A hip hop class at age nine put Tom Holland on the Spider-Man path
Tom Holland was dancing to Janet Jackson songs at a Wimbledon school when a choreographer spotted him and sent him to audition for Billy Elliot. The ballet, tap and acrobatics that followed later swung the Russo brothers his way when he beat 1,500 teenagers for the role of Spider-Man.
Holland was born in Kingston upon Thames on 1 June 1996, the eldest of four brothers, to a photographer mother and a comedian-author father who has informally acted as his manager. Diagnosed with dyslexia at seven, he was sent to a small Catholic prep school so he could get extra support. As a teenager he briefly trained in carpentry in Cardiff and considered teaching primary school.
At the 2006 Richmond Dance Festival he caught the eye of Lynne Page, an associate of the Billy Elliot choreographer. Two years of training later he debuted in the West End in June 2008 as Michael, Billy's best friend, and was soon promoted to the title role, playing his first night through tonsillitis. The stage success did not end the bullying at school, where he felt out of step with classmates and his GCSE results dipped.
For his film audition, director Juan Antonio Bayona had him write a letter to his mother and read it aloud. That won him a part in The Impossible, about a family caught in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, shot partly in a 35,000-gallon water tank alongside Naomi Watts. Working with her convinced him to act full time. For Ron Howard's whaling drama In the Heart of the Sea, he and Chris Hemsworth lived on 500 to 1,000 calories a day.
Marvel signed him to a six-picture deal in June 2015. A childhood fan who owned 30 Spider-Man costumes, he impressed producers with his screen work, while Stan Lee said he matched the exact age and height he had pictured. Spider-Man: Homecoming made him the youngest actor to headline an MCU film, earning a Guinness record. To prepare, he spent a few days at a Bronx high school where students refused to believe he had the part.
Source: Tom Holland
