Cast member Tom Holland attends the premiere for the film “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in Los Angeles, California, Dec. 13, 2021. Image: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni
LOS ANGELES — Hot off the success of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” Tom Holland is swinging back into action as Nathan Drake in video game adaptation “Uncharted.”
“I’ve been playing two very famous characters who are famous for climbing things,” the 25-year-old British actor told Reuters.
“It was important to us to create this unique style for Nathan Drake so there were no similarities to Spider-Man at all but… when you’re making these big films, it’s exciting to see how far you can push the limits, to what you can do physically, to design these sequences to be unique and be fresh and new.”
Nathan Drake is the male equivalent of Lara Croft in the gaming world, breaking into secret tombs and avoiding deadly traps to seek out ancient artifacts.
Holland does his fair share of daring stunts but the film’s promotion focuses on a sequence where Drake falls out the back of a plane and struggles to get back onboard.
Holland described the stunt as “the hardest thing I’ve ever done from a physical point of view,” spending nearly every day for five weeks in a studio being wired up 100 feet (31 meters) from the ground.
“We shredded our hands to bits and it was exhausting but rightly so,” he said. “It’s a really impressive sequence and I think that kind of level of physicality really comes through on screen but it was knackering. It was absolutely brutal.”
Mark Wahlberg was originally supposed to play Drake in the adaptation but was moved to the older mentor character of Sully when production finally got underway.
“At first, I was like, wait a second, I’ve got one more fight left in me, but then I was like, this is absolutely perfect,” said the 50-year-old American actor.
“We really enjoyed harping on about Sully being a little bit older, always having some sort of excuse not to engage with the physicality… I’m certainly embracing getting older.”
As Spider-Man and Drake, Holland is fast becoming the biggest action hero for his generation.
“A rom-com would be nice if I’m honest but… I like pushing myself and seeing what I can do,” said Holland.
“That said, I am actively looking for a film where I can lie down and do nothing for a while.” JB
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