Andrew Garfield "emulated" the "patience and stillness" of spiders for his title role in The Amazing Spider-Man.

The actor stars as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the upcoming Marvel reboot. Andrew has revealed his old drama training served him well when it came to portraying the famed superhero on screen.

"One of our classes [in drama school] was animal study, where you study those animals and anthropomorphise those animals into human form. You turn them into characters. Famously, I think Robert De Niro's character from Taxi Driver was anthropomorphised from a crab. I may have just made that up, but it sounds good!" he laughed to MTV News.

"I had the most direct link to animal study in the world, that I could have ever used. It helps you play in a different way and use your imagination in a different way. I just watched spiders whenever I saw them and tried to emulate that patience, that stillness.

Andrew thought carefully about his big screen character's traits. The 28-year-old star enjoyed bringing the interesting personality to life.

"When you apply that to a teenage boy who is jerky, twitchy and anxious, as soon as that DNA gets messed with, you can find a patience and a stillness," he added.

"They'll dance differently and use their space differently. It was a fun thing to play with."