About a Boy

Holland, Meet Tom wall-crawler teenage

What did you want to bring to the character of Spider-Man?

My main thing was to not do something that had been done before. It’s quite hard to come by original content. So I just really, really dove into the research about finding new and unique things we hadn’t seen with Spider-Man and especially Peter Parker. And making him younger, I think, was a very smart decision on Marvel’s behalf because it just makes it more relatable. Not only to an older generation but to a younger generation because it’s nice to be able to go and see a movie and see someone as incredible as Spider-Man go through the same things that they’re going through. But then it also appeals to an older audience because everyone went to school. So they’re able to reminisce.

What was the most difficult Spidey-skill for you to master?

Probably flexibility. I’m so inflexible. It’s so bad. I can’t even touch my toes. So sometimes they’d ask me to land in positions which I just physically can’t do. There have been some moments where even the parkour artist can’t do what Spider-Man can do. So as much as I tried my best we did this thing called a digi takeover where they would enhance movements that I had done. So it’s still my body, it’s still my movement. It’s just slightly better than I could do myself.

Jon Watts put you on a strict diet of movies to watch in preparation. Was there one that particularly inspired you?

Marty McFly [from Back To The Future]. That’s my Spider-Man. He is so full of life, so innocent, so goofy, so cool in the most uncool way possible. And for me that was exactly what I wanted to bring to the screen and I watched that movie 10-15 times over the course of shooting Spider-Man. He was my main influence.