The Amazing Spider-Man movies broke Andrew Garfield's heart

'There’s something about being young in that machinery that I think is really dangerous'

As Spider-Man before Tom Holland took the role in a reboot

If you felt that sitting through The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was hard enough, it could have been worse – you could have been the film's star, Andrew Garfield.

The British actor played the web-slinger in two films in 2012 and 2014, but it has emerged he doesn't reflect on the experience with affection. In fact, he claims the experience broke his heart.

Speaking with Amy Adams as part of Variety's 'Actors on Actors' series, the 33-year-old mused on his career thus far, stating that scoring the role of Spidey at such a young age was "dangerous".

“There’s something about being that young in that kind of machinery that I think is really dangerous,” Garfield told Adams (he was 27 when he was cast in The Amazing Spider-Man).

“I was still young enough to struggle with the value system, I suppose, of corporate America really, it’s a corporate enterprise mostly. I found that really, really tricky."

The actor, who achieved his big break with the David Fincher film The Social Network, elaborated: “I signed up to serve the story and to serve this incredible character that I’ve been dressing as since I was three, and then it gets compromised and it breaks your heart. I got heartbroken a little bit.”

Garfield, whose most recent film was the commendable 99 Homes, has clearly turned the experience into a positive with upcoming roles in Hacksaw Ridge – Mel Gibson's well-received biopic about conscientious objector Desmond T Doss – and Martin Scorsese's Silence, which will premiere in one of the world's most famous buildings.

Following these films, Garfield will star in Andy Serkis's Breathe and neo-noir crime thriller Under the Silver Lake.

The film world's latest incarnation of Spider-Man is played by Tom Holland, who made his debut in Marvel's Captain America: Civil War in April.