The Mistake Tom Holland Made While Filming Uncharted

Even seasoned actors can second-guess the quality of their work, and Tom Holland, the star of the smash-hit Spider-Man and Avengers films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is no exception.

In a recent interview, Holland offered up some candid thoughts about his experience filming the upcoming flick Uncharted, the much-anticipated adaptation of the popular video game. The film, which has been in the works for over a decade, has hit numerous speed bumps on its long road to the big screen. Some of these issues have included rotating through multiple directors and finding itself with an increasingly delayed release date. Sony finally announced that it would push the movie's release date out to February 2022 amid continuing concerns about reopening movie theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Now, Holland is talking about the way he handled the role of a young Nathan Drake, admitting that he got too in his head while on the Uncharted set.

Speaking to British GQ, Holland confessed that he got caught up in how he should look while playing Nathan Drake, the explorer and treasure hunter said to be a descendant of the English explorer Sir Francis Drake. The actor explained that he started to be concerned less with the emotional integrity of his performance and more with whether or not he looked "cool."

"As soon as you start worrying about 'Do I look good in this shot?' acting becomes something other than playing a character. I think there are elements of my performance in Uncharted where I kind of fell under that spell of being 'I want to look good now. I want this to be my cool moment,'" Holland said. 

The role required Holland to bulk up and maintain a tough-guy image, and he felt the pressure of that big time. "I had to play this very tough, very stoic guy — basically be Mark Wahlberg," he noted. 

The former ballet dancer, whose first major role was playing the titular character in the 2008 London musical theater adaptation of the film Billy Elliot, also said that he learned an important lesson during the filming of Uncharted. "At times, it was less about 'land a mark and go through this scene' and more about 'land a mark, stand like this, and see my bulging biceps,'" Holland shared. "It was a mistake and is something that I will probably never do again."

The actor hasn't offered any thoughts on the overall quality of the movie, simply the slightly misguided motivations of his performance. Fans will get to judge how Holland did for themselves when Uncharted opens in theaters on February 11, 2022.