Tom Holland & Daniel Kaluuya On Auditioning For Marvel, The Oscars And London | Actors on Actor

replicating that energy and that spirit and that type of then, simply relying on certain phrases or certain words or a certain cadence or a certain rhythm that he would set, you could assassinate a liberator, you cannot assassinate the liberation, but you cannot assassinate the revolution, and you can assassinate a freedom fighter, but you can. Don't learn to freedom, there is so much material you can research and it must be difficult to navigate what is useful material and what is good to know material, did you have a chance to talk to his son or his fiancée?

What was that process? We sat down with President Fred Jr. and Rakugo and then they asked us our intentions, they asked us why Ted would care where we came from and we had to sit there in Chicago and talk to them. and then mom queen took me and dominique aside and asked us more questions about what art means to us and how you're going to get to the characters and it's especially hard for dominique who is actually talking to the person next to point of interpreting and yes. and then, and then, they really blessed us, you mean, they really blessed us playing president frederkova.

So I went to Cleveland three weeks before the shoot, about a month before the shoot, and I locked myself in and focused. in the scripts I read what I needed to read, I gathered all this amazing information, it's like okay, cool, I just spent the whole day reading, reading all this stuff, like reading about this and creating some kind of timeline, um of like how did you get to this moment and how do you get to this moment as a person who was from that moment instead of a person in 20 2019 who is watching this, yes absolutely, but there came a point where I stopped researching and I had to concentrate on portraying him and that's why when I really like to get what I have, all the information that I collected, like not having this information, having it as knowledge, then I read the entire Black Panther reading list, there is a complete reading list . read most books, there is a must read list to become politically educated and become a full-fledged pamphlet deputy house fred hampton of the illinois black panther party was there as an article, a clip or a piece of information that was like the most vital piece of information you found was there like something that really took shape that was like the turning point to be like okay, I've got it now I know how to do this it was an incredible dissertation that they gave it to me, it was in that time and it was about the Black Panther Party in the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and the gangs that were around um during that time and it was just kind of a piece on that specific topic. time, yeah, it gave me an understanding of everything else that was around and you just don't see that the thing is there's a lot of information about the death of president fred hampton, but it's not like that, there's more information about how he lived and until it's by the way. fact, did you find it especially with the current climate that we're in right now politically, um, about race and all that kind of stuff like the weight of telling a cat, like telling the story of a real life character like this , it must be really quite heavy and something that you know a lot of people probably couldn't handle, so how did you like dealing with the pressure of doing justice to this character and also educating people?

Because, to be honest, I didn't know much about it. Fred Hampton, before I saw your movie, it's not something I knew, it was a lot of pressure and I think the only reason why in the moments when I let it go is when I realize that it's bigger than me and when it comes to you. You know the pressure that you have, so you get in your head a little bit and then you just think too much and then you try not to because you want to look, it's like I'm a vessel and this is coming through me, whatever the reason is. no.

I don't know why I was chosen at this time and this story was made at this time, but this comes through me and I'm honored to that and then when I opened it up on that operated service, I was able to actually just let it go and just participate in it Tom Avengers Endgame was a bit of a closed cultural event Marvel cinematic reboot uh um, what's it like filming filming a movie after releasing that? Well, I mean, it's interesting, I mean the movie I shot later with Cherry, but with the same directors, which was really strange.

I was really worried that they wouldn't like the transition from making a $500 million movie to making a small independent movie about a drug addict in Cleveland, but they did. It's amazing and now we're obviously filming Spider-Man 3 and it feels the same, it feels like we've picked up right where we left off. You know, they still have blue screens and they have a lot of money and they win. these massive movies and I'm hanging on wires all the time, as far as the actual process of making the movie goes, it feels the same, but what about you?

My question for Black Panther is like when you were making that movie. I've been aware that you guys were sitting on like one of the biggest, most culturally enriching blockbuster movies of all time, like something that you knew was happening or was a surprise when it came out, I think it's something that we were aware of. . It was bubbling, I mean, there was one day we did the waterfall scene and obviously, between the bricks, everyone stayed on the set and there were like hundreds of people on the set and then we had some real drama and in between takes, they would play. snoop dogg beat leave it like it's hot no way and then everyone knows that 100 people would literally do that yeah and when I saw you know this is not going to be quiet that's right I thought this was just like that. just everyone was so you felt like everyone felt so privileged to be a part of this moment, it felt like a moment where you felt like wow, we were able to show this world in the way that we see ourselves and um and and Being a movie of Marvel superheroes, you work with the Russo brothers on two very different types of films and so what did you adapt their process?

Because obviously, what was the budget for um cherry? I couldn't tell you. It was, I mean, compared to a Marvel movie and then an Avengers movie, like it was like a day's work for a month. Yeah, I was listening to less than 200 million, much less than 200 million, but yeah, and it's fascinating to have those. two different experiences with the same directors, yes, what was that process like? We didn't really have that much rehearsal time, we did a lot of rehearsals for the voiceover because that really drives the narrative of the story and we had to get it. right before filming the movie because otherwise it wouldn't make sense for them not to get married together as far as as directors on a movie set like cherry on a movie set like the avengers, they're actually equals and it was just It's a pleasure to work with them on a much more personal level.

I mean, when you're hanging upside down 40 feet in the middle of a battle, they give you notes like a megaphone. They're like Tom. See more this way. look that way and then you make a movie like Cherry and you're sitting behind the monitors with the directors and they are meticulous down to the smallest detail of your performance, so it's very nice to have met them on a much more personal level, so it was nice to spend some time with them without being in front of a blue screen with like 3,000 people and not wearing spandex even once, which is really nice that you're in this guy. from a really fascinating position in your career where you could be where you have this really in the intimate personal story about the darkness of humanity, yeah, and it's like your aspiration is to do both, I mean, I think I'll try and do both. things as long as people allow me to do both.

You know, I love making Spider-Man movies and I think there's often a misconception that they're not for me. They just watch my independent films with a lot more money. We still have to unearth characters and we still have to try to uncover a story, but you do it in a very, very different way, but I foresee that the future of my career will be making films more like Cherry and I'm very selective about the type of work I do , but right now I love making movies like Spider-Man. Can I ask a question? I don't know if you've heard this question before or maybe.

You've done it, but I was like when I found out your dad's a legend, yeah, so your dad's a legend, my dad, yeah, yeah, he likes growing up, yeah, he's a legend, so what was it? ? It's a fascinating thing, like what you drank when you were a kid. He says he's like a really amazing comedian in England, so he's like, what did you take being his guy and him and seeing him and then you felt like you chose this or was it like a response to what he was doing or did you think about it? was your choice growing up as kids, we were kept very separate from my dad's career because, like comedy happens at night, and we were kids and we weren't, you couldn't go see it because we weren't old enough and then, Obviously, as we turned 18, we would go see him and be a bigger part of his career.

One thing I love is that my father is a comedian and that I am an

actor

. Being a comedian is much more difficult than doing what we do. You're wrong. on set you just do it again but you tell a joke on stage in front of thousands of people that no one finds funny must be the most horrible thing. I honestly can't imagine anything worse and I remember doing this comic convention once. In Brazil there were like 10,000 people in the audience and there was only me on stage for an hour and I was chatting with them and obviously at those types of events the audience will laugh at anything you say simply because they agree so much and I.

I walked off stage and said, "God, I'm such a funny man. I think I could be a comedian and I called my dad and said, 'Dad, I'm going to try comedy.' I think I could do it and he said, 'Son.' , imagine doing an act for like six people in the scum I thought you didn't want to be a comedian because it's like you have two different types of careers, that's what's quite exciting is the career very marked by you as an individual, yeah, for me , as far as Like my work goes, the people I want to impress the most in my family because they're really the only people who will like it and believe me they've done it, they'll watch some of my movies and say that wasn't it our favorite. but well done we're so proud of you but the one thing I'm really obsessed with is I really tried to impress my dad on chat shows because it's the only time you can really try to be like a comedian.

So for me, the most stressful moment is doing a chat show and then calling my dad and asking him what do you think? Do you think he was funny? uh, uh, yeah, so I'm very lucky to have him on my side. He's been a great role model for me and he's really done a good job of getting me away from the Hollywood ball because you can see the comedic timing in your Spider-Man movies to me, it's clear how they look. how you come up with the lines and how you thank you, you know, and you also have aspirations of doing straight comedy, like in your future, I would like to, I would really like to, I would be very afraid of all the things.

It's much easier to make a crying scene nice and easy than it is to be funny in a movie. So I would like to and I would like to do it with my dad. I think it would be really fun if we could do it. Together with me I would like to make a horror film. I'm so terrified of what comes out. It's one of the only horror movies I've ever really seen and I love that movie, but I can't tell you how much sleep you get. Honestly, it kind of stole from me, it took me a long time to finish that movie because I have to pause and say okay, I don't do horror movies at all, but that movie again is amazing, I love it. movie since i first saw it i've seen it like five or six times oh man it's amazing you're not alone because when the trailer for get out came out all i had were friends texting me i love you.

I'm proud of you, I'm not seeing it, I don't feel that way, I'm not seeing it, I really appreciate your honesty, it stresses me out watching it so get out, you were obviously nominated for that right so you must have screwed it up. your mind, what was that like mental, bro, he meant, it must have been, tell me about it, it must have been crazy, it was surreal, man, it was surreal because it was like it was the last thing you think about when you're doing a 4.5. million dollar horror movie that is actually the black house and it's like a location and going on that journey because I ended up promoting that for like a year and then, wow, that morning, like getting all these calls and taxes and saying that They nominated me, I remember.

I was in bed. Did you have any idea you would be nominated? What was that previous process like? Do you like checking predictions for nominations or stuff? Do you hear rumors like my team and things like that? like oh he looks good he looks this he looks that but I only really like him if over time I just go without expectations just like find out if I'm doing it right if I don't call like thatno it's not personal what did you do to celebrate? you should have celebrated though no no what happened was I got excited on top of my facetime my mom so I just got up I was up all day I was up all day but I was like I was just over the top like I wasn't like I was trying to pretend that well, I'm going to be an Oscar candidate, this is wild brother and it's like, crazy for me when you go to those campaigns, you go, I'm doing press, it's about the team that's in Alabama that likes which is also in this and likes that you represent them and they have an academy award nominated or the company will win and film on their resume now it's not there like a dinner the night before or something nominated that we did at one of the balloons of gold we had all the mail we sat down so all the male nominees were there and like it was in Los Angeles and that was really surreal because you could meet someone see hi I'm

daniel

because hi I'm tom let's do tom hanks I'm my name is woody, this is my place, so you're Spiderman, okay, let's keep it, let's leave the elephant in the room, it's a spider in the room and like, yeah, what is that?

How's that, come on? "You're wrong, like how your life has changed in a real way, not like how your life has changed, there's like three stages of life changing, yeah, yeah, it's weird, like the audition process is horrible, like were seven months, I think it's worth

auditioning

, I should do it. I've done six auditions and you know how they are, they just don't tell you anything, they always tell you you did a great job and they'll get in touch and then six weeks go by and you're waiting. and waiting and waiting and waiting and finally they did a screen test in Atlanta so I flew to Atlanta and it was me and six other kids and Downey was there so we all screen tested with Downey which was crazy and it came out as well.

It went so well, it's the best audition I've ever done as him and we were joking with each other like my agents told me, he's wonderful like you to learn the words exactly, you can't improvise, you can't do anything So I learned the words exactly and then in the first elimination he completely changed the scene so we started riffing on each other and I want to sound like a bit of an idiot. Then I called my mom and told her like mom. I think I understood it like this, it was like the best audition I've ever done, it couldn't have gone any better and then six weeks went by and I didn't hear anything, like nothing came out, so I had predicted it.

I didn't understand it and there were all these polls online and I definitely wasn't the crowd favorite to get the part and then they called us back and we had to do a fight test with Chris Evans, so they flew us back to Atlanta, another guy and I did this fight scene with Chris Evans that was so surreal and at the time it had been an incredible enough experience that if I hadn't gotten the part I would have felt like I was less than I accomplished something to get to that point I got out to play golf with my dad I lost and I was upset and I remember going on my computer on my phone and checking instagram and

marvel

had posted a picture of spider-man like the cartoon and they told me to go to our website to find out who the next Spider-Man and at that point I had already assumed that I hadn't understood it because no one had called me, so I was like, "Okay, yeah, I said." I'll go and check I have my computer and my dog ​​was sitting next to me.

I wrote

marvel

. I still have the article saved on my computer. I did and it says we'd like to introduce our new Spider-Man Tom. Holland I broke my computer because I like it upside down in the air it fell off my bed my dog ​​went crazy I ran down the stairs I was telling my family I have it I have it I have the paper I have the paper and obviously that was correct about the time when They hacked Sony, so my brother Harry, who's pretty tech-savvy, was like, no, no, no, there's no way that's real.

They've been hacked, they would have told you, they would have called you, there's no way they would just put that online. and then my phone started ringing and the studio started calling me and gave me the news and it was all official and yeah, it was crazy, it was crazy, but the craziest thing is that I found out online the same way everyone else did. others, but no one. He had texted me before I found out. Of all the people I know who could have texted me, I found out first that it was so weird how it happened on the roof.

Hello everyone, and then I got the job. I filmed Civil War, which was like a week of work, and then from the time of filming Civil War to filming Spider-Man Homecoming, I was convinced I was going to get fired, but I don't know why I had just finished the movie, Civil War hadn't come out yet and I just didn't hear anything from anyone. I just finished the movie and it was like I went home and I was convinced for about a year that they were going to fire me. I don't know why I can't explain it. horrible, but obviously they didn't, um, but yeah, it's been, it's been crazy, it's been the wildest rollercoaster, but I've loved it, I've loved every minute of it, it's been amazing, it's amazing, you're a great Spiderman. incredible, I hope our characters meet eventually, I hope we have some crossover, yeah, it's crazy, it's crazy that two guys from London are doing all this in Hollywood, it's crazy, it's crazy.