How Tom Holland bombed his audition to play Finn in the Star Wars sequels

Tom Holland has played Spider-Man in five Marvel movies at this point, with a third solo film on the way. But he could have been at the center of a very different mega-franchise had his audition to play Finn in the Star Wars sequel movies gone better.

That’s right, it ends up that Holland was up for the role the conflicted ex-Stormtrooper, which ended up going to John Boyega. As Holland reveals in an interview with Backstage, he got pretty deep into the audition process, meeting with casting agents several times, but blew it before the end. “I remember doing this scene with this lady, bless her, and she was just a drone,” Holland remembered. “So I was doing all of this, like, ‘We gotta get back to the ship!’ And she was going, ‘Bleep, bloop bloop, bleep bloop.’ I just couldn’t stop laughing. I found it so funny. And I felt really bad, because she was trying really hard to be a convincing android or drone or whatever they’re called. Yeah, I obviously didn’t get the part. That wasn’t my best moment.”

I think the word he’s looking for is “droid.” And in his defense, that does sound pretty funny. “Bleep, bloop bloop, bleep bloop.”

Before becoming Spider-Man, Tom Holland had sneaky audition tricks up his sleeve

At this point in his career, Holland probably doesn’t need to audition much anymore. I mean, he’s practically the new face of Marvel, insofar as that behemoth franchise has one face. He’s also starring opposite Daisy Ridley (hey, it’s an almost-Star Wars reunion) in sci-fi film Chaos Walking, which opens March 5, and playin a young Nathan Drake in the upcoming Uncharted movie. The guy is so popular, I dare studios to ask him to audition.

That said, he still remembers the tricks of the trade. “I would get something really wrong in the first take in the room, so that the casting director would be like, ‘You should try and do it a little bit more like this,’” he revealed. “And then I would do it how I’d actually planned on doing it, and it would show them that I was really good at taking direction. That’s a little trick that I used to do, just to kind of show people that I was malleable and able to work with others.”

Clever spider.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels