Movies

Tom Holland Prepped for SPIDER-MAN by Going Undercover into a Real High School

by Victoria McNally
Jul 10 2017 • 9:00 AM

Superheroes are always nervous about making sure their secret identities don't get discovered, but as it turns out, it's actually a lot harder to recognize a famous person in the wild than you'd expect. Remember last year when Batman v Superman's Henry Cavill walked around Times Square in a literal Superman shirt and nobody said anything to him? While preparing for Spider-Man: Homecoming, newcomer Tom Holland tried that out for himself by walking right into Peter Parker's natural territory: a prestigious STEM high school in the greater New York City area. As first reported by Business Insider, in February 2016 Holland spent a day shadowing Bronx High School of Science graduating senior Arun Bishop as his cousin "Ben" (I see what you did there and I do not approve of it, Marvel, how dare you), complete with a fake American accent. The goal was for Holland, who wouldn't start principal photography on Homecoming until June of that year, to get a sense of what a Midtown High student's day to day life would actually be like.

Because it was a regular school day of boring classes, eventually Holland and Bishop decided to have some fun and started trying to convince the other kids in his class that he was Spider-Man. The best part? They didn't buy it for a second. “He’d ask them, ‘Do you watch Marvel Movies? Who’s your favorite superhero? What do you think of the new Spider-Man actor?’" Bishop said. "It was crazy; nobody recognized him.” Of course, Captain America: Civil War didn't hit theaters until May, so I think we can forgive the students of Bronx Science for not having his face memorized just yet! [brightcove video_id="5494714352001" brightcove_account_id="3653334524001" brightcove_player_id="rJs2ZD8x"] You can learn more about Holland's high school shenanigans and even see the neat student ID Marvel had made for him over at Business Insider. Do you think you'd recognize Tom Holland if you saw him just hanging out with a bunch of kids? I probably wouldn't, I'm gonna be honest. Tell us your thought in the comments!

Featured Image: Sony