Remember that time our favorite twunk and Jake Gyllenhaal's husband Tom Holland went head-to-head against Emmy-winning Euphoria actress and his Spider-Man film franchise co-star Zendaya for an epic, dragged-up episode of Lip Sync Battle? And how he delivered one of the most iconic lip sync performances of pop legend Rihanna's 2007 smash hit "Umbrella" of all time? Well, it's hard for us to believe, but the super-viral moment almost didn't happen!
In a recent interview with British GQ, the 24-year-old heartthrob opened up about how his father (author and comedian Dominic Holland) tried to persuade him not to go through with the 2017 "Umbrella" lip sync for fear of it being too risqué for his then blossoming movie career. (He and Zendaya were just beginning to promote Spider-Man: Homecoming at the time of their Lip Sync Battle faceoff.)
"Look, I am really glad I did that show and I had a lot of fun," Tom told the magazine. "It was incredibly stressful. It has been incredibly successful and has been a really great thing for my career."
Speaking more about his father's reasoning and reservations about getting in full hair and makeup for national TV, he continued:
"My dad always taught me when I was younger and coming up in the business that you want to get famous as slowly as possible. You don’t want to get super famous tomorrow, because you won’t be able to handle it. It will ruin your life. I am very selective of who I talk to and what I do. I don’t ever want to overexpose myself, because my privacy is the last thing I own. I think that’s why he was so worried. And he’d tell me the same thing today I am sure: 'Pace yourself, you’ve got a long career ahead of you.' I don’t want to lose myself to all... this."
Luckily, Tom was able to persevere through his father's apprehensions about an innocuous drag routine on a fun, light-hearted lip sync show and ended up going through with the performance — and the world is a hell of a lot better for it! (We love you, Zendaya, but Tom definitely won that round of Lip Sync Battle!)
