Tom Holland has said that playing Spider-Man carries additional responsibilities to other roles, "but that its a weight I'm happy to bear."
The 25-year-old English actor is donning the red suit again for Spider-Man: No Way Home, the third instalment of the current superhero trilogy which kicked off in 2017 with Spider-Man: Homecoming, followed by the sequel Spider-Man: Far from Home in 2019.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment alongside his co-star Zendaya, who plays MJ in the franchise, the London-born star opened up about the differences of this shoot compared to the previous two.
"It was interesting," he said. "It was very similar in some ways and obviously very different in other ways. One of the biggest differences was that we shot this film in the height of Covid so we were following all of these safety protocols.
"It also meant that we shot 99% of this movie at a studio, whereas before large portions of this film would be shot on location, we would go to New York, the second film we were in Venice, Prague, London and New York.
"There were big differences but I think the nostalgia of being back in Atlanta, we met when we were 19 in Atlanta," he continued of his co-star and partner Zendaya, "We made a film together, so to do it again back there and finish off this franchise where we started was pretty wonderful."
The opening scenes of No Way Home charts the fallout after Peter Parker is revealed to the world to be Spider-Man, and both he and MJ have to deal with massive amounts of attention from the media and fans.
We need your consent to load this Instagram contentWe use Instagram to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Was there something they could relate to in those scenes?
"Yeah definitely, we call it the scene that never ends," Zendaya said.
"Right," agreed Holland.
"We shot the beginning of that maybe four years ago," the Euphoria and Dune star continued. "And then when we went back to Atlanta it was several years later and we're still in the same costumes doing the same scene!
"It's funny because when we did shoot all that stuff in New York when we were able to be on location for the second movie, it was pretty crazy. There was tonnes of paparazzi everywhere so it was kind of indicative of what was to come in this next movie, which was quite literally that what ends up happening to Peter.
"Life pretty much changes for him overnight. Of course there's a lot of parallels between the idea of a lot of people knowing who you are. I don't think that we have the same kind of fame, meaning nobody thinks that we..."
"Blew up the Tower of London," Holland offered.
"Or murdered anyone, which is great", Zendaya laughed. "But there is that responsibility that you carry, you are Spider-Man in real life and that's a responsibility that you have to wear, and wear with pride and honour, which you do.
"So I definitely think there's the pressures and all that comes with that, but we have a pretty cool job, not much to complain about," Zendaya concluded.
"Yeah we have the best job," agreed Holland.
Holland, who came to fame in the disaster movie The Impossible in 2012, said that playing Spider-Man carries additional responsibilities to other acting roles.
"It's definitely a weight, but a weight I'm happy to bear," he said. "It's important, playing Spider-Man is more than just having a job.
"There are kids out there that might be struggling to find friends, or are getting bullied, and their go-to person is Spider-Man, and I'm lucky enough to be that character as of now, so I'm happy to carry that responsibility.
"It's also very rewarding, it's not a one-way relationship, I get a lot from the fans, it can be from support, love, affection, excitement... I went out this morning at about 8 o'clock in the Spider-Man suit, we drove all the way around London stopped off at different landmarks. To see people's excitement, they're on their boring walk to work, it's cold, it's raining..."
"And then there's this guy!" joked Zendaya.
"Then you see people going 'oh my god, what, Spider-Man is at Piccadilly Circus, what the hell!' It's fun, I like making him be a person of the people."
In recent weeks there has been a lot of chatter about more Spider-Man movies when producer Amy Pascal said this wouldn't be the last instalment with Holland at the fore and promised "we're going to go onto the next three".
When asked how he would feel about exploring where Peter Parker/Spider-Man went next, Holland said candidly: "I think I'd be excited to take a break and allow for myself to live a little bit more of a life so I can use some my life experiences to excel this character.
"I really do feel like this is the end of the Homecoming trilogy so if we were to take these characters forward it would be a very different take on what we've already done.
"I think it would require us to take a bit of a break, let us all going away and live some life and make some mistakes and do whatever we need to do to then come back and maybe bring these characters back."
We need your consent to load this YouTube contentWe use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Spider-Man No Way Home is out in Irish cinemas on Wednesday, December 15.
