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Tom Holland and Fil-Am Jacob Batalon share thoughts on 'Spider-Man' movie
Los Angeles — Fil-Am actor Jacob Batalon, 22, gets to reprise his role as Ned Leeds, the best friend of Tom Holland/Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the Jon Watts-helmed, “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” the latest installment of the superhero franchise.
Jacob, whose family is from San Manuel, Pangasinan, was actually raised in Hawaii his whole life.
At the Los Angeles premiere of the movie at the TLC Chinese and Chinese 6 Theatres, we met Jacob and his family — his relatives proudly wearing Barong Tagalog and ternos — occupying one whole sofa reserved for the star of their family and his kin.
“Proud Pinoy!” we exclaimed as we happily greeted the clan. They were likewise excited to see kababayans at the premiere.
Jacob, who simply sent a self-taped audition for this “unnamed Marvel project” when he auditioned for “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” was all-shaven and bald that we almost did not recognize him.
Charming and very friendly, Jacob admitted that he still could not believe he is in a “Spider-Man” movie. “I've been extremely lucky and fortunate to find myself in this position, and it is truly a blessing,” he told us.
A 2014 graduate of Damien Memorial School and New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts where he studied acting in a two-year program, Jacob revealed that for someone who has seen the first Spider-Man movie that starred Tobey Maguire at seven years old, he felt he has come full circle.
In “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” Jacob’s Ned gets to have a girlfriend, Betty Brant (portrayed by Angourie Rice) who is Peter Parker’s classmate.
RELATED: 'Spider-Man: Far From Home' goes the extra mile in setting up the post-'Endgame' MCU
Jacob admitted to us in a previous interview that he and Tom had immediate chemistry. “Since the beginning, Tom and I have had this natural chemistry that sort of emulates the whole effect of friends becoming brothers, and to me he really is my brother. So every day on the set, we would just be having fun and playing around 24/7.”
As for the British actor Tom Holland, 23, we recently interviewed him in Bali, Indonesia and below are excerpts of our chat with the talented and charismatic actor
This film will be your fifth time as Spider-Man. How does it feel?
It's amazing to be doing this for the 5th time. It feels like yesterday that I got cast in this role, and here I am doing it again.
Of all the films I've done in this universe, this one I'm most proud of. It was the hardest one to make, and it's the biggest feat and the biggest risk we've ever taken with the character. So, I'm really excited to see what audiences think.
I don't think audiences are really prepared for what we've got in store and for me, it's just an honor to be sitting here in Bali and talking about my Spider-Man movie. It's funny, I was having a pint with a friend the other day, and I've been working a lot recently and I'm tired and saying "Uh I've got to go to work next week, I got to go to work" He's like "Where are you working?" I said "In Bali." He's like "Shut up dude, shut up". So yeah, it's wonderful to be here and the movie is going to be really something special.
You just said this is the hardest one for you. Can you please explain why?
Because the expectations are so high. We're coming off the back of “Endgame” and everyone was so impressed by what the Russo brothers did, that we don't want to disappoint in any way, so we knew the stakes for us as filmmakers was much higher. But also, creatively and emotionally the arch that Spider-Man goes on in this is really dramatic, and he really matures, maybe matures more than Tom Holland has matured? So I was really kind of reaching at times to play this character in this film.
And physically too. Physically we really kind of pushed the stunts to the limit in this film. I don't want to compare myself to Tom Cruise, but no.... there's a sequence in the film in Venice where the entire action sequence I don't have a mask on, so I did sort of 90% of the stunts, and it's from pole vaulting up a 30 foot bridge, and running across poles and flipping off buildings and all sorts, so it was really crazy and I got a few knocks and bruises but it looks great.
You hurt your leg like Tom Cruise?
I did hurt my leg actually, but I didn't break it like Tom. That wasn't a dig, by the way at Tom Cruise. I love Tom Cruise.
I think the catalyst that kick starts this movie is the tragic loss in his life and this mentor, another male figure that comes in. If you could just talk about how important that male figure is in his life?
He is dealing with a loss, yeah, and that is something that we've seen quite a lot in the Spider-Man movies. In Toby's movie, he loses his uncle Ben. In Andrew's movie he loses uncle Ben. In our movie it's not uncle Ben it's Tony Stark, and people, the world are more emotionally connected to Robert Downey Jr. as Iron-Man as they were to the previous uncle Ben's, so we have to treat it with a little bit more care.
And for me, as an actor, I grew to love R.D.J. as a friend and as a mentor and as Tony Stark, so there wasn't much acting involved when it came to missing him on set, but he was such an iconic character and to say goodbye to him was really emotional and this film is the kind of perfect love letter to Tony Stark.
You said because this is all far from home you said "Spider-Man needs a vacation, or Peter Parker needs a vacation" What's a vacation to you?
Coming to Bali to do press.
So where does Jake Gyllenhaal step in?
Jake steps in in a really cool way actually. He kind of fills Tony's shoes in kind of mentor sense, and him and Peter Parker become fast friends. And what's really interesting is, in the original draft, at times they would butt heads and they wouldn't kind of agree, but Jake and I became such good friends so quickly, and the producers and the director were like "Every time they improvise and they burst out laughing, it’s infectious so let's just basically make them best friends" so throughout the course of the film, we become really close and it's a really, really fun dynamic.
Have you noticed a difference in your dating life now that you are Spider-Man?
I don't really know how to answer that question. I play golf an awful lot. I haven't really noticed a difference. I've done very well in my career of only being in the spotlight when I need to be, so I very rarely go to a premiere of a film if I'm not in. I very rarely go to a high profile party. I like to live a regular life when I'm not doing this irregular job. So for me, I haven't really noticed a difference.
Do women freak out when they discover you off stage?
Yeah, I mean there are occasions where people get really excited and they're fans of the movies and they love to meet us and stuff, which is really sweet and really fun. In my kind of everyday life, I haven't really noticed a difference.
Can you please talk of the evolution of the Spider-Man suit?
It's funny, the one thing I asked for was a zipper, so I could go to the bathroom and they didn't give me one. The biggest change was in the first one I had to wear this suit, this helmet on my head and it broke one day, and it cut my face really bad.
We had to reconfigure that, so the helmet under the suit was much more comfortable this time round, but I was still unable to go to the toilet.
It's funny, on the first film, I think one day I spent 11 hours in the suit, and I rang my mum, it was a tough day and “Mum, I had a really tough day today and this and that and I had the suit on for 11 hours I didn't go to the toilet” and then she hung up the phone a little bit angry and then the next day, the producer walks up to me and he goes "Hey Tom, can we talk?" I was like "Sure yeah, what's happened?" I thought I was in trouble, and he goes "How're your kidneys?" I was like "They're fine, why are you asking?" He was like "Your mom called yesterday, and she basically said you need to let my son go to the toilet". So good old mum was looking after me, even when I was away in Atlanta.
Did you keep one of the suits?
No, they won't let me have it. They're like hundreds of thousands of dollars these suits. And you can't put them on yourself, so I would have no use for it, I wouldn't be able to put it on. Not that I would want to put it on on my day off because, I wear it all the time at work.
Spider-Man is this kid in high school. How were you in high school?
I was a good student at school. I had bad attendance because I was working all the time. I didn't fit in very well at school because I started working professionally from when I was 11, so I grew up very quickly, and I was surrounded by adults, and then when I went back to school I was like "Well you're all bunch of idiots".
For me, I grew up really quickly, so I never really fit in at school, but I always enjoyed the subjects like D.T. or design technology. All of my mum’s side of the family are carpenters, so I always enjoyed that. As a matter of fact, I went through a stage in my career where I must've gone for 50/60 auditions and didn't get a single job and then my mum packed all my bags, sent me to Cardiff, in Wales and I did this carpentry course, so I'm a qualified carpenter.
Because in England you need a qualification to work on a site, so I did that which I really enjoyed, and I loved doing it but it's funny because, the course was for ex-soldiers and ex-prisoners. And they were all tough people, and they were turning their lives around, and they'd be swapping stories and stuff, and I'm like "One time my assistant didn't bring my coffee in time, and it was cold" and they're like "Okay, okay actor man". So I enjoyed school, I enjoyed playing sports and stuff, and I enjoyed the camaraderie of that, but I wasn't a huge good student. That doesn't make sense, but that's an example of how I wasn't good at school.
Last year, we saw a wonderful Spider-Man animation movie. Do you see him as a competitor or not?
No, absolutely not. I love that movie, and I love how diverse it is. I love that it explores the different cultures within New York. I think it was really funny, and for me, it's just a reminder to the public that everybody loves Spider-Man, it wasn't like "aah this Spider-Man is better than this Spider-Man." It was just Wow! Spider-Man movies are really great.
So for me, it was really fantastic to have that movie come out and I can't wait in the future of my Spider-Man to introduce our own Miles Morales, and hopefully one day that happens and he gets his own franchise, and I can kind of pass the torch on to him, or to someone like Spider-Gwen (voiced by Fil-Am actress Hailee Steinfeld), whichever way they want to do it. But I really do love that movie. It's a really, really great movie.
How was it working with Zendaya?
There was no doubt that she was always going to be a huge success. She was cast before she even left the room in the audition. She did the audition and she left, and I remember Amy Pascal going "Yup, she's the one. We found our M.J." I was like "Awesome, sounds great". And from working with her, she's a very versatile actress. She's a lot of fun to be around. She's very bubbly.
My brother and I just saw her first episode for Euphoria. It is so good. She is so great in it. And it’s funny, she doesn't drink, she doesn't smoke and she's playing this crazy drug addict, and she really comes across like one. She does a fantastic job. So I'm super excited for that show, I think that show is going to be really special. — LA, GMA News
