Robert Downey Jr. on Tom Holland becoming Spider-Man.Downey also remembers the casting session with
Robert Downey Jr. on Tom Holland becoming Spider-Man.Downey also remembers the casting session with Tom Holland. “He had a lot of hair,” Downey tells me, laughing. “I remember thinking, ‘What’s with the hair, dude?’” The scene Downey and Holland went over for the now fabled audition was Holland’s first scene in Civil War, where audiences get to meet the new Spider-Man: following Peter Parker’s school backpack into the small NYC apartment he shares with Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). “Yeah, I may have done that. I did that,” admits Downey. “And the kid handled it. He was seasoned, good presence. I could tell he had good kung fu; he could roll with the punches and keep it more than interesting. Remember, I’d been testing with a bunch of kids that day. They shall remain unnamed, but they all did well and any one of them would have brought something else to the part of Spider-Man. But why Holland? That’s your question, right? Gravitas. Gravitas and the confidence to be able to take on the mantle.”“Look, becoming Spider-Man is a lot,” Downey underlines. “So why does Tom Holland get to be Spider-Man? That character is the gold standard in the MCU. Iron Man? Whatever. When I became Iron Man few had even heard of the character, ergo less pressure. But Spider-Man? Everyone knows Spider-Man. Andrew Garfield did a good job. Tobey Maguire did a good job. So I ask you again: why does Tom Holland get to be number three?”Downey, of course, has an answer for this. In typical freewheeling Downey style he’s able to zoom out, get macro and stop sweating the small stuff. “What happened at the casting isn’t irrelevant but it isn’t everything. Like I said, it comes down to being able to carry the mantle.” Meaning? “To be able to weather the trial by fire that rains down on someone when taking on such a thing. Marvel fans are wonderfully yet terrifyingly committed. They absorb all of you. They expect to. Becoming Spider-Man is a bit like going down a K-hole: it’s easy to get lost in there. Add in the fact that you are worked relentlessly. It’s crazy. But Tom can handle it. I could tell. He’s a beekeeper.” -- source link
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