He recently confirmed that he will portray the legendary dancer, actor and singer Fred Astaire.
And Billy Elliot star Tom Holland, 25, has said that he is ‘very excited’ about his new role in the biopic and claimed that he is already ‘quite a good tap dancer’.
The actor recently confirmed that he will portray the legendary dancer, actor and singer in a new Amy Pascal-produced film for Sony.
‘Iโm very excited for and I think it will be a fantastic film’: Tom Holland claimed that he is already a ‘good tap dancer’ as he gears up to portray Fred Astaire in the new biopic
Tom Holland says he is playing Fred Astaire in biopic
Whilst he is going to head back to London’s Pineapple Dance Studios to ‘start taking tap lessons’, he already has some good experience.
He said: ‘Iโm quite a good tap dancer. Itโs something Iโve done for a very, very long time so itโs something Iโm sure Iโll be able to pick up.’
Tom admitted that Fred Astaire was far from the more ‘elegant and graceful’ dancing that he took on in his West End performance of Billy Elliot and he will have to learn a new style.
Legend: Tom admitted that Fred Astaire (pictured) was far from the more ‘elegant and graceful’ dancing that he took on in his West End performance of Billy Elliot
He added to Variety: ‘Fred Astaire does have a very particular style.
‘Billy Elliot was very much a kind of like scuffy boot kind of tap dancer whereas he is very elegant and graceful so Iโll probably have to learn how to do that.’
He added: ‘But itโs something Iโm gonna practice, something Iโm very excited for and I think it will be a fantastic film.’
Producer Amy, recently suggested she wanted Tom to play Fred in the project, in addition to another trilogy of the Spider-Man films.
The big reveal: Despite a famous clause in Astaire’s will to stop depictions of his life, Tom has revealed he is tackling the role (Astaire, pictured in 1942, left, Tom, pictured on Sunday, right)
The actor, confirmed the news to reporters on Sunday at a London screening of his new movie Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is hitting theaters later this month.
Speaking at the event Tom said: ‘The script came in a week ago. I haven’t read it yet, they haven’t given it to me.’
Tom also revealed he had previously been in contact with Amy to show his interest in playing the part.
Biopic: The movie will delve into Fred’s personal life no doubt, including losing his first wife in 1954 and bringing up their kids
He joked: ‘She [Amy] FaceTimed me earlier. I was in the bath. And we had a lovely FaceTime, but I will be playing Fred Astaire.’
Tom’s new role comes 13 years after landing his big break playing aspiring dancer Billy Elliot in the West End.
There is much to cover in a biopic of Hollywood legend Fred, who enjoyed a career spanning 76 years and a raft of box-office hits, many of them with his most famous dance partner Ginger Rogers.
New role: Tom’s dance credentials line-up to take on the role, as the star has been taking classes in street dance and acrobatics since he was 10 before making his way to the stage to play Billy
There he is: Tom was seen strolling with his brother and a pal in NYC’s Central Park on Thursday
Eye-catching: The star donned a bright pink hoodie for the walk
The movie will also delve into his personal life no doubt, including losing his first wife in 1954 and bringing up their kids.
Tom’s dance credentials line-up to take on the role, as the Kingston-born star has been taking classes in street dance and acrobatics since he was 10 before making his way to the stage to play Billy where he honed his skills.
This new movie is not the only Fred Astaire project currently in the works, as Jamie Bell – who played the role of Billy Elliot in the 2000 film – will portray the dancer, opposite Margaret Qualley as Ginger in a new movie for Amazon Studios.
Astaire, born Frederick Austerlitz, enjoyed a career spanning 76 years and a slew of hits, many with dance partner Ginger. The son of a brewer from Nebraska, Fred was performing with his sister Adele from the age of five, before he headed to Hollywood in 1932 and formed one of Tinseltown’s great partnerships โ Fred and Ginger.
Fred and Ginger pictured in 1949
They struck box-office gold with Flying Down To Rio in 1933, and nine more movies with Ginger including Top Hat, which won four Oscar nominations.
At the height of his popularity in the late 30s, Fred was worth so much to the Hollywood studios he had his legs insured for $1 million.
After Flying Down to Rio, where they played second fiddle to Dolores del Rio and Gene Raymond, the following year they starred together in The Gay Divorcee.
Their subsequent films, including 1935’s Top Hat, 1936’s Follow the Fleet, 1936’s Swing Time and Shall We Dance in 1937. In his later years, he focused on dramatic acting, and won a Golden Globe nomination for his supporting turn in Stanley Kramer’s nuclear war drama On the Beach in 1959.
He earned his sole Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor for the disaster flick The Towering Inferno in 1974. The movie also brought him victories at the Golden Globes and BAFTA.
He won a Globe as Best Comedy/Musical Actor for Three Little Words in 1950, before being called up again for The Pleasure of His Company in 1961 and Finian’s Rainbow in 1968. He received an Honorary Oscar in 1950, the Cecil B. DeMille prize in 1961 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978.
On the TV side, Astaire won Emmys for An Evening with Fred Astaire in 1959 and Astaire Time in 1961, and the TV movie A Family Upside Down in 1978.
He announced his retirement in 1946 and opened his own dance studio, but was soon back when he replaced the injured Gene Kelly in Easter Parade in 1948, and he continued to make films until 1957 when he announced another short-lived retirement.
Fred pictured in 1985, two years before his death
A year later he was back in the spotlight with the first of four TV specials made over the next ten years that won multiple Emmys.
He turned straight actor later in life, appearing in disaster movie The Towering Inferno in 1974 at the age of 75, in his last film, Ghost Story, in 1981.
Fred married Boston-born New York socialite and former wife of Eliphalet Nott Potter III, Phyllis Potter in 1933, when she was 25.
His mother and sister objected to the union yet he determinedly pursued Phyllis for two years before she finally said yes.
Phyllis passed away after battling lung cancer in 1954. She was just 46. Her death left him to bring up their two children, Ava and Fred Junior, as well as Phyllis’s son from her former marriage, Peter.
He was left devastated by her passing and attempted to drop out of the 1955 film Daddy Long Legs – even offering to pay production, but he was then persuaded to stay.
On June 24, 1980, at the age of 81, his second wife Robyn Smith, who was 45 years his junior and a jockey who rode for Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Jr. She appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on July 31, 1972.
Ava previously revealed that Fred was a wonderful father, but had a bit of a temper. She said: ‘He had to take over my upbringing when I was 12 because we’d lost my mother and I became a companion to him as well as a daughter.
But if somebody said something to upset me, he’d go out and try and kill them.’
Fred died of pneumonia on June 22, 1987, at the age of 88, after which body was buried at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California. His last request was to thank his fans for their years of support.
Astaire, born Frederick Austerlitz, enjoyed a career spanning 76 years and a slew of hits, many with dance partner Ginger. The son of a brewer from Nebraska, Fred was performing with his sister Adele from the age of five, before he headed to Hollywood in 1932 and formed one of Tinseltown’s great partnerships โ Fred and Ginger.
They struck box-office gold with Flying Down To Rio in 1933, and nine more movies with Ginger including Top Hat, which won four Oscar nominations. At the height of his popularity in the late 30s, Fred was worth so much to the Hollywood studios he had his legs insured for $1 million.
After Flying Down to Rio, where they played second fiddle to Dolores del Rio and Gene Raymond, the following year they starred together in The Gay Divorcee.
The late Joan Leslie and Fred Astaire in The Sky’s the Limit
His girl: Astaire enjoyed a career spanning 76 years and a raft of box-office hits, many of them with his dance partner Ginger Rogers (pictured in 1936’s Swing Time)
Their subsequent films, including 1935’s Top Hat, 1936’s Follow the Fleet, 1936’s Swing Time and Shall We Dance in 1937. In his later years, he focused on dramatic acting, and won a Golden Globe nomination for his supporting turn in Stanley Kramer’s nuclear war drama On the Beach in 1959.
He earned his sole Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor for the disaster flick The Towering Inferno in 1974. The movie also brought him victories at the Golden Globes and BAFTA.
He won a Globe as Best Comedy/Musical Actor for Three Little Words in 1950, before being called up again for The Pleasure of His Company in 1961 and Finian’s Rainbow in 1968. He received an Honorary Oscar in 1950, the Cecil B. DeMille prize in 1961 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978.
On the TV side, Astaire won Emmys for An Evening with Fred Astaire in 1959 and Astaire Time in 1961, and the TV movie A Family Upside Down in 1978.
His love: On June 24, 1980, at the age of 81, he wed his second wife Robyn Smith, who was 45 years his junior and a jockey who rode for Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Jr (Fred and Robyn, pictured in 1986)
He announced his retirement in 1946 and opened his own dance studio, but was soon back when he replaced the injured Gene Kelly in Easter Parade in 1948, and he continued to make films until 1957 when he announced another short-lived retirement.
A year later he was back in the spotlight with the first of four TV specials made over the next ten years that won multiple Emmys. He turned straight actor later in life, appearing in disaster movie The Towering Inferno in 1974 at the age of 75, in his last film, Ghost Story, in 1981.
Fred married Boston-born New York socialite and former wife of Eliphalet Nott Potter III, Phyllis Potter in 1933, when she was 25. His mother and sister objected to the union yet he determinedly pursued Phyllis for two years before she finally said yes.
Phyllis passed away after battling lung cancer in 1954. She was just 46. Her death left him to bring up their two children, Ava and Fred Junior, as well as Phyllis’s son from her former marriage, Peter.
Her beloved: Fred’s daughter Ava (pictured left in 1956 and right in 1978) spoke in the past about her father being a good dad but having a temper
He was left devastated by her passing and attempted to drop out of the 1955 film Daddy Long Legs – even offering to pay production, but he was then persuaded to stay.
On June 24, 1980, at the age of 81, he wed his second wife Robyn Smith, who was 45 years his junior and a jockey who rode for Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Jr. She appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on July 31, 1972.
Ava previously revealed that Fred was a wonderful father, but had a bit of a temper. She said: ‘He had to take over my upbringing when I was 12 because we’d lost my mother and I became a companion to him as well as a daughter. But if somebody said something to upset me, he’d go out and try and kill them.’
Fred died of pneumonia on June 22, 1987, at the age of 88, after which body was buried at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California. His last request was to thank his fans for their years of support.
Tom was scouted at his London dance school aged 10, when Billy Elliot producers went on scouting missions.
He had worked on street dance and acrobatics but producers suggested he take up ballet to hone his skills and make it possible to play Billy.
Eight auditions and two years later he was offered a role in the show – playing Billy’s best friend Michael.
On June 28, 2008, he made his West End debut as Michael and it was not until September 8, 2008 that Tom finally debuted as Billy.
Tom was known for his agility and gravity-defying flips, including a forward flip with no hands and his signature backward flip executed while he was walking up a wall which ended Electricity – the showโs signature dance number.
When asked where he got his dance talents from, Tom said at the time: ‘My mum and dad joke about who I take after. Iโve seen them both dance and I have to say, there must have been a mix up at the hospital.’
