The “flawless” performance Tom Holland needs everyone to see: “He is so good in that film”
Is Tom Holland a good actor? He’s definitely a world-famous and massively successful one, but has he ever delivered a knockout performance that’s made everyone sit up and take notice?
That might sound a little harsh, considering he hasn’t even turned 30 yet and playing Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has dominated most of his career, but he’s still managed to appear in almost 20 live-action films and a couple of TV shows.
It’s not that he’s a bad actor either, but after lending his name to a string of notable flops and mediocre blockbusters like Uncharted, Chaos Walking, Cherry, and In the Heart of the Sea, he might want to have a word with his agent to ensure he isn’t just ‘the Spider-Man guy’ and nothing else.
Admittedly, it’s an enviable position to be in, headlining a multi-billion dollar franchise as one of the most recognisable fictional characters on the planet and working with people like Christopher Nolan, who won’t hire someone unless he believes they’re talented enough to be welcomed into his repertory. Nevertheless, so far, Holland’s breakout, standout, and career-altering dramatic turn has remained out of reach.
There’s no reason to believe it won’t happen, especially when he declared that every aspiring or established actor needs to see a performance that had much the same effect on the breakout star who performed it. When Backstage asked him to name the ultimate must-see, Holland didn’t hesitate.
“Primal Fear,” he stated, highlighting, “Edward Norton. Richard Gere. He is so good in that film, and I’ve always sort of aspired to play a role like that. That performance in that film is flawless.” In one of the most memorable feature debuts in recent history, Norton was astonishing as Aaron Stampler, earning an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Actor’.
There’s something poetic about Holland insisting that everyone needs to see Norton’s work in Primal Fear because his peers were fully aware that the part was a career-maker. Matt Damon unsuccessfully auditioned, and he knew as soon as he read the script that it was a winner, but at least he put his jealousy to one side and worked with Norton on Rounders soon after.
It was also the first thing Pedro Pascal ever auditioned for, with James Van Der Beek and James Marsden among the other soon-to-be stars who lost out. An actor’s first film isn’t necessarily the make-or-break moment for their career, but as far as introductions go, they don’t come much better than Primal Fear, announcing to the world that Norton was a force to be reckoned with.
Holland did make an impression with his own debut when he played a pivotal supporting role in JA Bayona’s disaster drama The Impossible, but he was barely into his teens at the time, so it’s hardly a like-for-like comparison. Every actor probably dreams of landing a Primal Fear-style showcase right out of the gate, but it’s a lot easier said than done. Either way, the erstwhile Peter Parker thinks it’s essential viewing for anyone with designs on making it in the industry.
