Tom Holland ignored his agent's advice and improvised during his Spider-Man audition with Robert Downey Jr.

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Tom Holland ignored his agent's advice and improvised during his Spider-Man audition with Robert Downey Jr.
Tom Holland has played Spider-Man in five MCU movies.Sony Pictures Releasing
  • In a chat with Daniel Kaluuya for Variety's Actors on Actors series, Tom Holland said he was told to stick to the script by his agents before his Spider-Man audition for "Captain America: Civil War."
  • However, Robert Downey Jr. started "riffing" as soon as the audition started, so Holland went with it and began to improvise himself, ignoring his agents' advice.
  • Holland told Kaluuya that he immediately knew it was "the best audition [he'd] ever done."
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Tom Holland said that he ignored his agents' advice not to improvise during his Spider-Man audition for "Captain America: Civil War," and just started "riffing" with Robert Downey Jr.

Holland was speaking to fellow MCU actor Daniel Kaluuya as part of Variety's "Actors on Actors" series, and the Peter Parker actor recalled the gruelling seven-month audition process that involved six auditions. Holland said he was competing with six other potential Spider-Mans, all of whom tested with Iron Man himself Robert Downey Jr.

"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," Holland said.

The actor, who up until then had starred in a few movies including "The Impossible" and "In the Heart of the Sea," threw out his agent's advice not to improvise.

"We started riffing with each other, and I mean, to sound like a bit of a dick, I rang my mum afterwards and was like, 'I think I've got it.'"

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Tom Holland ignored his agent's advice and improvised during his Spider-Man audition with Robert Downey Jr.
Iron Man joined Spider-Man in "Spider-Man: Homecoming."Sony Pictures

Holland didn't hear anything for six weeks, though, after which he was called in for another test - this time with Captain America actor Chris Evans.

"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," he said.

Holland didn't actually hear from Marvel until after he learned he got the part by reading an article online, which led to him breaking his laptop in excitement.

Holland made his debut as Spider-Man in "Captain America: Civil War" as the third live-action Peter Parker following Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. However, Holland was convinced he would get fired from the role after this movie because "'Civil War' hadn't come out yet, and I just didn't hear anything from anyone," he said.

Holland went on to star in both "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame," plus a second solo movie in "Spider-Man: Far From Home." A third solo outing is currently filming and is scheduled to be released in December.

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In his talk with Kaluuya, Holland was promoting his new movie "Cherry," directed by "Infinity War" and "Endgame" directors Joe and Anthony Russo. Holland could be in the awards conversation for his role as an army veteran with a drug addiction who starts to rob banks.

Meanwhile, Kaluuya, who played W'Kabi in "Black Panther," is hotly tipped for his second Oscar nomination for his role as Fred Hampton in "Judas and the Black Messiah." He earned his first for "Get Out" in 2017.

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