I’m a kid who leads a very normal life: Tom Holland

As hundreds wait to get a glimpse of Tom Holland at the hotel where we meet him, he walks in casually wearing a maroon polo shirt and sipping water. “I’m a little tired. I spent the morning playing some golf and that’s a mistake,” he says before he settles down for a chat. As we show him the fans waving out at him and ask how is to be in the spotlight at a very young age, he says, “I put myself in the spotlight only when there is a need to be. Else, I don’t see paparazzi following me, I don’t attend fancy parties. When I am not on a press tour or red carpets, I lead a very normal life. I’d like to do my homework and play in the park with my friends.”

Being a popular actor and playing one of the most popular characters on celluloid, Tom considers it to be crazy. “I’m just a kid from Kingston. Now I’m here in Bali doing press. You know it is hard to get sympathy from your friends. But I’m grateful to everyone, who believed in me that I could pull this off. I should thank the casting director Sarah Finn. She was the one who chose the cast right from Robert Downey Jr to me. I went for the audition with my cool hats on and with my T-shirt sleeves rolled up. Sarah changed everything and said I shouldn’t be looking so cool. I should also thank my fans for accepting me as Peter Parker,” he elaborates.

As the conversation veers towards the film, we ask how close the film is related to his last film Avengers: Endgame.

“It’s a direct continuation of Endgame where we are directly dealing with the loss of Tony Stark. However, I cannot talk for the multiverse aspect of the film as I will be spoiling the film. But there are much bigger things that is in the film you can look forward to. It is much more exciting and action-packed, funnier. This film puts him on the world stage, where he needs to step up. It is a fun process to see him do that,” he responds. The story will see Peter Parker holidaying in Europe and revolving around his adventures there. “This is about a friendly neighbourhood Spiderman in Venice. Peter Parker is on a break and he doesn’t want to be a Spiderman anymore. He has had enough by losing Tony. Situations make him a friendly global Spiderman,” he adds.

Tom has surpassed actors Nicholas Hammond, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield by wearing the spidey suit as many as four times. “I haven’t stopped ever since Civil War happened. The journey has been great. I have been working with peple I admire. Its been a whirlwind. Sometimes working too much leads to doing bad things. After a break, I will be working with Russo brothers again this year. While, my brother Sam is always sleeping in his room, Harry is here with me. He is a videographer and we are working on something exciting this year,” he announces.

Tom is also working with Samuel L Jackson and Jake Gyllenhaal for the first time in his career in Far from Home.

“Samuel is someone I always looked up to. He is electrifying and we bonded over golf. Jake has been my role model. They say never work with your heroes as they may not live up to your expectations. But Jake did and his character of Mysterio has a great significance in the film. I’m sure he is going to be proud of his work,” he tells us before he walks to meet his fans in the red carpet and greet them and sign autographs and click selfies with them.

Spiderman: Far From Home is aSony Pictures Entertainment India release and will hit the screens in English, Tamil, Hindsi and Telugu.

It wasn’t for sure a normal day at work. As we enter the office, we bumped into Spiderman going through our newspaper. We greeted him and he performed for us some high octane stunts, with plenty of high flying antics and superhuman agility. This spidey caught hold of some offenders too. He saw a few motorists outside the office violating the signal. Using his webbing skills he jumped right in the middle of the road, regulated the traffic until it became normal within minutes. Thank you Spidey!