Tom Holland was the youngest actor ever to be cast as a live-action Spider-man. Still, Holland was nineteen when he first took on the role of the webbed wall-crawler and soon outgrew his teen years as he continued to play Spider-Man as a 15/16-year old. In a new interview with L.A. Times, the actor revealed he has a nifty trick that he uses to make himself appear younger as Peter Parker.
“Physicality for me is the biggest way I try to distinguish between the characters that I play. If you look at Peter Parker, he’s very bubbly, and I do this thing where I leave my arms really loose. It gives him this juvenile, kid-like physicality.”
Holland’s trick becomes immediately apparent when you compare his portrayal of Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield. Maguire’s Spidey/Peter had the most rigid body language, befitting the fact that he was a full adult for most of his career as a crime fighter.
Garfield’s Spider-Man had a much more loose body language, but the “tortured loner” aspect of the role that the actor embodied so well meant most of his appearances as Peter made for a broody character rather than a childish one.
On the other hand, Holland’s appearance as Spider-Man, right from Captain America: Civil War, had a joyful, youthful quality. This version of Spidey would frequently do flips or swing his arms around for no good reason other than an excess of youthful energy, and as Holland points out, that helped differentiate his version of the character as younger and more child-like than the previous iterations.
Still, while Holland’s take on Spider-Man is arguably the most popular one yet, the actor had his own doubts about whether or not he would be allowed to continue to portray the character after his initial entry into the MCU. In a previous interview, Holland had confessed that he was constantly on edge in his early days, convinced that he was going to be fired from the role.
“From the moment of shooting Civil War to Spider-Man: Homecoming, I was convinced they were going to fire me. I don’t know why. Civil War hadn’t come out yet, and I just didn’t hear anything from anyone. I can’t really explain it. It was awful, but they didn’t – obviously. It’s been crazy, mate. I’ve loved every minute of it.”
Not only did Tom Holland manage to stay the course as Spider-Man, but he is often seen as the most popular new addition to the MCU, and the one destined to take the place of Robert Downey Jr./ Iron Man as the next central star of the franchise. Holland will next be seen in his third solo Spider-Man movie where Spidey will be dealing with the problems of not just one universe, but the entire multiverse.
Directed by Jon Watts, the currently untitled sequel to Spider-Man: Far From Home stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Jamie Foxx, Alfred Molina and Benedict Cumberbatch. The film arrives in theaters on December 17, 2021. Thijs news comes from Los Angeles Times.