Some stars are better at auditions than others.
Tom Holland beat out thousands of other actors for the role of Spider-Man in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, and on Friday, he'll star a movie of his own with Spider-Man: Homecoming. To promote the film, he sat down with MTV's After Hours. "We have to talk about the audition process," Josh Horowitz said. "I'm always so curious about this, because it's gotta be grueling."
"It's tough, man. It's tough. I'm not gonna lie. It's unlike any process I've ever been through," Holland said. "I actually brought some tapes with me to show you guys. It's an exclusive scoop."
In the parody video (set in May 2015), Holland tried out two accents—neither of which put him in the casting director's good graces. After a few other missteps, the woman asked, "Can we try something else?" Undeterred, Holland—who played the titular role in Billy Elliot as a child—decided to do a little jig. "The musical closed a couple years ago," the woman reminded him.
But Holland wasn't ready to throw in the towel.
"Peter, are you hiding something?" the casting director asked, reading a line from the prompt.
"With great power comes great responsibility," said Holland, quoting a previous Spider-Man film while wearing a Batman mask and mimicking Christian Bale's turn as the DC Comics hero. "Are you doing Batman?" she asked, to which Holland (in character), replied, "Where is she?"
"OK, that's not even the right cinematic universe," the woman said.
"Yes, it is," Holland argued. The casting director replied, "No, it's definitely not."
"You're wrong. It is," Holland said. "There's been crossovers. There has. I've seen them."
"Tom, if you keep doing this, we're going to get sued," the casting director said.
"I have so much money," the actor said, ignoring her warning. "I'm Batman."
After reviewing Holland's audition tapes, Horowitz appeared to be in a state of disbelief. "Tom, I don't want you to take this the wrong way," the host said, "but you are a horrible auditioner."
"Shut up or I'll break you," Holland said, still channeling Batman. "I was born in the darkness!"
In reality, he spent months auditioning for the role, even screen testing with Robert Downey Jr., who plays Iron Man, and Chris Evans, who plays Captain America. "I had been auditioning for about five months, and after my final audition they said, 'You'll find out tomorrow," Holland recalled on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May. "Fast forward six weeks, I was still waiting, still waiting, and one day Marvel just posted on their Instagram, 'Go to our website to find out who the new Spider-Man is. And that's it. I just found out online. They didn't call me up or anything."