In multiple interviews, Holland has talked about how "obsessed" he was with a Janet Jackson song as a baby, which led his mom to enroll him in dance classes at a UK-based company Nifty Feet.
While at a show, he got discovered by a scout, but they told Holland he was too small to play Billy Elliott in a theater production of "Billy Elliot: The Musical." So, he trained hard for two years, grew a bit, and got the part. As part of his training, Holland learned ballet.
"I went to an all-boys school, where I played rugby, so ballet wasn't the coolest thing to do," he told "Spider-Man" costar Zendaya during a discussion for Interview magazine.
"I would do it in the school gym at lunchtimes by myself, in tights, with a teacher," Holland told GQ Style. "So you have kids looking through the windows. To a bunch of 10-year-olds who all play rugby, Tom Holland doing ballet in the gym isn't that cool."
Regardless, Holland told Zendaya that the mean comments "toughened me up."
"I'm very happy I had that training," he told her. "It's been so valuable to my career, and I've used it on almost everything I've done since."