Tom Holland has recalled how Robert Downey Jr stood up for him during his first time filming for Marvel.
The British actor, 28, first took on the role of Spider-Man when he starred alongside Downey in Captain America: Civil War in 2016.
Holland was initially scripted to have eight pages of dialogue in the film but his lines had been drastically cut when the actors arrived to shoot their scene together.
Speaking on The Rich Roll Podcast, Holland said: “My scene had been cut down significantly from what I’d done in the audition, to now a page and a half or maybe even two pages.”
He explained: “We start shooting the scene, and Downey piped up and was like, ‘Where’d all the kid’s lines go?’”
Downey was told Holland’s lines had been cut in a bid to make the film’s script shorter, with directors Anthony and Joe Russo claiming they didn’t have enough time to spend shooting the scene.
“Downey was like, ‘No, no, no. You’re gonna want to spend some time on this,’” Holland recalled.
“Like, ‘Let’s shoot the whole thing from the audition. You can always cut it, but you’d wanna have it.’ And they used all of it. So, I owe that to him.”
Holland’s appearance as Spider-Man was hugely popular and the star went on to make Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far from Home; and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
In October, the actor revealed he and Zendaya have already seen a script for a proposed Spider-Man 4, but admitted it “needs work.”
Holland said: “One of the things is that, with Marvel, your film is a small cog in a large machine. That machine has got to keep running. You have to make sure you can fit into that timeline at the right time to benefit the bigger picture. That’s one of the challenges we’re facing.
“The time in which we need to get that done is a tall order but definitely achievable with the people we have working on it now.
“We have a creative and we have a pitch and a draft, which is excellent. It needs work, but the writers are doing a great job.”
“I think if we found the reason [we would do another film],” he said. “I’m really, really happy with where we’re at in terms of the creative. But I’m also a little apprehensive about it.”
Holland explained that this was because “there’s a bit of a stigma about the fourth one in all franchises.”
He added: “I feel like we hit a home run with our first franchise and there’s a part of me that wants to walk away with my head held high and pass the baton to the next lucky kid that gets to bring this character to life.”
