fela's influence keeps finding new ears, from a new generation of artists claiming the "New Born Fela" name to the way a Hollywood actor moves in a superhero suit.
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