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IAN SPELLING
NYT Syndicate
Tom Holland's road to Spider-Man: Homecoming was a long one, but it all started with dancing.
The British actor, who turned all of 21 on June 1, has been on stage for more than half his life. He was barely 10 when he started dancing in the West End production of Billy Elliot: The Musical, and he stayed with the show for several years, eventually playing the title character.
Films and television shows came his way next, including The Impossible (2012), In the Heart of the Sea (2015) and Wolf Hall (2015).
Then, in the summer of 2015, Holland landed the coveted role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, who was slated to appear in several upcoming Marvel productions. He made a spirited, well-received cameo as Spidey in Captain America: Civil War (2016) and, on July 7, will swing into the spotlight as the star of Spider-Man: Homecoming, the second reboot of the Marvel franchise.
"I never wanted to be an actor," Holland said, speaking by telephone from a London hotel."I wanted to be a dancer. My mom said I had a real talent for dancing, and she took me to a Saturday school every weekend.
"I got cast as Billy Elliot through the dancing first," he said."After that I fell in love with being on stage and performing, and I knew it was something I could make a career out of. I never dreamed it'd be to this extent, or that I'd get to play Spider-Man, but here I am ” and I guess I'm just lucky to be here.
"I was a massive Spider-Man fan as a kid," Holland added."I really loved the character, and I felt strongly about everything that Spider-Man stood for. I think it's an incredible thing to see a 15-year-old be given superpowers and do good with them."
Homecoming follows Parker as he struggles to balance high school, friendships, girls, his burgeoning post-spider-bite powers, well-timed drop-ins by an advice-spouting Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) and the threat posed by this chapter's villain, Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), better known as the Vulture.
"It's not an origin story," Holland said."It's the Peter Parker movie. It's the story of how Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man, rather than a Spider-Man movie. I was always very adamant about trying to make them two different characters, but to have cross-overs wherever I could, because I want the audience to feel like Peter Parker is in that suit, but he's hidden behind the mask so he can maybe be more confident."
Holland went on to praise his many co-stars. They include fellow newcomers Jacob Batalan and Zendaya, who respectively play Peter's best friend Ned and Michelle, a smart, attractive classmate. Then, of course, there's the more-experienced likes of Downey, Keaton, Jon Favreau (Happy Hogan) and Marisa Tomei (Aunt May).
"I'm so lucky I got to work with all these incredible actors," Holland said,"and also to help people start up their careers. Jacob has become one of my best friends, and I believe he has a very lucrative career ahead of him.
"And I'm in a similar situation to Jacob, as I got to learn from actors like Robert Downey and Michael Keaton and Marisa Tomei and Donald Glover," he went on."These people are so brilliant and fantastic, and I'm just happy that Marvel gave me this wonderful opportunity."
Holland called Homecoming a"totally massive" production. However, he noted, the single most memorable moment to date of his entire Spider-Man experience occurred not on set, but rather in a jungle in South America where he was shooting his previous film, The Lost City of Z (2016).
"I shot a movie in Colombia a couple of years ago, a James Gray movie," Holland said."I'd been cast as Spider-Man and I'd shot Civil War, and I saw a little kid in the jungle in Colombia wearing Spider-Man shoes.
"That, for me, was a real eye-opener," he said,"because this kid lived in a hut in the jungle, and he knew about Spider-Man. It made me realise that there really isn't a corner of this Earth that Spider-Man hasn't reached.
"It was a real eye-opener as to how much of a responsibility this opportunity was."
It's not a responsibility that Holland will be able to lay down anytime soon. It's already been announced that he'll return as Spider-Man for Avengers: Infinity War and for a Homecoming sequel the following year. Is he up for more, if Marvel wants him?
"I'm ready to go, man," Holland replied instantaneously."I'm ready to start shooting tomorrow. We don't start until sometime next year (on the next Spider-Man), but I'm ready to go.
"I have a lot of ideas, and I know (director) Jon Watt does too," he continued,"and obviously Marvel will have a whole load of things that they will want to talk about. I think the Clone saga could be very exciting. I like Kraven. I like Mysterio. I like all sorts of different villains."
Beyond Homecoming, moviegoers soon will see Holland in the films Pilgrimage and The Current War. Only a few weeks after this interview, news broke that he'd been signed to star with Daisy Ridley in Chaos Walking, a sci-fi movie based on the young-adult book trilogy of the same name by Patrick Ness.
"The Current War is the movie I just finished, which I think might be one of my favourite movies I've ever worked on," Holland said."I got the chance to work with a director called Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, who is brilliant. He's so kind, so genuine, unique, talented, and a great guy. The movie's set around Thomas Edison and his inventing the light bulb, and I think it could be a really great movie.
"And Pilgrimage is about a group of Irish monks travelling across Ireland and England who carry a relic to Rome," he said."That's with Richard Armitage and John Lynch and Jon Berthal. It's a pretty badass movie."
If Homecoming is the box-office supernova that many are predicting, Holland could become mega-famous very quickly. He's fully aware of the possibility, but seemed unfazed by it.
"I'm not that concerned," the young actor said,"because I'm quite a chill guy. I have a lot of good friends to keep me grounded. My family definitely do that as well.
"I'm excited to see what the future holds," Holland concluded."I guess I'll be burdened to an extent, but that's the price you have to pay if you want to do this, and I love doing it. I'm happy to pay it."
