TOM THRILLED TO BE PLAYING CHILDHOOD HERO
It’s been a life-changing few years for British actor Tom Holland, but his star is set to reach new heights thanks to his casting as the new face of Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise. He talks to Gemma Dunn
If his trophy cabinet is anything to go by, Tom Holland is quickly emerging as one of Hollywood’s brightest young talents.
At just 16, the Londoner - a former BRIT School alumni - proved his chops as an actor when he landed his first big screen role in Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Impossible, opposite Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, and went on to be named Breakthrough Actor of the Year by the National Board of Review and Young British Performer of the Year at the London Film Critics Circle Awards.
Just four years on and it looks as though the industry bigwigs sat up and took note.
For now, Holland - the most recent recipient of the Bafta Rising Star Award - barely has a day off, flitting from one blockbuster to the next.
“What’s the time?” he asks when we meet. “I’m on so many different time zones at the moment that my poor watch is like ‘Can you please keep me at one time?’”
But Holland has a good excuse for being run ragged: he’s mid-way through a gruelling world press tour for his biggest opportunity to date the titular role in Marvel’s hotly anticipated Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Having made his cameo in the epic battle of Captain America: Civil War he will reprise the part of Peter Parker as he tries to prove his webslinging guise is worthy of being an Avenger.
To play Marvel’s crown jewel, the most popular character in comic book history, is a dream come true for Holland.
“Five years ago I was at the Empire Awards in London and one of the interviewers asked me if I could be a superhero, who would I be,” he recalls. “I said, ‘In ten years, I’d like to be the Spider-Man after Andrew Garfield’. I would never have guessed that it would have come true so quickly. [I pinch myself] nearly every day,” he confides. “When I found out I got the part, I was jumping for joy, screaming and shouting - my poor little dog Tess was on my bed and was like, ‘What are you doing? Relax!’
“It’s a crazy thing to be able to say,” he muses. “I have been in my room as a kid saying ‘I am Spider-Man’ since I was like five, but now actually being able to say it with some truth behind it is kind of insane.”
The eldest of four sons of comedian, novelist and screenwriter Dominic Holland and his photographer wife Nicola Elizabeth (nee Frost), Holland’s ability to captivate an audience was first seen when he made his West End stage debut back in 2008, having been cast as Billy in Billy Elliot the Musical.
But refreshingly, the young talent has never entertained the tag of “stage school brat”, and from his friendly and warm demeanour, it doesn’t look like he’s set to become a Tinseltown diva any time soon either.
Tasked with the brief to create a character we haven’t seen before, Holland is under pressure (not that you’d know it!) to bring Spider-Man’s Peter Parker bang up to date as he features alongside the Marvel Cinematic Universe heroes for the first time.
Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Parker - who returns home to where he lives with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), tries to fall back into his normal daily routine. But when the Vulture (Michael Keaton) emerges as a new villain, can he be the hero he’s meant to be?
With the backup of superhero royalty, it looks likely.
“He is like a safety blanket, Robert,” states Holland. “He’s always available to call up and be like, ‘I don’t know how to do this - can you help me?’ He’s always willing to help me out and give me advice and stuff, but the nice thing about Robert is we’re friends,” adds the artist, whose final hurdle for the role was an on-screen chemistry test with the A-lister.
One aspect Holland didn’t require much assistance with, however, was the action sequences.
The trained gymnast and dancer, who admits to hitting the gym daily to get his body in good shape for the part, is no stranger to a back flip or two.
“If I wasn’t an actor I’d be a stunt man, and the fact that I have been given the opportunity to do both is really fantastic,” quips Holland, who recently starred in James Gray’s The Lost City of Z and will next appear in Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s period drama, The Current War.
Spider-Man: Homecoming is in cinemas now.