How Robert Downey Jr. Helped Save Tom Holland's Spider-Man Debut in the MCU
Tom Holland made his big debut as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War and with all the rights issues with the character, seeing Spider-Man with the Avengers was something that fans never thought they’d see at the time, so it was a really cool moment!
Holland recently appeared on the Rich Roll Podcast where he talked about his debut and how his first scene in the MCU was initially substantially cut down. Thankfully, his co-star and scene partner Robert Downey Jr. fought to save it.
Holland started off by explaining how things went down with his screentest: “When I had to take my mark and do my scene with Downey, it was really overwhelming. I am very grateful to Downey. When I did my [screen test], it was eight pages of dialogue.
“It was a long scene. It went great. I was told by my agent to learn the lines exactly. When I did my first take with Downey, he just started improvising everything and changing it all. That gave me license to follow him.
“You can’t beat Downey, but you can ride his coattails. And those are good coattails to ride. I just followed his lead and we improvised. I thought after that I audition that I got it. It went so well.”
Some things changed when he actually to the set of the film to shoot the scene for real: “When I got to set after I got the gig, my scene had been cut down significantly from what I did in the audition. It was now maybe two pages. Downey piped up: ‘Where did all of the kid’s lines go?'”
Directors Joe and Anthony Russo explained to Downey that their script was already massive and they couldn’t spend time on the full scene that Holland auditioned with. But, Downey Jr. wasn’t going to let that fly.
Holland continued: “Downey was the one who said, ‘No, you’re going to want to spend time on this. Let’s shoot the whole thing from the audition. You can always cut it, but you’re going to want to have it.
“And they used all of it. I owe that to him. That’s really cool. I’d love to one day do that…If I’m lucky to bring Miles Morales into the MCU, I’d love to do for a young kid what Downey did for me.”
It always feels good when you have someone on your side to fight for you when you need it. It seems like a rare thing these days. Good for Downey Jr. for stepping up in that situation.
Holland has had a great run as Spider-Man and he’ll be back for Spider-Man 4 and Avengers: Doomsday. The actor was also recently cast in Christopher Nolan’s next film.