By Gill Pringle
We know you can’t give much away, but what was happening in that moment you’ve just filmed?
I, uh, I couldn’t possibly tell you. It’s a very, very important sequence for us, and it’s one of the first moments we really see Peter without his mask on, or Spider-Man without his mask on, and it’s where you see the contrast between Spider-Man and Peter. And you see him make a very, very important decision in a very, very drastic environment, and that decision is what shapes him to becoming one of the most powerful superheroes in the MCU.
What’s it been like working with Michael Keaton?
It’s been a real dream come true. I had a very strange situation today where Michael asked me to punch him, and I was thinking to myself, ‘I’m not going to punch Michael Keaton, that’s just, I’m not going to do that.’ And he was like, ‘Punch me, come on!’ And I sort of punched him in the chest, I kind of, like, didn’t really mean it, didn’t want to hurt him, and he was like, ‘No, hit me!’ I said, ‘Okay! ‘So I gave him a good cracking, and it was just before one of the takes, and that is actually very useful as an actor, to have physical contact with someone. I don’t normally like being punched, but apparently Michael does.
So was this just like a method thing, he wanted you to…?
Well, it’s the scene, we’re in the moment, we were so close and it’s such a heated beat between the two of us, and obviously as you can tell, by my face and my makeup, it’s been a pretty heavy scene, and it’s just about making sure we’ve come from the same mindset at the same time.
Did you have any special training for this movie?
I was a dancer when I was really small, I did a show in the West End called Billy Elliot, which has been a huge help for this movie, especially ballet and gymnastics, but when I first arrived here, in this building that we were shooting in today, was our stunt stage, and I spent a month just jumping, and landing, and rolling and flipping, and being pulled around on wires, so I could become comfortable with being thirty feet up in the air and dropping to the floor. I’ve had some really good training from some of the best in the business.
What was your first reaction when you found out that you were going to be Spider-Man?
Wow, that was a crazy day. I was actually playing golf with my dad that day, and I lost, which is never good. And I was really upset, and I’d been waiting to hear for a month after my second screen test, and I was in my bedroom scrawling through Instagram, and Marvel posted saying, ‘go to our website to find out who the next Spider-Man is’. What? So I got my computer, I open it up, go onto the Marvel website, and then the first page that came up was the Spider-Man page, and I closed my computer, and I was so honoured to have just got that far, to have met Robert and Chris and to have worked with the Russos, that I would have been kind of happy no matter what happened. But obviously there was one situation that I was kind of hoping for. But when I read it, I was overjoyed, I was screaming and shouting, and running around the house, my poor dog was terrified, and my little brother Harry, who’s quite savvy with computers, said, ‘Dude, they might’ve been hacked, I’m sure they would’ve rung you’. You know, like something’s probably happened. So I rang my agent, and then Kevin rang me, like, you know that you’re Spider-Man, like I know dude, you put it on Instagram! I’ve seen it already! But it was a very euphoric experience.
What is it about Peter Parker? Obviously we know that he’s this sixteen year old who doesn’t kind of fit in, he’s given this extraordinary power, so how do you think that manifests itself into a story that people identify with so strongly?
That’s a good question. I think it’s because Peter Parker is an everyday person. We’ve seen the billionaire, we’ve seen the god, we’ve seen the soldier, we’ve seen the scientist, now we get to see the kid. Peter Parker goes through things that every teenage boy goes through, and that’s why I related with him so much as a kid, and that’s why I think the world has related so much with him. And to see a fifteen year old boy be given this opportunity and to be thrust into this crazy universe is so exciting, and so fun, and it’s every kid’s little dream. I mean, it’s been my dream, it still is my dream, and I’m the closest person that’s going to get to being Spider-Man, so it’s that for me, to see a kid enjoy his superpowers, is the best part of this process.
You stole the film in Civil War because there was such exuberance in this character, that he was just a kid in a candy store. How is that going to play out in this film as well?
I’m sort of a very exuberant person myself, I like to bring that to work with me, but one of the most interesting things about this film is seeing a superhero not know how to be a superhero. He doesn’t know the extent of his powers yet, he doesn’t know what his abilities are. So watching a kid learn that, and enjoy learning that, is a joy to watch, and there’s a lot of funny moments of me making mistakes, and missing things, and falling over, and there’s one sequence in the movie in particular, that is going to be really funny.
Did you have a Spider-Man costume growing up?
I had about thirty. My mum’s here now, and we actually found the other day my first ever one, and it’s like a little tiny baby one. And I would never have imagined that I’d be here today with you guys in this room, making this movie, I couldn’t have imagined it.
Did you have like, Spider-Man themed birthday parties and stuff like that?
Yeah, without a doubt. And if anyone else showed up as Spider-Man, I was like, ‘Listen, dude, you need to change. That’s my costume.’ But it’s funny, my brother Patty, he still sleeps in my old Spider-Man duvet covers. I mean, those covers must be what, ten years old?
How would you say that your Spider-Man’s different from Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire?
It’s very difficult to not take influence from what those guys did, because what they did was so great, but I think obviously the main difference for us is that I’m much younger, we’re taking him back to high school, and he’s now integrated in this universe where he’s not the only superhero. He’s in a universe now where, sort of, vigilantism is a real thing, and he has fallen right in the deep end of that. And it’s really fun to see someone try and look up to these superstars, and these superheroes, but not quite be old enough and skillful enough to be there.
Did you have a chance to talk to either Andrew or Tobey about it?
I haven’t spoken to them, no. They both said some really lovely things about me when I was cast, and once the movie came out they were very kind, and very encouraging, so I’m very happy.
You were talking about the chemistry between you and Michael, but how does the chemistry work between you and Marisa, and Robert Downey Jr?
It’s so much fun, it’s a lot of fun. I mean, my first screen test with Robert, as you can probably imagine, was terrifying. But as soon as you meet him, you realise that he’s just sort of an ordinary guy, who’s really hard working, he’s never late, he’s always very well prepared, and you just realise that you’re there to do the same job, and you get on, and we got on immediately, and it’s the same with Marisa. It’s been a pleasure working with her so far, and we’ve had a lot of fun, improvising and making stuff up, and trying to mess with each other, and we really have built some lovely relationships on set.
Has it been difficult doing the American accent, and which American TV shows did you watch to practice?
Ah, no, the American accent for me isn’t too difficult, the two hardest things for me being here is not making Spider-Man Southern, because we’re here in Georgia, so I’ve been picking up the Southern accent every now and then. And I find Spider-Man so difficult to say in American, for some reason. I just don’t know what it is, it’s one of the one things that I can’t say properly, and it’s like, the most important line in the movie. So I’m sure we’ll be re-recording that when we come to it. But American television, when I was growing up Friends was this huge thing, Breaking Bad, I love television, I love all television really.
What’s the coolest moment for you that you’ve done so far? What’s the one scene, or sequence, that you went, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this’?
Wow, there’s so much. I mean, look around you, there’s so much cool stuff going on in this movie. I think one of the most surreal experiences, it’s actually on the internet, was when I was stealing, or stopping, a bike thief. And I was dangling in the middle of the street, in the Spider-Man suit, and just watching people walk past, and double taking, going ‘what is going on up there? That’s Spider-Man!’ That for me was one of the most surreal experiences. But I think the single most surreal experience for me was the children’s hospital the other day, we went in the suit, and we went with all our Marvel team, and to meet the kids, and for them to see the suit was the most magical moment of making this movie.
What’s on your playlist that you listen to?
What’s on my playlist? Wow, it depends. If I’m about to fight someone, it’ll probably be some old school hip hop, from the ‘90s or something like that, but today I was listening to ‘Win One for the Reaper’, from Lost, or ‘To Build a Home’, from the Cinematic Orchestra. Both songs that I was introduced to by Juan Antonio Bayona, from making The Impossible.
Is it strange going back into the classroom, because you’ve graduated now, school’s over?
I never really went to the classroom anyway, I was always working, so it’s a bit of a new experience for me. One of the strangest experiences for me making this movie, was Marvel sent me to a high school in New York, to go undercover. I had a fake name, my name was Ben Perkins, who’s my old acting coach from The Impossible, and it was great fun, it was so cool to see how different American high schools are to English schools. Because at my school, I had to go to school in a suit and tie every day, I was suddenly thinking, like, ‘what am I going to wear tomorrow, I don’t know what to do’, and to be in a class with – it was a science school, so I didn’t fit in at all. It was really, really not my place. But it’s funny, I actually have a video of me interviewing a kid, asking him about the new Spider-Man, or the new Civil War movie, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I love it, I really like it’, and I said, ‘So what do you think about Spider-Man?’ he’s like, ‘Yeaaaah… you know. Nothing special.’ And I’m like standing in front of him, like, ‘Oh, cool, that’s awesome, thanks man, bye.’
Part of the story that we’ve been told about is that at the beginning Tony Stark is obviously your mentor. And he kind of tells you, ‘Don’t do anything, just get used to stuff,’ and you being so precocious, you kind of have to venture out. Just talk a little bit about that aspect of the character, what are we telling the audiences about him, is he just all that energy bottled up that he has to distribute it some way?
I don’t think he’s rebelling at all. I just think he happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Peter Parker is probably the most unlucky superhero in the whole world, and he just happens to stumble across things that he shouldn’t be stumbling across. And once teenage boys’ curiosity starts going, I mean, we all know what it’s like, you just have to find out what’s going on. And he has a great drive, and he also wants to do what’s right, and he also feels like he’s seeing something no one else is seeing, so it’s his responsibility to make sure he does right by everyone.
How does it really play out with Tony Stark and is it a mentorship?
That’s something you’ll have to wait and see. I don’t really see it as a mentorship, I see it as a big brother relationship. Because we were playing with the idea that he becomes a sort of father figure towards Peter by the end of the movie, but by the beginning of the movie it’s definitely a sort of ‘big brother, push you around, I’m better than you’ relationship, and I think that also gives Peter the drive to kind of prove himself.
