Tom Holland Auditioned Eight Times For Spider-Man

Tom Holland had to audition eight times before he landed the coveted role of Peter Parker. The actor made the big reveal in a recent interview with Good Morning America while promoting his upcoming solo debut Spider-Man: Homecoming, saying that it took quite a while for him to convince producers to give him the part.

Holland says he loved Spider-Man growing up because he could relate to the character. "I was also going to high school, I was also struggling talking to girls, struggling with homework," he said. "That's why I think he's one of the most loved characters in this universe." 

Holland knew that Spider-Man was a part that required quite a lot of gymnastics work, and luckily, he already had experience with that from his role in the London stage production of Billy Elliott. During his auditions for Spider-Man, Holland kept sending producers videos of him doing backflips to show off his gymnastics skills, but he says they didn't actually come up until the final audition, when he was doing a fight scene with Chris Evans. The scene apparently said that Spider-Man would flip into frame, and Holland asked if he could actually do a flip. "They're like, 'Can you do a flip?'" he said. "I was like, 'Yes! I've been sending you all these videos for weeks.' But yeah, so I did a lot of flips." 

Although he was constantly doing his own stunts on set, Holland says he was able to avoid injuries– that is, while doing the stunt work. The actor says that his worst injury actually happened just a couple days before the end of shooting when he was packing up to leave the set. On his way out, he slipped while walking down the stairs and ended up tearing his ACL. 

In the end, though, all the work was worth it, with Holland saying he was blown away after recently seeing a final cut of the film with his family. "The best was my dad," he said. "My dad doesn't like superhero movies at all and he was like close to tears... It was an amazing experience to see all together."

You can watch Holland's full interview (in which he also dances with former Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter) above. Robert Downey Jr., Jon Favreau, Michael Keaton, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Bokeem Woodbine, Logan Marshall-Green, and Michael Chernus also star Spider-Man: Homecoming, which was directed by Jon Watts based on a script from Watts, John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers. The movie is due out July 7; for now, see how Holland stays in superhero shape.