Tobey Maguire is now a celebrated actor in the industry. However, he did not have the best childhood and was driven to change his troubled past.

Tobey Maguire is most popularly known for playing Spider-Man in Sam Raimi’s beloved trilogy. The actor perfectly embodied the role and made the character a household name for the general audience. His Spider-Man trilogy was highly successful and his return in Spider-Man: No Way Home was hugely embraced by people worldwide.

Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/ Spider-Man in Spider-Man 2 | Sony Pictures Releasing
In addition to Spider-Man, he has shown his versatility as an actor in films like Seabiscuit, Brothers, The Great Gatsby, and Pawn Sacrifice. While Maguire may have tasted enormous success in his career, his childhood was far from good as his family constantly moved and struggled to maintain a decent living. Young Maguire was determined to earn money to escape from the world of poverty.

Following A Rough Childhood, Tobey Maguire Was Driven To Become Highly Successful

The Great Gatsby star was determined to change his troubled past | Warner Bros Pictures

The evolution of Tobey Maguire’s career has been interesting to watch as he has always thrived in showing his unexplored sides in every film he makes. While he is popularly known as Spider-Man for many people, he has also done small character-driven dramas that present his strengths as an actor.

However, his life was not as hunky-dory and glamorous as it is today. As he told The Guardian, the Spider-Man star’s childhood was filled with a constant struggle to survive on a day-to-day basis. His parents had him when they were only 18 and 19 years old and they frequently got their resources and groceries from neighbors.

Maguire further recalled that they were very poor but his parents always managed to keep a roof over his head for the night. Be it sleeping on the couches of relatives or shelter homes, they never stayed in one place long. The actor was determined to get his family out of poverty by earning money and dreamt of being in the world of the rich. Maguire said,

As a kid, I was very poor. I mean, it’s all relative, but we would get groceries from neighbors. I always had a roof over my head, but I slept on couches of relatives, and some night we wandered into a shelter. My family had food stamps and government medical insurance.

And I wanted to get out of that, so my ambition was initially to make money; I was pretty driven. I wasn’t around very wealthy people, but I did think I wanted to be able to be invited into their world.

The Brothers star overcame all odds and obstacles in his life and worked hard towards making it big in the industry. He did not let his troubled past define him and improved upon it with his successful Hollywood career. However, he is still humbled by the experiences he had which taught him various lessons about life and its struggles.

Tobey Maguire Lost A Lot of Joy While Making The Psychological War Drama Brothers

Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman in Brothers | Lionsgate
After his Spider-Man days, Tobey Maguire committed to some intense roles that challenged him as an actor. One of his most impressive performances was in Jim Sheridan’s Brothers where he played a Marine Captain who is held captive by terrorists during a mission in Afghanistan. After he’s rescued, he suffers from PTSD and struggles to connect with his family.

In an interview with The LA Times, The Spider-Man star revealed that he was very commuted to the dark and intense nature of the role so much so that he did not experience joy for two months. Two days before Maguire wrapped the film, he started to joke around and laugh after a very long time which felt like a much-needed release. The actor said,

I lost a lot of my joy while doing the movie. I wasn’t even aware of it. I don’t mean it to sound goofy or artsy or something, but two days before we wrapped, I started telling some jokes and laughing, whatever, and it was like a release for me. I hadn’t done that in, like, two months.

Maguire received a Golden Globe nomination for his incredibly complex performance in the film. He starred alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, and Sam Shepherd who all brilliantly contributed to the film’s narrative.

Fans can watch Brothers on Apple TV+.