Watch Tom Holland’s Screen Test With Chris Evans During Spider-Man Auditions

Now that Spider-Man: Homecoming has been released on Digital HD, fans can see Tom Holland’s original Spider-Man audition and his screen test with Chris Evans.

In a behind-the-scenes feature talking about the movie’s casting, clips from Tom Holland’s various auditions are shown. But in addition to that, we also get a look into Holland’s screen tests. These were filmed while Holland was one of the finalists to be Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War and the studio wanted to see how he played off of Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans, two actors he would have key scenes with.

In particular, a lot of Tom Holland’s screen test with Chris Evans is shown. The two performed the scene in Civil War in which Spider-Man battles Captain America, although interestingly, the encounter is a lot different here. In the screen test version, Spider-Man goes on about not wanting to be disrespectful to Captain America, and Captain America tells him to surrender. Later, he tells Spider-Man to go back to Queens, acting a lot less friendly than he does in the finished version of the movie. This section of the behind-the-scenes has been uploaded to YouTube and can seen in the embedded player.

From this footage alone, it’s pretty clear why Tom Holland got the part of Spider-Man, and in particular he performs quite well against Chris Evans. In the clip shown, Evans breaks character the moment the cameras stop rolling in order to embrace Holland and tell him he’s doing a great job. One surprising thing here, though, was seeing Holland wearing the homemade Spider-Man hoodie outfit, which would not come into play until Spider-Man: Homecoming.

We also see that the screen test scene opens with Tom Holland flipping into frame. Chris Evans and the rest of the Marvel crew have previously spoken about how Holland’s gymnastic abilities contributed to him getting the role.

“Kids came in and put on these really ridiculous Spider-Man pajamas,” Evans told Entertainment Weekly. “As the scene opens, [the script] says ‘Spider-Man flips in and lands.’ And Tom was really like, ‘Should I do that?’ …Marvel doesn’t want to see this kid break his neck, so everyone from [the studio] was like, ‘Don’t! Don’t!’ And [director] Joe [Russo] just started salivating, ‘Just do it!‘ And he did it — and stuck it!”

It makes sense that Tom Holland had to screen test with Chris Evans, as this was the only actor other than Robert Downey Jr. who he actually interacted with while filming Captain America: Civil War. Holland told BBC Radio 1 earlier this year that he didn’t meet the vast majority of his co-stars until Captain America: Civil War‘s red carpet premiere.

A bit part of why Holland got the role, though, was because of his screen test with Robert Downey Jr., which was really the more important one considering how many scenes Spider-Man and Iron Man would go on to have together.

“Having the charisma to have the camera care that you’re even a speck when you’re on screen with Robert Downey Jr. is a tall order,” Producer Amy Pascal told Entertainment Weekly. “It was magical from that very first test.”

Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Homecoming | Sony

Apparently, it was between Tom Holland and one other actor during these screen tests, but Holland was the only one who was called back for a second screen test, according to Yahoo. Nobody knows who that second person is, but it may have been Asa Butterfield, as he was reportedly a frontrunner for some time.

In the end, though, the role went to Tom Holland. But funnily enough, after months and months of auditions and screen tests, Holland got the news the same way the whole world did.

“After my final audition, they said, ‘You’ll find out tomorrow,’” Holland said on Ellen. “Fast forward six weeks, I was still waiting, still waiting, and one day, Marvel just posted on their Instagram, ‘Go to our website to find out who the new Spider-Man is.’ And that’s it. I just found out online. They didn’t call me up or anything.”

Tom Holland will play Spider-Man again in Avengers: Infinity War, which opens on May 4.