The star of the new Spider-Man movie has spoken about his Irish heritage in an interview ahead of the release of the film; ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’.
Tom Holland also spoke about filming in Ireland for some of his previous movies, his favourite parts of the country and how much playing the iconic super hero means to him.
The 21-year-old from London was speaking to John Byrne on RTÉ Entertainment.
He said: “My granny is from Tipperary. She’s got so many brothers and sisters.
“I’ve got a huge family back in Ireland, and I’ve made loads of movies in Ireland. I’ve made Pilgrimage – where I actually had to speak Gaelic – and I was shooting in Belfast as well.”
“Dublin is one of my favourite cities. It’s an absolutely amazing place.”
The movie Pilgrimage sees Holland play young monk Brother Diarmuid. It is also set for release this summer and tells the story of a group of Irish pilgrims and their journey to Rome. Much of the film was shot on the west of Ireland.
Elsewhere in the interview, Holland spoke about Spider-Man: Homecoming and revealed that playing Spider-Man/Peter Parker was something he had been preparing for his whole life.
He said: “I feel like I’ve been playing Spider-Man my whole life. He’s a character I’ve been pretending to be in my bedroom since I was a kid – so I’ve been preparing for this forever, I think.
“But to be 21 and to be given this opportunity, I’m so lucky man. I love the fact that Marvel were brave enough to give me this responsibility and I look forward to doing it in the future.
“I was a huge fan as a kid – an absolutely huge fan. And I literally love the movies, and I’m just so glad that I get to be a part of one.”
“This isn’t just a super hero movie. If you strip away everything Spider-Man then you have a good, well-rounded high school movie.”
Take a look at the trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming
Written by Michael Kehoe @michaelcalling