When I first sat down with Tom Holland to discuss his Pixar film, Onward, there was a magnitude of reasons as to why it was – how shall we put it? – unique.
Firstly, I was hungover. I don’t often meet celebrities when I’m hungover, you see. In fact, the chances are that I’ll meet them when drunk. More often that not, I’m drunk.
Secondly, when I spoke to the Spider-Man star, it was also the day of the cricket. (I think. I don’t actually know sport.) So as an avid cricket supporter – do you get ‘supporters’ in cricket? I told you I know nothing – Tom was eager to watch that, as opposed to hear me probe him about his bromance with Robert Downey Jr.
Honestly, I reckon I’m the first journalist to have ever asked him about Robert.
It was therefore a relief to see that Tom’s first meet with Stan Lee was equally as ridiculous.
During a Q&A session on his Instagram Story, James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy, shared the story of how Tom met Stan for the first time, saying “I introduced Stan to Tom Holland just after Tom was hired to play Spider-Man.
Stan says to him, ‘Yes of course! I hear you’re great! Personally, I don’t see it!’ And we all died laughing.”
Of course, this was just Stan’s iconic wit – the pair actually were quite good friends, with the Spider-Man creator even taking Tom and a friend out for dinner that night.
Speaking to PEOPLE, Tom said “[Stan] took my best friend and I out for dinner the first time I met him, and I was worried to ask too many Marvel questions because I didn’t think he’d want to talk about it,
“He spent 45 minutes giving me the entire history of Spider-Man, and that just goes to show how much love and passion went into these projects and into these books. And I’m so honoured that I got the chance to know him, and get to meet him, and become his friend. He’ll never be forgotten and I will be forever grateful.”