There’s someone other than Tom Holland to thank for his role as Spider-Man, at least according to our Punisher, Jon Bernthal. The Daredevil: Born Again actor recently revealed that he worked with Holland on his Marvel audition tape years back, and takes a little credit for helping Holland land the role.
“We did [Pilgrimage] about seven or eight years ago,” Bernthal explained about working with Holland on the 2017 film — which debuted the same year as Spider-Man: Homecoming — during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live last weekend. “That was where both Tom did his audition for Spider-Man and I did my audition for Punisher. We actually made each other’s audition tapes on that film.”
Bernthal also noted that he tossed some ideas for the tape Tom’s way and the former Broadway star let it rip, no Bernthal career pun intended. “I gave him the note, ‘Tom, maybe you should run up that wall and do a double backflip and then start the scene,’ ” the The Bear star added.
“And he was like, ‘Yeah, you think I should do that? That’s not too much?’ I was like, ‘I don’t think any of these other fools are able to do that,’ and he in fact did that. It’s not that I take responsibility for him, but you know, like a little something.”
The cheeky story really sets the scene for a moment in history back in 2015 when Pilgrimage was being filmed. At the time, Holland seemed to be auditioning for his cameo role in Captain America: Civil War, while Bernthal was seemingly attempting to land the role of Frank Castle in Season 2 of Netflix’s Daredevil.
Bernthal can currently be seen punishing in the new Disney+ spin-off series Daredevil: Born Again, while Holland’s next appearance as the webslinger we all know and love is coming in 2026 with Spider-Man: Brand New Day
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Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
