In an interview and fashion gallery in the July edition of GQ, Tom Holland sheds his Spider-Man garb and dons a vintage poolside look.
Saint Laurent shirt, £588, available at matchesfashion.com. Levi’s jeans cost $54 at levi.com. Garrett Leight eyewear is available at garrettleight.com for £287. £1,690 Baume & Mercier watch.baume-et-mercier.co.uk. The Great Frog’s £243 necklace is available at thegreatfrogoflondon.com. Shirt, £153. On sun loungers. £69 for a tee. Each from Levi’s.levi.com.Campbell Smith
Tom Holland didn’t receive a text message from an agent, a phone call from a studio executive, or a voicemail from the director informing him that he had been offered the highly sought-after part of the new Spider-Man. Instead, the 21-year-old learned he would be portraying the most well-known spider bite victim on Instagram.
After playing (and losing badly to) his dad in a morning round of golf, he was sitting in his childhood bedroom at home in Kingston Upon Thames on a Saturday when he unexpectedly came across the Marvel account, which featured a picture of Spider-Man and directed followers to the website to learn who the actor would be. He was there. Predictably, Holland lost his mind. The canines began to bark. Thinking he may damage himself, his mother hurried upstairs.What’s the issue? I’m the Spider-Man.
His older brother gave the word of caution. The Sony hack has just happened.Has anyone actually contacted you? Okay, no…
Holland was fortunate that it was a leak rather than a hack; Marvel hurriedly released the news when it was about to leak, which is why the late phone call, which promptly arrived from the studio 30 minutes later, was necessary.
“So I think before it looked like a leak, Marvel did a big press release to make it look like they had released it. Though obviously I’ve just kiboshed those plans by telling you!”
Plus, he says, not only was it a relief when he did get the call to confirm it, he’d also got the proper celebrating out of his system. “I was lucky to get the huge excitement out of the way, then have a calm, collected conversation with my new bosses.”
Holland, who first gained notoriety in the tsunami drama The Impossible as the son of Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, is the second Brit (after Andrew Garfield) to don the spandex of one of the most recognizable superheroes in the US. This role also assisted Holland in winning the recent Rising Star Bafta. The fact that he will be a part of the larger Marvel universe, which included a witty cameo in last year’s Captain America: Civil War and recently saw him filming the Marvel royal rumble that is next year’s Avengers: Infinity War, which also stars (deep breath) Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Scarlett Johnasson as Black Widow, Vin Diesel, and Tom Holland as Vin.
It meant that Holland would be “shooting two days in Atlanta, two days in London, flying every third day in between” while also filming Cumberbatch’s Oscar-bait movie on the invention of electricity, The Current War. He recalls one occasion when he was delayed in customs and arrived at his hotel at 4.30 in the morning before being picked up for a 16-hour Avengers shoot and then taking a flight back to London. He claims that was not enjoyable. Most actors who are donning a cape or wearing spandex would admit that they were comic book fans when they were younger. But Holland’s passion with Spider-Man definitely goes beyond that.
Over the years, he says, “as a child, I definitely went through multiple costumes. I’d go to bed in my costume, wake up in it, spend all day in it…” Tom Holland liked Spider-Man.
Just five years ago, he adds, he went to a party dressed as – you guessed it – Spider-Man. There was just one problem. “It wasn’t a fancy dress party. It was just a regular party. And I was there as Spider-Man.”
The real costume, he says, was trickier. Due to a head he describes as “weirdly egg-shaped”, he wore a helmet under the suit. Once the eyes were clipped in, he says, “I could only see about five feet in front of me, with no peripheral vision.” It led, once, to him being clobbered by a stuntman. “Yeah, I got punched in the face. I was supposed to dodge it and I just didn’t see it coming. He cracked me in the head. He had this massive gauntlet in his hand, a big metal fist type thing, and he punched me in the face so hard, like you wouldn’t believe. But it looks great! I hope they use it. It’s one of those things where you stand up and you’re angry, like, ‘What the hell, man? You punched me in the head!’ Then you realise it’s entirely your fault.”
Next up, he says, he’d naturally like to play some edgier roles (“I’ve played a lot of wide-eyed kids”), but before then there’s the small matter of being contracted for three more Spider-Man movies. “But on the second film, we’re gonna have to sort the suit.”