Holland a charmer like Peter Parker

MANILA, Philippines - It was early morning more than two months ago when this writer met the new Spider-Man. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield have passed on their superhero duties to Tom Holland, the 21-year-old English actor who donned the famous red-and-blue suit in a brief but pivotal role in last year’s Captain America: Civil Wars and, boy, did that appearance get all Marvel fans excited! 

The Internet exploded over Spidey’s appearance in a Marvel movie and everyone welcomed Peter Parker like a long-lost brother who was gone for a long time. It didn’t matter that he was played by a different actor in his last film outing only two years before. It didn’t matter that Peter looked completely different and much younger this time. What mattered was he was back and he was in the company of the greatest assembly of superheroes on screen. Finally.

And now, after more than a year, Spider-Man will sling his way back into cinemas in his own standalone Marvel movie Spider-Man: Homecoming with Iron Man in tow, a new and powerful suit, a new and bigger adventure and a whole new universe: Peter Parker is in high school! 

But before then, let’s get to meet and know our new superhero. On the day we sat for our roundtable interview, Tom has not turned 21 yet (his birthday is on June 1st) and he proved to be quite a charmer like Peter Parker himself. During the interview, he revealed what one thing he did to get the part: He lied about his height. Tom, who is 5’8”, added two inches to his height when he sent in his initial audition reel. “Basically, you have to do a thing called an Ident, which is where you sent in a self-tape from a script that they sent you,” he playfully recalled. “But before that, you have to give a brief summary of who you are and say how tall you are. Every actor lies so I told them I am five foot ten!” 

Of course, he got the part because he deserved it. For his initial reel, after introducing himself, he did several back flips to showcase his acrobatic talent. Tom is a trained actor and dancer who made his theater debut in Billy Elliot the Musical. In 2012, his turn as the son of Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor in the terrific disaster drama The Impossible earned him wide acclaim and various awards. He has starred opposite Hollywood heavyweights Tom Hardy and Chris Hemsworth before he got the biggest role in his young career. A plum role that took him five months to get, seven auditions, two screen tests and a not-so-memorable first encounter with the iconic Spider-Man suit.

“I was cast in Civil Wars very late and basically, they decided to put me in my stunt double’s suit, who they had already been shooting with, and he was much bigger than I was!” he recalled. “So the first time I put it on, it was really like saggy and, kind of, a sad-looking Spider-Man. It wasn’t quite heroic as I would have hoped but when we got to making my movie, when we put the real suit on, it was a pretty tremendous experience.” 

Earlier, he described to us his experience during the casting process. 

“The casting process was really, really grueling. It was tough because it started off as a pipe dream. And then it started becoming a reality quite quickly and it suddenly became something that could possibly happen. When I realized that I was down to maybe the last 50, I became obsessed with Spider-Man like it was my life! I was like ‘This was my role, I am gonna get it, I am gonna do everything in my power to get this role’ and I searched the Internet every day, day in and day out, to find news about the casting.”

“I think I did seven auditions in total,” he added. “I did two screen tests and after my second screen test, I was told by my agents that I will find out the next day whether I got it or I hadn’t got it — and it was like a month and a half later when I found out that I got the part so it was really stressful. I was convinced that I didn’t get it but it was definitely a fun experience.”

In those five months, Tom was still able to complete three other movies! Now, if that isn’t heroic enough maybe his being named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest person to ever play a Marvel superhero will convince you.  

And for someone who plays a superhero with superpowers derived from hybrid spiders, it’s somewhat ironic that he would be deathly scared of spiders himself. “I hate spiders! I hate spiders so much! When we moved to Atlanta, we were like, ‘We should get a spider and call it Peter.’ And we went to the pet shop and I left within five minutes. There’s no way I am living with a tarantula in my house!”

Instead of having a pet spider, Tom and his best friend found a Tortoise in their garden and named him Peter.

Tom could be very animated and funny when he is recalling stories. When asked what’s the scariest stunt he ever did, he told us a very funny story that sent all of us laughing in the room.

“Shouldn’t have been scary but because of the circumstances that we did it in, it was quite scary,” he began. “Basically, I have been wrapped and I went back to my trailer. I took my costume off, I put my clothes on and my best friend Harrison was there as my assistant so he had bought me two burgers and chips and I stuffed my face. I was so hungry!”

“And then,” he continued, “as I was leaving my trailer to go home, they were like, ‘Oh no, we made a mistake. We need you back on set,’ and I am like, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it, it’s fine, it’s cool.’ And then I get to the set and I was told, ‘We are gonna do this stunt with you where you are gonna nosedive off this wall.’ And I am like, ‘Huh! I just ate like a mountain of food!’ So I put this harness on, which is called a corset harness, which when tightened up, it really tightens up just around your midsection, which is the worst thing possible right now, you know, and basically, I had to sit on the edge of the Washington Monument and hold on to the left shaft and then, they’d go ‘3...2...1...’ and they’d yank me forward and I would dive down 30 feet and they would catch me on wires...”

He paused then he continued, “Umm, the stunt was safe. It was 100-percent safe. There was nothing that could have gone wrong with the stunt but the only thing that didn’t feel safe was that if you throw up in that suit, it will cover all your mouth and you wouldn’t be able to (breathe). I think you would drown, right? So I was so scared that I was gonna throw up in my mask and luckily enough I didn’t.”

While filming the movie, rumors circulated that Tom deliberately avoided seeking advice from Tobey and Andrew. He belied this during the interview and praised the two actors for what they have done to the character before.

“It was a really surreal experience for me,” he said, recalling the first time he met Andrew in person at the BAFTAs several days before our interview. “I am someone who looks up to his predecessors and he, kind of, passed on the torch. He said to me how happy he was for me and how excited he was for the movie and I expressed how excited I was with what he was doing.” 

Asked if he was ready to handle the tremendous fame that would come his way when Spider-Man: Homecoming opens in theaters beginning next month, he surprised us with a thoughtful reply. 

“It’s not one of those things you can really prepare for. I am just very lucky to have a very good strong family. I have a very good strong group of friends who would be the first to tell me that I am being a d*ck. It’s very easy in this industry, specially here in Hollywood, to get caught up with what I call ‘Yes’ people, people who are always like, ‘You are amazing, you’re this. You’re so fantastic, we love you, we love you!’ My parents saw one of my films the other day and my dad was like, ‘Ehhh... That was just alright.’ Thanks Dad! But you know, that’s good to have. That’s a real critic. That gives me the motivation to be like, ‘The next thing I do, you’re gonna love.’ So, it’s very good for me and I am very lucky and the more and more I go through this process, the more and more valuable I realize my friends and family are.”

Of course, no interview with actors portraying superheroes would be complete without the requisite question: “If you can have a superpower, what will it be?”

Tom replied with a rambling answer. First, he said he’d like to time travel or teleport or control time. Then he said he also would like to control water and make people explode because our bodies are made up mostly of water anyways. 

This writer, sensing another funny anecdote, asked Tom how many times has he been asked the same question before and he instantly replied, “So many times!” And how many times has he answered differently? “Oh, it changes all the time,” he said laughing. “It depends on what I am doing. If I am stuck in traffic, I’d f--ing teleport.”

But what if he had the power to grant superpowers to 15 year olds, what would it be?

“Confidence,” he replied in an almost whisper-like tone. “If you give everyone confidence in themselves and believe in who they are, then you’d have the most powerful generation ever. A lack of confidence is one of the biggest hindrances ever. I’ve been through it and once you realize that you only have to impress yourself and the people that are close to you, then you can conquer the world and do whatever you want.”

Spider-Man: Homecoming opens in the Philippines on July 6.