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Tom Holland IMPROVISED His 'Spider Man' Audition With Robert Downey Jr.

Home / Stars / Tom Holland IMPROVISED His 'Spider Man' Audition With Robert Downey Jr.

By TheBlast Staff on January 21, 2021 at 8:02 AM PST

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Tom Holland's recent role in the "Spider-Man" series is one that has been lauded by fans and seen great success at the box office, but according to Holland himself, he simply did not take the initial audition for the role as seriously as you'd expect.

The young actor claimed that he explicitly ignored his agent's instructions to not improvise during the audition with Robert Downey Jr., which Holland took as an opportunity to do the exact opposite of, which he recalled to Variety.

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The Audition Process

Giphy | Spider-Man

Alongside fellow MCU star Daniel Kaluuya, Holland got very candid about how little seriousness he put into his "Spider-Man" audition, elaborating on how he just began "riffing" with Downey as their moment went on.

"It's the best audition I've ever done. Him and I were riffing off each other. My agents told me that Marvel likes you to learn the words exactly — you can't improvise. And then, on the first take, Downey just completely changed the scene," the actor explained.

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Showing Confidence

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Holland said that he was initially up against six other potential actors all vying for the role of Spider-Man, and although it seemed good in theory his agent's advice simply did not resonate fully with him.

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"We started riffing with each other," the star recalled of his chat with Downey, adding a particularly confident moment he had after the fact, "and I mean, to sound like a bit of a d***, I rang my mum afterwards and was like, 'I think I've got it.'"

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A Second Test With Captain America

Giphy

Holland said that he did not hear anything back from the production team for a nail-biting six weeks, at which point he was contacted to come in for a screen test with Chris Evans, better known as Captain America.

"By that point, it had been an amazing enough of an experience that if I hadn't got the part, I would've felt like I'd at least achieved something to get to that point," the "In The Heart Of The Sea" star said of the experience.

Getting The Part

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Holland didn't even learn that he had been selected for the part of Spider-Man from the crew members themselves, he said that he, like fans, learned of his selection through an article he read online.

Although his casting may have been unconventional, Holland surely came through for the MCU as a whole, going on to secure more memorable roles as Spider-Man in a range of their films such as "Avengers: Infinity War,"  "Avengers: Endgame," and his solo gig, "Spider-Man: Far From Home."

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