Actors get roles because they look like the character they’re playing, they’re able to bring the character life or they’re a huge star and the movie needs a draw to get people into the theater. Rarely do they get jobs because they’re good at eating.

Unless you’re Andrew Garfield. The Social Network star got the coveted role of Peter Parker because of his eating ability, director Mark Webb told Yahoo.

We were doing a scene that’s not in the movie, where he was eating a cheeseburger and telling Gwen to like calm down or to — trying to put her at ease, while he is eating food.  And the way he ate this food — it was such a dumb task — such a dumb independent activity that you give to an actor to do, and he did it.

Of course, it helps that Garfield is a new face that doesn’t have baggage. Oh, and he can actually act. Not that that is important.

He sort of checked all the boxes. And there was this humor that he had and that he can do, and there was this emotional weight that he can do, but there’s also a physical capability that he can do.  I think the moment was just watching that over and over again.  There was something just compelling about his behavior, his physical behaviors that I thought people would really react to.

That sounds like Spider-Man and Peter Parker to me. Garfield is a fantastic choice. In fact, I think he’ll be a better Parker than Tobey Maguire. All we have right now is a couple of trailers and out-of-context clips, but as Webb says – he checks all the boxes.

You can check out the rest of the interview over at Yahoo. Webb talks about the chemistry between Garfield and Emma Stone (ooh lala), why he was attracted to the film and more. [Yahoo!]

andrew garfield, the amazing spider-man