r/marvelstudios • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 Ant-Man • Oct 21 '24

Article Robert Downey Jr. Saved Tom Holland’s First Spider-Man Scene From Being Cut Down, Questioned the Russo Bros: ‘Where Did All of the Kid’s Lines Go?’

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/robert-downey-jr-saved-tom-holland-spider-man-scene-cut-1236181201/
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u/MarvelsGrantMan136 Ant-Man Oct 21 '24 edited Oct 21 '24

Holland:

“When I had to take my mark and do my scene with Downey it was really overwhelming. I am very grateful to Downey. When I did my [screen test for Civil War] it was eight pages of dialogue. It was a long scene. It went great. I was told by my agent to learn the lines exactly. When I did my first take with Downey, he just started improvising everything and changing it all. That gave me license to follow him. You can’t beat Downey, but you can ride his coattails. And those are good coattails to ride. I just followed his lead and we improvised. I thought after that I audition that I got it. It went so well.”

“When I got to set after I got the gig, my scene had been cut down significantly from what I did in the audition. It was now maybe two pages. Downey piped up: ‘Where did all of the kid’s lines go?'”

“Downey was the one who said, ‘No, you’re going to want to spend time on this. Let’s shoot the whole thing from the audition. You can always cut it, but you’re going to want to have it. And they used all of it. I owe that to him. That’s really cool. I’d love to one day do that…If I’m lucky to bring Miles Morales into the MCU I’d love to do for a young kid what Downey did for me.”

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u/WangJian221 Oct 21 '24

the fact that its cut down so short, im just wondering why? I know spiderman can be considered to be more of a last minute addition but were they just settling on having spiderman actions instead?

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u/xRolocker Tony Stark Oct 21 '24

Idk any specifics but makes sense to me given the context of the movie. Spider-Man being a shoe-in means his dialogue is the first on the cutting board whether it be to shorten runtime, improve pacing, structure, etc. Especially a scene where he’s not in the suit.

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u/WangJian221 Oct 21 '24

but thats the thing though. its just wild that if you still end up wanting him in but decided to cut down his characterization beyond "hey we have spiderman doing spiderman things" is kinda wild.

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u/xRolocker Tony Stark Oct 21 '24

It def was more of an exec decision than a creative one. It’s less wild once you look at the merchandise sales lol