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Fast five with Tom Holland

5 things you need to know about the new Spider-Man

FACT FILE

NAME Thomas Stanley Holland

BORN June 1, 1996, Kingston upon Thames, England

FILMOGRAPHY The Impossible (2012), How I Live Now (2013), In The Heart Of The Sea (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016)

1 MUSICAL START

Like many British actors, Holland started out on stage. He was 12 when he won the part of Michael the best friend in Billy Elliot The Musical in 2008. He was subsequently chosen to play the titular character for the fifth anniversary show in 2010.

2 BIG SCREEN BREAKTHROUGH

Holland made his feature film debut in the 2012 tsunami drama The Impossible as Naomi Watts' eldest son Lucas. Not only did he receive critical acclaim for his performance as the boy who was stranded with his seriously injured mother after the disaster struck, he was named the Young British Performer of 2012 by the London Film Critics Circle.

He also won the US National Board of Review's Breakout Performance award the same year.

3 MARVEL MILESTONE

Now 19, Holland is the youngest actor to play Spider-Man. His performance as Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War, which is showing here, was applauded, raising expectations for his solo outing in next year's reboot Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Scoring the role of the popular web slinger was a dream come true for Holland, who has always been a "huge fan" of the comic book superhero.

"Growing up, I had countless Spider-Man costumes," he told entertainment website SuperHeroHype.

"Two years ago, (I went) to a fancy dress party dressed as Spider-Man. I had this awesome morph suit where you (could) put your phone on your chest and spiders would crawl across the costume - it was awesome!"

4 SUPERHERO BOOST

Holland credited Iron Man and Avengers star Robert Downey Jr for helping to soothe his nerves when he was auditioning for the role of Spidey.

He told SuperHeroHype that the US actor took him aside and "gave me a little advice about the audition".

"He said to me, 'Listen, I remember my screen test for Iron Man. I remember how terrified I was. Just think of it as an audition. It's nothing too scary. If you get it wrong, we'll just start again. No pressure,'" he said.

5 GETTING PHYSICAL

The accomplished gymnast ended up blowing his competition away by doing his own stunts for the audition.

He told the Associated Press: "I basically did like a somersault into frame and then a somersault out of frame. I wanted to let (the directors and studio execs) know that I've got some gymnastics abilities, so every tape I sent in, I always did a little acrobatic demo to try and convince them to give me the role."