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Tom Holland appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers to discuss his hit Uncharted. I don’t know who I have a bigger crush on, Tom or Seth. Age-wise Seth is more appropriate so we’ll go with him but needless to say, I could watch this interview for days. During his segment, Tom gave several behind-the-scenes details on both Uncharted and Spider-Man: No Way Home. So many, in fact, that I have to put spoiler warnings for one of my links. Some of the stories that aren’t spoilers, though, involved Tom’s research for his role as Nathan Drake in Uncharted. Tom said he snuck into his favorite bar and worked shifts as a bartender prior to filming. Only he made such crap drinks, he’s been banned from ever returning.

He was an undercover bartender at a high end bar in London
I’d seen on YouTube this flair bartending and I thought it was really cool. I thought that would be a great way to demonstrate to the audience that [Nathan Drake] is quite handy. I started taking bartending classes. I actually went to my favorite bar in London and managed to convince the bartenders to let me go behind the bar. I started working these undercover shifts. I had the white tuxedo on and everything. Then the management team found out and I haven’t been allowed back since. I think the big part of it was that they’re charging a lot of money and my drinks taste like sh-t. The patrons weren’t happy.

He didn’t buy Christmas presents because he was burnt out promoting Spider Man
I’d finished the Spider-Man press tour and I was so busy and tired that I just didn’t do it. I’ve told my family and they’re already in agreement that next year will be a double gift year. The press tours are tough. It looks really glamorous, because it is really glamorous. I’m not complaining but I am complaining because it’s really tiring. I’m so sick of my own voice

On the stunts in Uncharted
Growing up, the Indiana Joneses of the world was my favorite genre of film. So to do it myself was really exciting, but then I had to do it and I broke myself. They tell you ‘we’re going to do this stunt where you’re going to jump in the back of an airplane and you get hit by a car out of the airplane.’

‘Wow that’s sounds amazing!’ Then you shoot it and you’re on take 12. I’m done.

I was on set on Spider-Man pitching the movie to Zendaya. I told her [about this crazy stunt] and she’s like ‘I have to stop you there. What on earth is this movie about?’

It was fun. The stunts are something I’ve always enjoyed. I have two amazing stunt doubles who I’ve worked with for a number of years now. Our motto is that things should look dangerous while being safe. There’s bangs and bruises here and there, but it’s part of the job.

[From YouTube]

If you watch the first minute of this clip (there are Now Way Home Spoilers at the 2:15 mark), you’ll see how “flair” bartending is useful to his character. It’s pretty clever, actually. When I was bartending, many centuries ago, the movie Cocktail was still on folks’ radar. The first thing they told you when you got behind the bar was to never do “that crap from Cocktail” because it was an insurance nightmare. So I wonder whether Tom’s undercover shifts were halted because of bad drinks or flair bartending. I agree with Seth, though, I think people were so excited to get a drink from Tom Holland, he could have mixed the vermouth with the sweet and sour and they would’ve likely overlooked it. I’d also love to see how he tried to go incognito. I’ll bet that lasted all of 10 minutes. Seth does a segment called Day Drinking with Seth. Although I’m certain most of it is staged because the amount of alcohol they supposedly consume would kill a rhinoceros, this discussion suggests that now we need a Day Drinking episode with, with Tom making the drinks. And Seth’s wife and Zendaya would have to come pick them up when they were done. Not just because they’d been drinking, but because these two would be giggling so much, they’d be balled up on the floor, unable to do anything else.

I’m glad Tom’s family is close enough to forgive him for not going Christmas shopping. I understand his schedule was bonkers, but I think I would have employed a personal shopper at that point. Or had them buy themselves a gift and charge it to me. Not so much because I think Tom needs to show up with gifts, but it sounds like they like to rib each other. I can only imagine the hell they put him through as they were opening presents. At least he could feign a cracked rib from being hit by a car 12 times. Maybe that bought him some sympathy.

Photo credit: Instagram, YouTube and Avalon Red