Spider-Man Star Tom Holland Was Warned by Father to Not Mimic Rihanna’s Umbrella Dance That Made Zendaya Fall in Love With Him

It isn’t every day that we get to witness a transcendental event like Tom Holland in a full Rihanna-inspired costume and make-up giving it his all on stage to execute the pop star’s epic single, Umbrella, rain and all included. However, the 2017 episode, which the Marvel actor later went on to claim as being “more nerve-wracking than Spider-Man,” was not only stress-inducing for the actor but his father as well. In the infamous GQ issue, with Tom Holland styled in autumn core dapper wear, the actor revealed the extent to which his father’s concern ran for him, in the days leading up to the Lip Sync Battle performance.

Tom Holland [GQ]

Also read: “I felt really bad”: Marvel Star Tom Holland Lost His Role in $10 Billion Franchise As He Could Not Stop Laughing During His Audition

Tom Holland’s Father Advised Him to Not Perform Umbrella

In 2017, two events happened simultaneously that suddenly launched a global frenzy surrounding the then-teenage Marvel actor, Tom Holland. Spider-Man: Homecoming was released which took off amazingly well and remains to this day one of the most comic-book-appropriate renditions of the superhero, and then there was the Lip Sync Battle episode, which undoubtedly sealed Holland’s status as a total Gen Z kid.

But before the latter could take the world by storm, Dominic Holland, the young star’s father advised him against it.

“Look, I am really glad I did that show and I had a lot of fun. It was incredibly stressful. It has been incredibly successful and has been a really great thing for my career. But 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.”

Tom Holland performs Umbrella on Paramount’s Lip Sync Battle

Also read: ‘You came out of a private jet, showered me in dollar bills’: Tom Holland Reveals He Dressed as a Drag Queen to Beat Zendaya in Lip Sync Battle Because She Betrayed Him, Didn’t ‘keep it chill’

Fortunately for all of us, the Tom Holland vs. Zendaya battle has become the best thing to have happened for the fans as well as the actor (bless his early ballet training) more than the reputation-destroyer that Dominic Holland had thought it would be.

Lip Sync Choreographer Reveals BTS Details About Holland

Lip Sync Battle, the hit musical reality competition series, was an initiative launched by Paramount Network in 2015 that ran for five seasons, ending in 2019. Tom Holland’s episode, which came out in 2017, was perhaps one of the most-viewed, most-shared, and most-liked performances to have come out of the show’s eclectic 5-year run (overshadowed perhaps only by Channing Tatum’s Let It Go and Dwayne Johnson’s Shake It Off).

Tom Holland [via GQ]

Also read: “Why? Why me?”: Bruno Mars Begged Zendaya To Be Part of His Music Video Versace on the Floor After She Nearly Destroyed Tom Holland in Lip Sync Battle

The choreographer of Holland’s number, Danielle Flora, revealed years later to Insider, that the creatives behind the performance were biting off their fingernails while preparing Holland for the battle:

“Dancing in water, it’s scary because it is slippery. There was a moment in rehearsal where we did it with the water for the first time, and he slipped a little bit when he did that flip at the end, and I was like, ‘Oh, god.’ But he was adamant about it. He was not taking it out.”

And even though Holland (who went on to win the battle against Zendaya) claimed: “I get more compliments from dancing in the rain in fishnets than anything [else] I’ve done,” the actor revealed the one thing that he wished he could have kept in the choreography – dancing in heels: “That would have shut things down.” The episode has been viewed almost 100 million times on YouTube.

Source: GQ