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At just 27 years old, Tom Holland already has some pretty impressive box office stats to his name — though his most iconic performance happened not in his beloved Spidey-suit, but dressed as Rihanna.
As I’m sure you’re familiar, Tom truly solidified himself in the pop culture history books back in 2017 when he and his Spider-Man costar — and now-girlfriend — Zendaya went head-to-head on Lip Sync Battle.
In the memorable episode, Zendaya goes first, lighting up the stage with an explosive performance of Bruno Mars’s “24K Magic.” However, she’s promptly blown out of the water by Tom, who follows up with a showstopping mashup of “Singin’ in the Rain” and Rihanna’s “Umbrella.”
The 2-minute number starts off slow with Tom in a black suit and stylish fedora doing his very best Gene Kelly impersonation. And just as you start settling in, the beat flips and within a matter of seconds he’s dressed as Rihanna in a black bustier, vinyl hot pants, and fishnets, complete with a black bob wig.
Putting his extensive dance training to good use, he executes the elaborate choreography to perfection while miming along to the vocals. To make matters more complicated, he’s also somehow doing this in pouring rain.
Naturally, the performance ends with a frontflip, by which point even Zendaya couldn’t deny the greatness of what she’d just seen, falling to the ground and bowing down to the rightful champion.
The video now boasts 143 million views on YouTube, and is literally so iconic that when Rihanna performed at the Super Bowl this year, fans were half expecting that Tom might make a surprise appearance.
Now, six years down the line, Tom is having his say on the performance and its “lasting impact” on pop culture.
“I’m proud of it,” he told the Hollywood Reporter in a brand-new profile, before going on to reflect on what life was like for him in 2017 — just a year after he made his big-screen debut as Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War.
“It was an amazing time,” he said. “My life was changing before my eyes. Spider-Man was coming out. I was on the up. I was getting offers and turning them down for the first time, which was really crazy.”
When Lip Sync Battle aired, Tom was obviously best known for being the hottest new addition to the MCU, meaning it probably came to a shock to some fans to see him give such an impressive performance — dressed in fishnet stockings, no less.
In light of this, the reporter asked if his appearance on the show was intended to be a “statement about toxic masculinity,” prompting Tom to set the record straight.
“No. Mm-mm,” he said, before clarifying that it was the show’s costume designer who took the reins on his Rih inspired look.
“I don’t give a fuck. I’ve grown up in the most non-toxic-masculine environment possible,” he said, referring to his days as a West End child star in London. “I didn’t realize what I was doing was so forward-thinking. I was just like, ‘Yeah, fuck it, I’ll put some fishnets on and dance in the rain. That’ll be really fun. I don’t care.’”
Despite looking back fondly on the experience, Tom made it clear that it’s not something he’d be interested in trying to recreate.
“But you’d never catch me doing that now,” he said, noting that he’s at a point in his career where he no longer has to say “yes” to everything.
“I don’t want to do a fucking TV show that I don’t need to do. I’d rather go and play golf and live my little private life,” he continued. “I’ve really worked hard in my career and I’ve really been calculated in deciding what it is I do and when I do it.”
That aside, Tom was still happy to acknowledge just how beloved the performance is by fans, admitting that, “for all the movies that I’m incredibly proud of, the Lip Sync Battle is what I get the most compliments for.”
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