SPIDEY’S EVANSTON CRUSH
Peter Parker pines for local actress in new ‘ Spider- Man: Homecoming’
‘ Chicago is — and always will be — my home!” said Laura Harrier of “Spider- Man: Homecoming,” laughing at the pun incorporated into the title of her biggest film yet. “Yes, here I am in my hometown talking up Peter Parker’s homecoming.”
A native of Evanston, where she graduated from Evanston Township High School in 2008, Harrier said during a Chicago visit that playing a high school kid in the new “Spider- Man” movie ( opening Friday) “did give me a real sense of deja vu. … Even though we were making a film, a lot of the high school experiences re- created in the movie reminded me of all the mini- dramas kids go through — myself included, back in my own high school days in Evanston.”
The film’s director, Jon Watts, told the young cast he wanted “this movie to feel like a John Hughes movie,” Harrier pointed out. “I loved that, because a lot of ‘ Home Alone’ and his other films took place in Evanston and on the North Shore. So, I kind of have lived that ex- perience — which made me feel more comfortable while we were filming.”
Speaking of being comfortable, Watts insisted his young cast — Harrier, Tom Holland as Spider- Man/ Peter Parker, Zendaya and newcomer Jacob Batalon — “all spend a lot of time together before we began filming in Atlanta. It was like going on forced ‘ play dates,’ ” said Harrier, “but it worked. We truly did bond as a group and became friends — which nicely has lasted even after we finished filming the movie.”
Harrier, 27, plays a classmate for whom SpiderMan’s alter ego harbors an enormous crush. The actress said the Londonborn Holland “just looks right for a kid in high school” and “delivers such a flawless American accent!”
When she was in high school for real, Harrier took drama classes but didn’t “consider myself to be a real theater kid. I played a lot of sports and was more focused on boys and parties and stuff,” she added with a laugh. “Acting came into my life a little bit later, after I started doing some modeling, after school.”
When she comes back to the Chicago area, besides spending time with her family, Harrier “loves to eat here. There are definite places I absolutely have to get to when I’m home. In Evanston’s there’s Mustard’s Last Stand. ... I go there to get cheese fries and ice cream. … And, if I can get my dad to drive me down into the city, I go to Harold’s Fried Chicken on the South Side. It’s so good! What do they put in there? It’s so addictive, like drugs!”