A decade later, Jon Bernthal is recounting how he and Tom Holland helped each other land their life-changing Marvel roles.
The Punisher star revealed that while working on their 2017 film Pilgrimage—preceding their upcoming reunion in Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey—he gave his young co-star a “note” that he thinks landed Holland the role of Spider-Man.
“We did a film about seven or eight years ago,” he said on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “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.”
Although Holland was a teenager at the time, Bernthal recalled, “He had such focus and such belief, it was so beautiful. He would say, ‘I’m Spider-Man,’ I mean, he really believed he was going to get it. I was like ‘There’s probably a lot of people that want to be Spider-Man. I mean, you’re super talented and all, but the odds are kind of against you, but yeah, let’s make the tape.’
“He just had this belief,” added Bernthal. “And when you get to know him and see how he shows up, there is a reason why he is the movie star that he is.”
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Bernthal jokingly added that he “will take credit that in his audition tape … I gave him the note, ‘Tom, maybe you should run up that wall and do a double backflip and then start the scene.’ 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.”
After making his debut as Peter Parker in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, Holland continued his tenure as the web-slinger in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), as well as multiple other MCU titles. He will reprise the role in Avengers: Doomsday and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, both set to premiere next year.
Bernthal first appeared as Frank Castle in Season 2 of Netflix’s Daredevil in 2016, before landing his own spin-off The Punisher, which ran for two seasons from 2017 to 2019. He most recently reprised the role in the Season 1 finale of Disney+’s Daredevil: Born Again.
