Spider-Man 2: Alfred Molina Reflects on Doctor Octopus Casting

20 years after appearing in Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man 2, Alfred Molina continues to embrace his performance as Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus.

“It was a big surprise to me, because it’s not the kind of movie that I imagined myself to be qualified for. You always think of these big action films as [casting] physical types, and I’ve definitely never been that,” Molina said in a career retrospective for Vanity Fair.

Molina continued by revealing how Raimi’s spouse recommended him for Doc Ock on the strength of his performance in the drama Frida and admitting to the Spider-Man director his nervousness around a big special effects blockbuster.

“We had a great meeting. And I kept saying, ‘Look, I’m up for it. But I’ve got to be honest with you, I’ve never done anything like this before. And I’ve certainly never worked on a film with all this technology, I’ve never done much green screen or anything like that,'” Molina said. “But what swung it was we did a screen test, where they gave me an approximation of the costume — the big leather [harness] with the big trench coat. And then Avi Arad, who at the time was the head of Marvel, takes off his sunglasses and goes, ‘Put these on.’ I put the sunglasses on, and the whole room sort of went, ‘Oh, this could be the image.’ And I think that’s what swung it.”

Released in the summer of 2004, Spider-Man 2 amassed over $795 million worldwide and earned better reviews than its 2002 predecessor. Beyond the amazing tentacle VFX for Doc Ock, Molina earned high praise for giving humanity to an otherwise traditional Marvel supervillain.

“The beautiful thing about a lot of the Marvel villains — and, in fact, a lot of the Marvel heroes — is that they all become so reluctantly,” Molina said. “Otto Octavius has this terrible tragedy in his life which changes things, and so they become these monsters, these villains, almost against their will. And what that does, it gives those characters a real level of humanity. It gives them kind of moral dilemmas to deal with, and there’s always a moment when they’re struggling with that dilemma: ‘Should I carry on doing this? Should I pull back? Am I being a bad person?’ And that was all in the script. Sam wanted to develop that, and it gave the character a depth and something that the audience can hang onto.”

Doc Ock’s return in Spider-Man: No Way Home

Molina made a surprise return as Doc Ock in the MCU-set Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021. The then 68-year-old actor underwent a de-aging process to resemble his exact appearance from Spider-Man 2. Molina’s biggest thrill on set, however, was reuniting with original Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire and working alongside Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland.

“I was delighted, obviously,” Molina said. “Apart from the fact that it’s great fun to play, playing that part, in all honesty, completely changed my life. I mean, it did. It just took everything not just to a different level, but also to a whole other group of cinema fans. There’s a fan group that loved all the movies like Chocolat and Enchanted April and Frida and all those movies, and now suddenly the children of those people are kind of digging Fred Molina ’cause he’s playing Doc Ock.”

All Spider-Man movies are now streaming on Disney+.