The Story Of Tom Holland Being Told He Wasn’t Too Good Looking To Play Spider-Man

A young boy from the UK getting the role of Spider-Man isn’t any less than a fairytale. The story of how Spider-Man actor Tom Holland got the role is now quite well documented. However, while appearing in a promotional event for Spider-Man: No Way Home, Holland remembered the time when he was still auditioning for the role. The actor even went on to recall a fun detail from the whole casting process, as he was told that he wasn’t really good looking and for the same reason, he cannot get the role of Spider-Man. Yes, you read it right. The face that’s now adored and loved by so many as the face of Peter Parker was once called too ugly for the role.

Tom Holland Revealed This At a Recent Appearance at the Graham Norton Show

Holland made a recent appearance at the Graham Norton Show, remembering how he “flew to Atlanta a lot of times for various screen tests” to play the role of Spider-Man. It was while he was on his way for the last audition that he ended up getting into one of those bad experiences that almost sank his self-esteem and confidence.

“When I was going for my last audition, I was driving, I was very nervous, and I had this driver – lovely guy – but a little bit too honest? And he’s sort of sitting there in the car, and he’s chatting to me, chatting to me, chatting to me, and you know I’m a polite person, but I also want to be like ‘Mate please shut up, I’m trying to learn my line.’ And he’s looking at me in the mirror and he’s doing that thing [pretends to adjust rearview mirror] and he’s like ‘Yeah,’ and he’s sort of sitting there really awkward looking at me. And he goes, ‘You know what kid, I think you’re going to get it.’ And I’m like ‘Really?! Why?!’ And I was excited to hear that. He goes ‘You know what? I think you’re going to get it because the kid that I just drove there? He is so good-looking. [laughter]” 

Obviously, Tom Holland was shocked by this exchange, but the driver did have some wisdom in his claim – or maybe he’s just a really hardcore Spider-Man fan. Peter’s story begins with how he’s not the cool kid around or even very good-looking when he starts off as Spider-Man – and how he later goes to retain that downtrodden persona to look like a bigger deal.

Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man Faced The Same Criticism

This was also one of the few criticisms faced by Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man/Peter Parker – the Amazing Spider-Man franchise gave too much focus on the fact that “geek is the new cool.” This is all to say: Sony and Marvel certainly had some inner discussions of how much of a heartthrob they want in the MCU Peter which makes it all clear how Tom Holland ultimately become the sort of “boy next door” choice.

At the clips’ end, Holland reveals that he somehow ran into the very same driver a month later after he became Spider-Man. Not very surprisingly, the person seemed bold in flexing that he had lent him some luck to Holland. Tom wasn’t too sure about his part, so he replied, “What did you tell me?” he asked the driver. “That I was gonna get the part, or that I was ugly?”