A fire alarm keeps going off at the Dorchester. It happens just as Tobey Maguire is attempting to explain why he won’t be answering one of my questions. My question is: will he be putting his weight behind any political causes in the manner of his old friend Leonardo DiCaprio? “Basically, I don’t want to discuss politics,” says Maguire.

CLANGALANGALANGA!

“I’m here to fulfil my responsibility, to make your experience as a journalist a good one, so it is not aggravating or frustrating for you, while maintaining certain boundaries of my own . . .”

CLANGALANGALANGA!

BACKGROUND

• Spider-Man 3

• Spider-Man 3 - Tokyo premiere

• Shock revelation: why Spider-Man’s real name isn’t Peter Parkour

• Spider-Man 3 slams the accelerator down in pursuit of the Big Thrill

• Spider-Man climbs up to challenge Titanic

BACKGROUND

• Spider-Man 2

• Bad things come in threes

The quiet American

He's a superhero and drop-dead goodlooking, but Tobey Maguire is no troublemaker

Related Internet Links

• 2007 London Film Festival coverage

• Times Online Film Trailers

“It can look a little silly for actors to talk politics. I don’t mind if it comes off the right way; but look at Michael Moore, the way he twisted up some public figures. They’re not thinking; it’s just off the cuff, and he makes them look an ass.”

The fire alarm seems to have given up, but the tension it has stirred up remains. There is some nervous throat-clearing. “Um, yeah, um. I would love to have a positive effect on people, but it’s not my place. There are more educated people, with better facts, figures and arguments at their disposal . . .” He trails off. “Anyway, I’m not talking about it.”

As the tape sucks up this charming monologue, I get a chance to scrutinise Maguire’s face: crisp, soulful blue eyes and quite the most flawless skin I have seen on a 31-year-old man. He is polite, respectful and boyishly beautiful in a way that speaks of inner intensity. For a certain kind of vulnerable- man-loving woman, Maguire is irresistible.

His acting skills have never been in question. He has rarely done a bad film: Wonderboys, This Boy’s Life, The Ice Storm, Pleasantville, Seabiscuit and the Spider-Man series, which has elevated the superhero genre to something tender and human. If only he would reveal a little more of himself. He seems almost phobic about it. And yet those sweet blue eyes make you utterly complicit in his unrevealing game. “I don’t want to give my personal life away to whoever decides to pick up a magazine,” he says. “I’m not a zoo animal on display. Some people obviously welcome that, creating behaviour in order that a certain type of press attention never fades.”

We talk about his work because it is safe territory. Perhaps it is no surprise that Maguire does his own crying stunts. He has never needed, he tells me with wry pride, an onion or fake glycerine tears in his 18-year career.

De Niro is an acting icon to him, as he is to DiCaprio, whom Maguire has known since they became actors in their mid-teens. But by the time Maguire was 19, he knew he wasn’t cut out for his friend’s carousing lifestyle, so he went teetotal, a move partly decided by his need to focus on acting with his full intensity. “I’m a healthy person, a vegetarian, near vegan. I don’t drink caffeine. I do yoga.”

For Seabiscuit, he lived on 1,200 calories a day and worked out for up to four hours daily. The ensuing bingeing when filming was over was painful.

It took him 18 months to get back to normal eating patterns, “to maintain a level of health physically and mentally. My ideal weight is 155lb, roughly”, he says, not roughly at all, but with the specific digits of a control freak. The conversation wanders towards pressure on women in body-fascist California.

But look, we’re on political territory now. How to take this line of questioning further? Maguire ums and ahs. His evasiveness is almost charming now. “It is important to be your authentic self and to respect and care for yourself. That is beautiful.”

For the past four years, he has been going out with Jennifer Meyer, a jewellery designer and daughter of a big exec at Universal Pictures. The couple are only ever really papped looking less-than-glamorous courtside at Lakers games — her with no make-up and a scraped-back ponytail, him with stubble and wearing nondescript T-shirts, sweatshirts and jeans.

Cynics have suggested that hooking up with Meyer was a smart move on Maguire’s part, but it is hard to believe he is capable of sleeping his way to the top.

All he is interested in is taking great roles and keeping as much anonymity as possible. “I have other aspects in my life now,” he says. “I have a little daughter, and that changes things tremendously.”

At this point, the atmosphere in the room starts to feel kind of heavy and intense. “I didn’t do anything for three weeks

after she was born, literally — I didn’t go anywhere or leave where she was for more than an hour, other than to go to another room. Then, for six weeks, I wouldn’t do anything that meant leaving her for more than a few hours. I love being around her and her mother, so, you know, it’s great. Something else.”

Tobey Maguire falls incredibly silent, then his eyes well up, and Mr Incredibly Secretive lets go of one of those bona fide Maguire tears.

IN PRAISE OF SENSITIVE MEN

Giles Deacon

Designer Deacon is hypersensitive to the needs of fashionistas the world over. Tall, handsome and bespectacled, this man really gets women — and he’s straight.

Michael Buble

The Canadian crooner is a huge hit with the mums and grannies. Cites his grandpa as his childhood best friend, and recently proposed tremulously to girlfriend Emily Blunt live on telly.

David Cameron

On behalf of the Conservative party, Cameron cares. He cares about women, kids, cyclists, hoodies and the earth. And most of all, he cares that we know that he cares.

Jamie Oliver

Not just the perfect dad to his own children, this culinary superstar has taken the nation’s school dinners in hand, and set inner-city kids on the road to gastro-pub freedom. Don’tcha just love him?

Spider-Man 3 is out on May 4

Explore Film

• Film Reviews

• Trailers

• DVD

• London Film Festival

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of 2009
• The 100 Worst Movies of 2009
• The 100 Best Films of the Decade