Tom Holland Q&A for 'The Crowded Room' | SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversation

Benedict cbat is someone that I asked for advice a lot about acting I went through a phase where I was really really struggling to cry in my personal life also and it was really affecting me on set and I don't know if you got I'm sure everyone and here seeing the imitation game there is that beautiful scene at the end of the film where he breaks down and I just remember watching that as a kid just sort of being blown away by it and I was lucky to be working with him on a film called Uh current war and I remember asking him like how did you do that he would do this thing where he would kind of simulate laughing and he would Breathe really really quickly and that would sort of I guess bring the emotion to the surface and then he could just take it and ride the wave from there and [ __ ] I started doing that and I love crying scenes now Tom Holland thank you so much see you thank God you were backstage I almost tripped out on my way out here so nobody saw that yeah it's slightly treacherous yeah Tom thank you for coming everyone thank you yeah Tom Holland thank you for coming um it's so nice to see you I I did one of these last night and it feels so special to be sitting across from an actor at this point talking about a project or their career um Post strike so tell me how are you feeling coming out of the strike and how did you spend these past couple of months I mean it's really exciting getting back to work you know I I feel very lucky that it felt like a welcome time off for me to be with my family spend some time in London um you know it's an exciting time it's an interesting time for me I've been so lucky in my life that really since I was about 17 I've always had something to come out when I was going onto a new job so for me now everything I've done is out so I have nothing left my agents is sitting backstage so you better [ __ ] get to work boys um but yeah so I I'm really excited about what's next I really feel like I'm starting kind of the next chapter the crowded room kind of feels like the perfect launching pad for me to do that um I feel very lucky to be here tonight I feel very lucky to you know feel excited about the future um I'm nervous but I think being nervous is always a really good thing when it comes to working in our industry it's very exposing you have to learn to be comfortable with being vulnerable um so I'm feeling really good I love that I know you love to feel a little uncomfortable a little nervous you love to take on a new challenge and you meet them always so beautifully and brilliantly um so let's talk about this one that you took on uh in the crowded room take me back to early 2021 when you met with the Creator AKA Goldman and tell me what that conversation was like I met with AA for the first time at the Soo house and we had a meeting at like 1 and I was sort of thinking like I'll go and sit down with him for a couple hours hear what he has to say I ended up leaving at like 10 p.m. cuz I just fell in love with him I just there was something about him that really convinced me to tell this story he's spoken very openly about his past and he has a very deep personal connection with this story and I felt the responsibility I recognize the challenge he also really enticed me with saying that people that I have really looked up to in the past James Cameron Fincher DiCaprio people have all tried to crack this project and for me there's something about that that I was like oh I would really like to be the person to figure that out and then while we were shooting I was like I can totally see why no one wanted to make this show this is a disaster you know I'm playing like four people in the same scene and I'm like what am I doing so I uh but yeah it was it was a great meeting you know I really felt the weight of the responsibility and for me that's something that really gets me going um I don't want you to ask you I don't want to ask you to reveal that conversation because I know he probably revealed a lot about his his life but he has since talked a little bit about um the fact that he's a survivor of sexual abuse and he weaved some of his own personal experiences into this story um you mentioned the responsibility that comes with that but tell me a little bit more about how that impacted you knowing that he comes from it with such a personal comes at it from such a personal angle um in addition to the material which is also already so heavy I think it just required everyone to come to set with a certain level of respect for the material to understand that there was more to it than just telling a story part of this show for me and more for AA was about uh an education you know I was coming into this with no knowledge of of really how powerful the human mind can be and the crazy things that we can do to protect ourselves For Better or For Worse so it was just about being really careful making sure that we were as authentic as possible doing our due diligence and researching and reading the literature and meeting with psychologists and meeting with survivors and talking to them about their experiences and just coming to the understanding that we were telling a story that resonates with millions of people around the world it's an invisible issue it's something you know it's not losing a leg or losing an arm something you can see it's an internal problem so everyone on set felt the weight of that responsibility and AKA was our kind of fearless leader and and he would you know encourage us to kind of ask those difficult questions and go to those difficult places um so we're very lucky to have him and the show would not be anything like it was without his Insight let's go back to what you said about the research process what's the Tom Holland research process like uh you're going to meet with survivors are you you know Googling things are you watching the Netflix docu series that that came out about about Billy's Story how does that how does that work for you and who who are you with on that Adventure so I'm really dyslexic I really struggle with reading so I remember ordering the book and being like please be short please be a couple hundred pages and it's a brick it's a big old book I remember it came through the post I was like oh for [ __ ] sake okay but I couldn't put it down I was I was gripped from the very beginning I dove into this world of psychology and the Beautiful things that people can do to protect themselves and you know we spoke to psychologists our script supervisor jod she's a psychologist herself which was invaluable and I remember on the first day of shooting with we used to have it in the script that Dany uh nominated the information the information about Adam in his first session with Rya I'm performing the scene we're working through it and Jody comes in who's the script supervisor whose job is to you know make sure you're off book make sure you're you know doing the same thing every take and she was like he wouldn't do that and all of us were like whoa Jody like you can't say that to the writer and he she was absolutely right and to Testament to a uh he listened to her and and he knew that she was right and and we changed the script and it took a long time to figure out where to put that piece of information but you know prep was was the same as it is on any job it just like I said we were all under you know the pressure of telling this story authentically so we did as much as we could we read as much as we could we watched as much as we could to uh to bring this story to life in the most authentic way possible um we should mention the brick that he was talking about is the minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel ke's uh so you two should order it in the mail so you can see what he went through when it arrived the surprise uh right it is really good yeah it's a 1981 non-fiction novel I should have mentioned that and then wait let's go back to the process you said it was it was just like every other project I think a lot of people would be surprised to hear you say that because you're not only preparing to play one character you're playing so many characters in one show and working on a on a limited series that took you away for um months um so why was it exactly the same and how did you then how did you separate each character um that you were playing yeah I mean it was it was the same in the sense that I approached it the same the workload was different obviously you know we're we're trying to figure out how to bring seven different people to life we're also going through the intricate process of casting people that I will end up mimicking so I'd be sitting in a room with my acting coach and and looking at tapes and going oh I really like how that person does this that feels like a very natural kind of Quirk that they're bringing to the character so the the approach was the same just the workload was different you know we would work in a studio we would bring the actors in who were going to play the altars and work with them and workshop different ideas and I was very key not to direct anyone I knew that that wasn't my job we were there as creatives and collaborators and I wanted them to create a character that I could then copy um because it also took some of the workload off of me allowed them to be more creative and it meant that I could just kind of leech off of their creative talents so it was different but it just was you know a lot of work most of it was in voice you know I have a really high voice my default setting is like way up here if you've ever seen a film called Spider-Man it's like hey I'm up here so I really really try to work to lower my register which is something I'm actively doing now but I and that was for me what really helped me kind of build these different characters and make these subtle changes in physicality while big Swings with voice because I think that they complement each other really well you're doing a great job with the voice by the way yeah I have to really think about it I'm really like up here if I want to be myself both sound great you guys don't don't they both sound great um wait let's talk about what you just said too so you're in the room you're watching tapes you're watching other actors audition so is was this the first time you were so involved in were you actually involved in casting them and saying I really like this person let's go with them or were you already were you just watching their tapes after they had already been cast yeah I was I was very involved um we would meet with the actors or we would watch tapes and and we would give notes and the notes would go back as feedback and we would watch them ret tape or they would come in and read with us and you know having been on the other side of that scenario I was able I feel to bring a nicer environment to what most auditions are like I'm sure I can speak on behalf of everyone in this room that casting directors are tricky people um but it was it was an amazing experience I found it very difficult I didn't enjoy it I found it you know I really liked everyone um but it was you know the right thing to do and I thought that because I'm going to have to portray these characters I want to have a little bit of control as to who ends up playing the ultim well there's so many reasons to compliment you but even more so now after hearing that because I was so struck watching this at the level of talent top to bottom in this show um I mean it starts with you and then just every single person Amanda Christopher Abbott Sasha Lane you know uh uh will chase I mean you could I could really mention everybody down to like background people and they were all brilliant um so great job uh you have a career in casting if you want one um but wait and then I also wanted to go back to something you also said just about filming so I I was so interested in that because you'd watch a scene in the first couple of episodes where the altars are standing next to you or or they're in a scene on them on their own and then it comes back later in the end when it's just you so were you on those sets watching that uh performance and then mimicking that how did that logistically how did that all work it was to be perfectly honest it was a bit of a logistical nightmare because when you're doing stuff like that you can't have directors directing scenes from other directors episodes so you have to have both directors on set who have their own cinematographers who have their own operators so you'd shoot one version of the scene with the altar the altar would then leave and then half the crew would leave and another crew would come in and they weren't allowed to be there to watch what we were doing at the beginning so then I would be like okay guys so this scene is and it was really tough it meant that my focus would be all over the place so I was really lucky to have Ben Perkins my acting coach with me who was there to kind of Center me and he would take on a lot of those responsibilities um but it was really tough the the best time that we ever did it that felt most fluid was when Sasha was in the club and she's dancing and she's free and her and Elijah are just you know making magic and the way we did that is I would just stand off camera watching her and then the director would shout switch and then I would just jump in and then Sasha would tell me to do something different she'd be like I don't look I'm not dancing anything like that Tom this like watch me and then she'd come in and Swap and and we would bounce between each other and I don't think I've ever had such a strong connection with you know a fellow scene partner as I did with Sasha when we were doing that scene she is an absolute Powerhouse and I'm I'm so proud of what she did in the show that whole sequence of shooting that nightclub was so tough and it was so taxing on her but you know she never once complained she was she was game for everything and she's amazing she is amazing and just such a great talent and her scenes here with you are mysterious and captivating um you mentioned the nightclub scene I'm glad you brought it up I feel like everybody pays so much attention to what happens in the bathroom stall as they should uh but but what happens in the nightclub when you're dancing and when you're at the bar I found also equally Electric can you tell me just about inhabiting that and putting on a little eyeliner and doing a little dance yeah the funniest thing was walk cuz we're shooting in New York so my trailer is just on the side of the street so walking from my trailer to set people were like was that Spider-Man with eyeliner on and his hair I tell you something really interesting I I noticed so we sat down with the choreographers we were prepping the shows before we started shooting and we were trying to figure out how to shoot the dance we wanted it to feel very free we didn't want it to feel choreographed in any way so we're watching all this footage of people dancing from Studio 504 yeah and and we're watching all these people dancing and we're watching it we go in the mirror and we start mimicking it we're watching it again we go in the mirror and we start mimicking it and you know I'm a good dancer we've got pro dancers in the room and none of us can quite crack why we can't dance like they can and we're watching it and it's not drugs that's not why I'm about to say it's not the fact that they're all high what I took away from it was that no one had ever seen them s dance back then there's no cameras there's no social media there's no like oh I hope I look good in this moment it's just people being free and enjoying themselves I'm sure there's an element of you know Molly here and there or people having a really good time but when once we realized that it sort of gave us the green light to really just let go forget that the camera's there we would do five six minute takes and it was fun and it was freeing it was exhausting um I'm so glad that Sasha decided to not wear heels in that scene CU you know I was going to try and wear them as well and I definitely would have broken an ankle that would have been it would have been rough we can't have that um well you got through it beautifully um but what about the other challenges because the other characters you inhabit heels or no heels are quite demanding um I'm just thinking of the physical presence of yito and and also just like the the the navite mixed with sort of brash innocence of of the the young altars in high school and and also just everything else you do so we could probably talk until tomorrow just the process of each one I I don't think you have time for that so we how about just tell me either the most challenging altar that you played or or just your favorite scene well I think creating the altars was about almost making Danny be the furthest from myself um the goal with Danny was to make him feel as small as possible when I was at school I was always the smallest kid in class and it was it was tough you're always looking up at people and and and it was nerve-wracking you know so with Dany I really tried to make him feel as small as possible you know which was so great about Lon and Sam playing the altars is they're both really tall so you feel this kind of like oh he's such a little kid he's vulnerable but what was great about that is you know rounding my shoulders and trying to sink my head into my shoulders meant that when I became Yak I could grow and we could do this thing where my shoulders would come back and I would lift my head up and I would feel like I was becoming someone new so that switch for me was my favorite playing that switch over over and over again switching into Johnny was always really fun cuz he felt very Reckless I love the idea of playing a character that never has to deal with the consequences of his actions so I thought that was really interesting um but for me switching into ysar was such a physical demand that I I fell in love with it and you know we ended up adding a bunch more ysar moments as we were shooting because I feel like I was tapping into something that I'd never done before creatively and um like when we shot that fight on the street with the boys that was never supposed to be seen as me doing it and I was on the day like oh please let me shoot a version of this like please this would be so good and and it works I'm really proud of it and and for me the core was making Danny feel really small so that the alars could grow out of him it really worked uh I loved that scene um the physicality and the physical acting was that your acting coach that you mentioned who helped you get there or did you have a separate uh uh physical coach I guess for that it's all it's Ben yeah he I've worked with Ben since I was a kid he he did my first film The Impossible and you know we haven't done every film together uh but whenever I do something that I think is going to be really taxing and something where I really need extra support He he'll come along and what I love about Ben is his honesty with me and he knows what I can do and sometimes you know a director will say that was great I'm really happy we'll move on and Ben will say give him a couple more like there's more in the tank and I and I love that but when it came to physicality because what I was doing like you guys just watched I think it was eight what you just finished the scene where I'm Johnny and I and I do the line in the in Angelo's apartment and I'm dancing around I felt really self-conscious doing that just cuz you know anyone would and Ben would be the one that would come in and he would just say to me look no one's going to believe you if you don't commit like you have to commit CU you're not committing right now and I was listening to him I was like I know Ben but I'm really struggling like I feel like what I'm doing is too much and he would say trust me you're not doing enough so commit and that's what you'd love to hear as an actor there's nothing worse than like can you just tone that down a little bit that's really that's a tough pill to swallow but give me more is like oh so I'm doing something right and and that's where Ben was invaluable CU I trust him um speaking of taxing I wanted to ask you about this quote uh or actually actually your own quote but as a lead in um I wanted just to read you something that AKA goldsman recently told deadline um in that same interview he said you know speaking of you he's an empath in that way he had the heaviest burden because he had to take it all in embody this kind of pain this kind of fracturing and then live in it and live it on a television schedule in 130 days it was a grueling show emotionally and when I read that interview which was great um by the way way uh uh I wish I had done it myself um but shout out to deadline um but hearing that made it all more clear why you wanted to take a week off or sorry take a year off um and then also why you asked for a week off while you were filming I I just wonder if you could talk to me about that decision like how did you know uh when to pull the plug and and sort of take me through like how you were feeling physically emotionally spiritually um so I I I disguise nerves and stress with comedy that's what I do like I have this bubbly energy and and I I am very much a person that's like I'm fine I'll be okay I'm fine I'll just keep joking about it and I'll be fine and then eventually you get to that point where you sort of hit a wall and um we were coming up to the latter part of the show we were going to start shooting the the courtroom stuff and there's a scene in the last episode which terrified me even the idea of doing it again now is really scary it's very intricate the the the logistics of what we were trying to achieve Danny's play I'm playing two people one pretending to be the other while having an internal argument in my head with the same two people in the crowded room and I just knew that I wanted to have as much energy as possible going into it and the weight of the show the responsibility of aka's story the schedule was just getting too much and I'm lucky that I'm in a stage in my career that when I asked for help I get it and I knew that I needed it so I said to Apple that it would be beneficial to me and beneficial to the show if you could find a way to to give me a week off to just kind of reset and they obliged and they were really kind about it they never once made me feel uncomfortable that I was like letting the side down because they knew that my intentions were good like I wasn't trying to just Nick a holiday like I really needed a break um and then my year off my year off had nothing to do with the show it just had everything to do with my age and and growing up and and I've been doing this since I was 11 on the stage in London and I haven't had a break since I've been flat out and and lucky so I don't take that for granted and I just wanted to spend some time in one place and be with my family and and be with my friends and and and organize my life you know I found out that I was wasn't paying my water bill for like 5 years but only cuz I didn't know you had to do that I just thought that water was free in England it rains all the time you're like why am I paying for this so the break the break was just because I needed to just reset and I know like I said before I am coming into this new chapter I am starting this this next step as a young actor you know you're like too young to play a kid but you're not old enough to play an adult you're in that really weird little middle stage and that's when I was so lucky that the wonderful world of Spider-Man came along it has given me so much life and so much joy and so much such a huge education about the business and now I'm ready to kind of take that education and go on into this next chapter as a young adult and and someone who wants to tell different kinds of stories and I needed that break in the same way that I needed the week off to just reset refocus figure out the types of movies and TV shows want to make and then come back and and hit the ground running that's so beautiful what a good answer thank you uh yes please clap for that everyone should be able to have that freedom to take some time uh and and what's so beautiful about what you just said too just listening to you and thinking about how much you have accomplished and and and to have like the maturity and knowledge to say I want to take a break um but but with the resume you have it and and your age it still feels like you're just getting started like you have so much experience but it feels like you're young enough that you can just the world is whatever you want it to be um I can't wait to see um and I'm really holding back of wanting to ask about how does Tom Holland get his water shut like what happened with the water like you didn't pay your water bill and did it get shut off no that has nothing to do with acting but did you want to know no I think what had happened is is this is so Random basically what had happened is I had two accounts one was actually paying for the water so I was paying for it but then I had another one where I was consistently getting these emails of like we're going to shut your water off and I was like but my water hasn't shut off yet so like I don't really have to worry about this but I was actually paying my water bill I just wasn't aware I was doing it because I don't listen my agents are backstage and they'll be like he never replies with his emails he's useless so I needed to grow up as well in my year off I needed to become an adult I love that too uh I want to go back to to what we discussed a little bit earlier about the co-stars and the actors cuz I feel like in a room full of actors I feel like you guys can appreciate this too knowing the level of talent that you saw on screen and and the level of talent you were surrounded by again it starts at the top and works its way down but I think you know seeing Amanda Emmy rossom will chase Christopher Abbott Sasha Lane Leo Raz Carmen aogo Jason Isaacs I could go on um but specifically the scenes with Amanda are so good um you know yes please clap for Amanda Cipher um she's so brilliant too and she recently said that this role is probably definitely going to be Tom's hardest role that he's ever done he's lucky that he's lucky and the show is lucky that you brought it into fruition she said so many deserving great things about you um but I wanted just to talk about how you found that that rhythm with her in that room she she said in the same interview um that I'm quoting that you know when you you guys did some rehearsal but when you got into that to that room she didn't really know what you were going to do and she had never experienced that before as an actress she had an idea but you constantly surprised her and went different places with it and which was so thrilling I think for her to respond to so talk to me about about that and working with her I think you guys were in that room a couple two weeks or something together just the two of you so how did you find that Rhythm how did you find that Bond how did you find that experience um I mean firstly I was so lucky to have Amanda as my scene partner she was an absolute delight and she brought so much love and joy to the set which you know it was a pretty somber place it was it was a tough show and emotionally like we were all really drained and then Amanda came in and she was like this beam of light um and she's also a wonderful actress so to have someone to play off like that is is a real Joy um to talk on what you were saying about the constant kind of different directions we would take the character really it was because we were in that room we were in there for so long we had well over 200 pages of dialogue to do together and I just knew that if we were going to try and make this compelling we'd have to really change it up and try and keep the audience on their toes so Amanda was kind of like my audience in that respect you know I wanted to kind of keep her second guessing and that's where Ben and I would go home and we would we would read the scenes for the next day and we would come up with four or five different ways in which it would go and sometimes we would even play the scene as other characters pretending to be Danny which was a really fun exercise he would come in and sort of say like just play this one as Johnny but don't change your voice and I would love doing that not much of it ever made it into the show because when I had to portray the other characters it took a lot more prep than just to kind of do it on a whim but it was really fun it was it was it was daunting being in a room with someone for for that long doing over 200 pages is something that could go really wrong but we're just really lucky that it went really right it it really did and uh what I want to stay on that for one second because there's a scene with the two of you I want to say it's episode six uh where you are Danny and it's the first time we see you physically switch into another character you know what I'm talking about um let's unpack that let's talk about that because it was so brilliantly done I found it I I I mean I I knew where it was going but I I I was sort of waiting for that moment during the series of like wanting to see you do that and you nailed it so can you just talk to me about that moment how many takes did it take uh how did you do that just act process again it goes back to what Ben was saying which was like unless you commit no one's going to believe you and what I really wanted to try and convey was this element of vacancy the idea that the body is still there but the mind has gone somewhere else because geographically there is a time break from when Danny leaves the spot and an alter takes the spot you know they are moving around the barn so we had this idea that the switch isn't instant there is this moment of just an empty vessel and for me that was something that was really powerful because it's quite confusing When You See It For the First Time um and I forget who I switch into I switch into yitzak don't I yeah uh or Jack um Jack is in the courtroom so it's yitsu I think yeah I think it is yitu which is a great switch to do because the the the you know the emotional range of the both of two characters is so different it's quite an easy switch to do switching from from Johnny to Mike is really difficult because they're very similar and and and we wanted it to be that way because lots of people you know who have MPD go unnoticed they go undiagnosed people don't know that they have it um but yeah in that moment it was just about finding Stillness committing to the fact that it felt odd um I would kind of let my eyes glaze over and let Amanda go out of focus and sit there and the actual take is way longer than that's in the show I was milking the [ __ ] out of it um but it was it was really yeah it was great I was I'm really proud of that moment it's such a good moment and you were right it's you suck because then I remember uh she feels threatened and in yeah um I watched it you make big mistakes I watched it a couple times to prepare um uh this house sounds so heavy and besides like I mean even hearing you talk about doing you know takes and working long days as we know TV can be grueling and then you're going home at night and working with your acting coach and preparing for the next day I just made me think like what is your uh decompression method like I I mean I know from backstage you like a little reality TV but do you but what is your what is your Escape I mean we all need a little Comfort content at the end of the day sometimes whether it's disappearing in Tik Tok or reality TV or or I mean maybe it's just music what do you what do you disappear into to sort of clean the Slate each day I mean to be perfectly honest on this show I was working so hard and I was so emotionally drained that I would really come home eat and go to bed and I just get ready for the next day Ben would come over and then Ben ended up actually moving in with me because I was like mate let's save time like I'm having to wait for you to come over and I want to go to bed and then you have to go home and it's late so he ended up moving in so we you know we'd work for 45 minutes I I never memorize my lines the night before I always do that the morning of I feel like my best work comes when I'm being most instinctual when I really prep something I I get stuck in my ways and I struggle to take Direction so I like to be like a real kind of like blank canvas for for a director um so yeah really I would work with Ben and I would go to sleep and then on the weekends I would just play golf I would go I'd put my phone away I would you know be in nature and and um and just play golf and just get really frustrated with how [ __ ] at golf I was back then and just be like everything's yeah it was tough but I yeah that's what I would just go and be outside you said back then that means you're better now well yeah yes I am yeah yeah well no no what time are you getting up in the morning if You' like to memorize your lines lines in the morning so you're coming home eating going to bed and then what time does alarm go off every day I do it I I I learn my lines in the makeup chair I was very lucky that I had a long makeup for this show you know the hair and and and you know playing the different altars we would manipulate you know Danny's face in certain ways um but you know it's something that's always come really naturally to me I have this little method which is there's only three ways in which a conversation can go you're either telling a story answering a question or asking a question so if you know your character well enough the questions and answers should come naturally and if you have to tell the story then you do just have to learn your l so for me having figured that theory out it works so well for me I sit down in the chair I read the sides I figure out am I answering the questions today or am I asking the questions and then I kind of go from there that's such a good trick it's really helpful yeah and I've told a few actors that people that I really look up to and they've come up to me like dude that really [ __ ] works I know that's good that's good uh speaking of other actors and friends of yours and colleagues and PE you know when you do something like this uh I would imagine there's people in your life that you trust whose opinion you value uh when you who do you go to who's your trusted acting friend peer you know uh Confidant who you say like what do you think and and you listen and you believe that they're telling you the truth um Zena is probably the most honest with me which I I love because you need that Downey is very honest sometimes a little too honest and I I've seen doitt bro [ __ ] don't bring that [Music] up um I love him obviously please don't cut that out um but I I really respect Downey's opinion he taught me so much and you know I always sing his praises and I love the guy I admire him I don't know if you guys have seen Oppenheimer yet but he's absolutely staggering in it he steals the movie for me um so yeah him benedi cbat is someone that I ask for advice a lot about acting I went through a phase where I was really really struggling to cry in my personal life also and it was really affecting me on set because I would really just worry about crying scenes and worry and worry and worry and and I would worry so much that I would almost like worry myself out of tears and I don't know if you got I'm sure everyone in here seeing the imitation game there is that beautiful scene at the end of the film where he breaks down and I just remember watching that as a kid just sort of being blown away by it and I was lucky to be working with him on a film called Uh current war and I remember asking him like how did you do that did you draw from your own personal emotion or was it from you know is there a technique that you do and truth be told it's a combination of both but the technique that he told me is this kind of thing that he's able to do with his diaphragm which is almost like laughing I'm probably giving away his Secrets here he's talented it's great yeah no listen I'm help yeah right keep going keep going this we need this for the video but yeah he sort of does this thing where he like he showed me on set and we were just hanging out having a coffee and you know people probably look past us like is benedi crying at the coffee station but he just would he would do this thing where he would kind of simulate laughing and he would Breathe really really quickly and that would sort of I guess bring the emotion to the surface and then he could just take it and ride the wave from there and [ __ ] I started doing that and I love crying scenes now I love it I feel really confident it's something that I really feel like I have in my wheelhouse I don't have to draw on past experiences or personal matters anymore which is really important especially for a show like this um but uh but yeah no so Downey Benedict and zind there and uh thank you for that by the way um and you are a great crier I there's one scene in this too where there's like a single tiar that falls you know remember that one is that I can choose the eyes too you can no come on no not that good nah n n Which single tier oh in the in the um in the in the prison in the interview room I remember the one yeah how how do you do that then what so you're not drawing from past experiences are you leaning on the Benedict Cumberbatch diaphragm technique that's a sort of last yeah no like I said to sort of you know go back to the tone of the show um I'm carrying aa's story and the weight of that responsibility and that was very prominent for all of us while we were making the show so we could talk we could have conversations at this point I was so in the character I was so kind of um surrounded by his life that there were times where it started to kind of merge and And the emotions felt very natural and that's when it starts to get really tiring because your body doesn't know the difference between pretending and actually crying so yeah I think in in scenarios like that I just felt so much passion for the project and for the character and and and it just kind of it just everything sometimes happens in a great way and sometimes you got to force it and you got to put music in and ask for 10 minutes and and not be afraid to to ask and take that time as a young kid I was always like I don't want to I don't want anyone to wait on me you know I want to be prompt and on and on time but you know we're we're artists and we we're trying to perform and if you want to perform at your best ability then you have to do what's best for you you got to take that time or or put in some music so what's the what's the Tom Holland sad song playlist what what gets you what really pulls on those tears so I have the same playlist that the director of The Impossible made for me like God nearly 15 years ago now there's like 10 songs on there and occasionally he'll text me a new one he would like add this to the playlist I'm I'm not even working with you anymore man just trying to make me cry um if you haven't seen his new film by the way you have to see Society of snow it is amazing yeah um the playlist what's on the play well do you know what I actually would rather not say it feels very special and personal I like that I I love a decline comment um as you should keep that to yourself uh I um just a couple more questions then we have a couple audience questions too that I want to get to um but I wanted to just talk about something else about that I found so interesting and and captivating about the world that's created in uh the crowded room um because you know Danny is you know disassociating and that's what he disappears into but I noticed um if you kind of look at every character not every Char most of them uh a lot of them they're all disappearing or numbing out in some of their own ways you know uh Rya may or may not drink too much um candies smoking a lot of cigarettes and she's daydreaming and just lost in thought a lot and and Christopher Abbott's lawyer is Stan um Stan is popping pills and uh and obviously U Marlin is you know has his own sexual abuse addiction and it just made me think about the landscape of of you know life and how so many people disappear into addictions or or numb out in various ways is that something you guys discussed at all um I maybe I'm just you know uh more sensitive to it I've been sober a really long time and I just I pay attention to that stuff but I found it all really captivating because we're focusing on this guy who disassoc ating through all these various things and people are thinking how awful it is but meanwhile everybody's sort of chipping away at it in their own life you know as well did you guys discussed that well firstly congratulations on your sobriety that's amazing um wow uh I'm not really sure how to answer that question every character in our show is flawed in some way for a multitude of different reasons AKA would probably be better to to answer that you know um yeah I'm I really I don't I don't know how to answer that question it's okay it was a really long uh leadup yeah and it and it fell like a lead balloon but that's okay we'll move on the Downy thing out and that yeah yeah cut it out cut that out yeah cut cut out that question please uh we'll get to the we'll get to the audience questions better to uh that are more Tighter and um we'll probably go further than my question did um uh Amelia is Amelia here hi Amelia uh Amelia has a question for Tom when did you start acting and why did you fall in love with it I started acting when I did a show in the West End called Billy Elliot I thank you I was very young I was I was 11 when I did my first show I think one of the reasons why I've always had such a positive uh relationship with acting and with Hollywood and with the business is because this was never something I sort out the only reason I did Billy Elliott is because I loved to dance and I went to this tiny little dance school every Saturday called Nifty feet and yeah that's where it all began and I uh I got asked to audition for Billy Elliott and you know anyone any young kid would would jump of that opportunity I auditioned for about a year and a half I was nine when I did my first audition I was too small they started sending trainers to my house I had ballet teachers coming to my school and I went to a very sort of bloky rugby school so being the one kid doing ballet at lunch in the school gym was a movie in itself um and I just fell in love with performing I just fell in love with the art of being on stage I feel like I can be myself when I'm on stage and after Billy Elliot I was lucky enough to be cast in a film with Naomi Watts and Y McGregor and I was introduced to this magical world of film where you can tell stories and there is really no limit or no ceiling to the type of story that you can tell and I remember finishing that film and and going to the Toronto Film Festival and and going to my first premere and and and being a part of the crew and the cast and and falling in love with with the idea of telling these stories and then I came to that really kind of poignant moment in my life where I had to decide if I wanted to go back to school or pursue this new found dream of of telling stories and Performing and working with like-minded people and and meeting people that challenge me and and push me as a creative and I've always really really kind of hungered for that drive and that challenge and and acting and and producing and hopefully one day directing promised that um and I haven't really looked back and I and I've loved every minute of it see that was such a great question thank you great and a well Ed Applause he deserved that Applause um now uh no offense to Cen and and M Micah uh we we went over your questions already um but they were great um so we cover them already so we'll just do two more questions uh from po um who gave two options option number one and option number two we're going to go with number two uh is there a skill hidden talent of yours that you want to use in a project but haven't had the opportunity to do and if so what is that um I guess I have used this skill to a certain degree but I've never been able to really go for it in ways that I would like to and obviously I have quite an extensive background in dance you know doing Billy Elliott was really intensive and I was training ballet and tap and gymnastics and Jazz and we would sing and and and I I have all of it in me and I use it to build characters for me the first thing about building a character is all physicality it's all putting it on its feet and and walking around and figuring out how the character is going to move and a lot of my dance background I think has helped me do that so I have used the skill but I really wanted dance in a film I really want to push myself and and and find something that I find really difficult and really intimidating dancing in a club is one thing um but you know I I have something that I might do Fred a St yeah which is really exciting um I put some tap shoes on for the first time the other day and I am Rusty uh so yeah so dancing would be something I'd love to really really push the limits of and see what I can achieve and so was that just a just to test him out and put him on or was that a official rehearsal or what's the latest it was in my garage uh Ben Perkins my acting coach he bought me the tap shoes as a rap gift for crowded room um and I put them on I went into tap dancing is something I do when I'm nervous if you ever watch me on set and I'm doing something difficult I'll be tap Dan in um Chris Evans does that as well he tap dances which is really cool um but yeah so I have a I'm good at it I just need to just fine-tune a few things but that wasn't an official rehearsal that was just me figuring out whether I could still do it that's great uh one more question um by the way this has been so great yeah thank so wonderful this has been amazing guys this is so wonderful um you're amazing I could sit here all night long uh I've really LED this and what I love the most about it and this is going to lead into the last question is just that you have you've accomplished this you you really you know stepped up the to the challenge and knocked it out of the park I think that what you did here is so brilliant and um so a round of applause for the crowded room and then to hear you say that like the Slate is clean and now you had you you you took the Breather and now you're ready to get back to work so in closing I mean you mentioned directing you mentioned the Fred of stair so you know coming out of this time what is it that Tom wants to do in the next 5 to 10 years or what's you know where do you see yourself going from here I just I just want to do things that scare me and things that I feel uncomfortable with you know I think when you do what we do you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable this show is a perfect example of that Ben consistently telling me if you don't commit they won't believe you and the reason I wasn't committing is because I was afraid you know I I I've never done anything like this before and I got so used to the Marvel machine and the safety blanket of Spider-Man and feeling like I was protected doing something like this was incredibly scary but because it was so scary it was so fulfilling and so rewarding so for me going forward if there's something that I feel like I can't do I'll be like I want to do that one you know you know playing a sort of stupid English doofus Geer is not what I want to do because that's my life um so so yeah so that's that's what I'd like to do something that scares me it's amazing well I can't wait to see I know everybody here probably feels the same way you guys thank you so much for coming out uh and thank you and thank you to my friends at the SAG after foundation for hosting this and please get home safely and one more round of applause for Tom Holland [Applause] please

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 80,491

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Q&A, Interview

Id: oosKCCawV3g

Length: 50min 1sec (3001 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 01 2023