I guess we have Jon Bernthal to thank for Tom Holland’s Spidey?
Jon Bernthal is one of those actors you love seeing pop up in things. Especially when he’s playing Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actor also takes credit for another Marvel star’s superhero role.
Tom Holland, who is the MCU’s Peter Parker, joined the franchise as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War. The film was released in 2016 but was filmed through the summer of 2015, which happened to be when Holland was filming the movie Pilgrimage with Jon Bernthal. Bernthal was doing press for his new movie, The Accountant 2, and was on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
There, Kimmel asked him jokingly about working with Holland and whether the two talk about Marvel while filming Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey together. Bernthal then revealed that the two worked so closely together during Pilgrimage that they helped each other with their tapes for both Spider-Man and the Punisher.
“We did a film about seven or eight years ago,” Bernthal said during the interview. “That was where both Tom did his audition for Spider-Man and I did my audition for Punisher. We actually made each other’s audition tapes [working] on that film.” He went on to share his admiration for Holland as an actor and how he’d say “I’m Spider-Man” to keep his beliefs up about the role.
“I was like ‘There’s probably a lot of people that want to be Spider-Man. I mean, you’re super talented and all, but the odds are kind of against you, but yeah, let’s make the tape,’” he joked. “He just had this belief, and when you get to know him and see how he shows up, there is a reason why he is the movie star that he is.”
But then Bernthal went on to say that he takes a little bit of credit for Holland landing the role. Famously, Holland flipped into the scene when he was auditioning. He did it in his chemistry read with Chris Evans and the video has become a fan favorite look back. Apparently that was a note from Bernthal.
“I gave him the note, ‘Tom, maybe you should run up that wall and do a double backflip and then start the scene.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, you think I should do that? That’s not too much?’,” Bernthal said. “I was like, ‘I don’t think any of these other fools are able to do that,’ and he in fact did that. It’s not that I take responsibility for him, but you know, like a little something.”
When Bernthal was done joking about taking credit for Holland getting the role, Kimmel shared that he thought Holland was the best Spider-Man. Bernthal quickly agreed, saying “Ever, without a doubt.”
Does this make me want to see the Punisher and Spider-Man together in New York? Obviously but I do like thinking about Bernthal being the reason behind that iconic screen test between Holland and Evans. And this just made me that much more excited about a press tour between Bernthal and Holland for The Odyssey.
(featured image: Disney+)
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