Tom Holland has revealed that he has started training for his forthcoming Fred Astaire biopic, saying he plans to “do all of the dancing” and shoot them in single takes.
“For me, what I love about my job is the challenges,” Holland said on Good Morning America. “We have Fred Astaire next, is what we’re planning on doing. And as soon as I finish with these tours, I’m diving back into the dance studio.”
“I did my first few rehearsals recently, and it both filled me with excitement and absolute dread because I’ve got so much work to do to try and do Fred proud,” he added. Astaire was one of Hollywood’s most influential dancers and choreographers.
The Spider-Man star also revealed that he intended to recreate Astaire’s style of performance: “I have a desire to use no doubles, to do all of the dancing, to shoot those dances in one shot – how he would have done it.”
Widely regarded as one of the greatest dancers in film history, Fred Astaire starred in more than 30 musical films across a career spanning seven decades. He is best known for his screen partnership with Ginger Rogers in classics including Top Hat, Swing Time and Shall We Dance, and received an honorary Academy Award in 1950 for his contribution to cinema.
Holland also shared that a Janet Jackson song was the reason he started dancing in the first place. “[Janet] had a song that when I was a kid, I was just obsessed with it. If that played, I would bounce along to the song in the rhythm of the song,” he said.
This led to his mother enrolling him in Saturday dance classes, which eventually led to an audition for Billy Elliot: The Musical.
“That audition led to Billy Elliot. And that led to me getting an agent,” Holland said.
The biopic has been in development since 2021, when Holland confirmed he had been cast as Astaire, in a film being produced by Amy Pascal.
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At the time, Holland told the Associated Press that Pascal had informed him of the casting during a FaceTime call.
“She FaceTimed me earlier. I was in the bath,” Holland said. “And we had a lovely FaceTime, but I will be playing Fred Astaire.” He also said the screenplay had recently arrived but that he had not yet read it. “The script came in a week ago. I haven’t read it yet; they haven’t given it to me.”
News of Holland’s casting in 2021 was met with mixed reactions, with some calling it “absolutely perfect”, while others pointed out that the late Astaire never wanted to be the subject of a biopic.
Holland recently shared that the “biggest regret in [his] career so far” was giving up dancing after he completed his run of Billy Elliot: The Musical. “I just, you know, would dance at a club or something, but wouldn’t go and take class,” he told Amy Poehler on her Good Hang podcast.
On starting rehearsals for the Astaire biopic, he said: “And the thing I love most about my job is that you can book a film and learn all of these amazing skills from the best people in the business.
“And to be able to do that again and pick up dancing from square one and try to get back into it, I think it’s going to be so fulfilling.”
Holland is currently starring as Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which was released in cinemas on 17 July.
He will next reprise his role as Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the fourth standalone Spider-Man film starring Holland and the latest instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is set for release in cinemas on 31 July. The film reunites Holland with Zendaya, who returns as MJ, alongside Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon and Jon Bernthal.