What Does Fela Kuti Have to Do With Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man?

Andrew Garfield, the actor who played Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man, was listening to Fela Kuti when he was figuring out how to play Spider-Man.

Garfield recently talked about the music he uses to get into his characters, explaining that he makes playlists for the roles he takes on. Fela was on the one he made for Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man.

“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,”Garfield said in a recent Track Star interview.

He said that influence eventually found its way into his physical performance.

“And the way that I moved in that film, in the suit, has some inspiration from Fela and his music,” he said.

Garfield had Fela in mind before the film

The recent interview is not the first time Garfield has mentioned Fela in connection with Spider-Man.

During the promotion for The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012, he said he listened to Fela while preparing for the role. He also spoke about watching athletes such as Muhammad Ali and Cristiano Ronaldo for the way they carried themselves physically.

The song mentioned during the recent interview was "Water No Get Enemy," from Fela's 1975 album Expensive Shit.

For Garfield, the music was part of working out how Peter Parker should inhabit the Spider-Man suit. He was looking for rhythm and physical energy rather than simply trying to copy someone else's movements.

Why Fela?

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti wasborn in Abeokuta in 1938 and became one of Nigeria's most influential musicians. He developed Afrobeat, drawing from West African music, jazz, funk and other sounds, while using his songs to confront political power.

His music attacked corruption and military rule, and his performances carried the same force as the ideas behind the songs.

That political side was important to Garfield too.

He described Fela as a“revolutionary figure” and connected that quality to Spider-Man's sense of justice.

"There was something about suddenly being in touch with the body, but also justice-seeking, because obviously he was a revolutionary figure," Garfield said.

He later explained the connection another way:

"I don't know what it is about this guy's power that I want to somehow reflect in this guy's power."

Garfield was describing his own preparation for the role. There is no indication that Fela's music was part of The Amazing Spider-Man's soundtrack or that the filmmakers formally based Spider-Man on him.

Fela died in 1997, long before Garfield became Peter Parker, yet his music continues to travel, finding new listeners and influencing artists far beyond Nigeria.