Ever since becoming an international superstar, Tom Holland has continued to charm audiences
with his friendly demeanor and on-screen talents.
But there's one thing about him that does seem to surprise fans whenever he's appearing
as himself: His ultra-convincing American accent is not real, and Holland's natural
dialect is actually British.
Here's a look at just how impressive Tom Holland's accent game really is.
Tom Holland made his silver screen debut in J.A. Bayona's 2012 disaster biopic The Impossible,
which featured him as Lucas, a child who is separated from his parents in the 2004 Indian
Ocean tsunami.
Holland spent much of his time in the film sharing the screen with Naomi Watts, who played
his injured mother and who received an Academy Award nomination for her work in the film.
"So bossy."
"I wonder who I take after."
He also had to carry multiple scenes on his own, though, including one heart wrenching
moment when Lucas steps up to help reunite a father and son, despite being ripped away
from his own family.
The scene required Holland to do a bit of language barrier-breaking in his search, since
the family he helped was from Sweden, but Holland stuck to his own British roots for
the role.
"Papa?"
"Yeah, your papa.
He's here.
I'll bring him here, okay?"
"Yes."
"No, no, no, you need to stay here.
I will bring your papa here, okay?"
He continued to use his own accent in several parts to follow, including his turn as Isaac
in the 2013 Kevin Macdonald drama How I Live Now.
But as Holland's acting opportunities began expanding even further, he started to experiment
with new elocutions on-screen.
Tom Holland had to work to find his character's voice for Ron Howard's 2015 epic In the Heart
of the Sea.
The film featured him as young Thomas Nickerson, a cabin boy on the Nantucket whaling ship
Essex, whose fate would inspire Herman Melville's classic novel Moby-Dick.
"Grubs, what are those pins they're wearing?"
"They're whale pins, Thomas."
"How do I get one of them?
Well, you gotta thrust the killing lance into the largest beast that ever breathed on this
earth."
Not only did Holland and his co-stars have to capture the early 19th Century era and
the New England locale in his voice, but he also had the unique challenge of aligning
his accent and speech patterns with actor Brendan Gleeson, who portrayed the elder version
of his character.
Shortly thereafter, Holland became the web-slinging superhero Spider-Man for Captain America:
Civil War.
"Cap...Captain.
Big fan.
I'm Spider-Man."
"Yeah, we'll talk about it later."
He worked with dialect coach Rick Lipton to master Peter Parker's Midtown sound, which
he brought to Spidey's next appearance in a standalone film.
And apart from one day of shooting on Spider-Man: Homecoming when his coach wasn't on set and
Holland slipped back into his British accent for a scene that had to later be dubbed, it
was an utter success.
"It is I, Thor, son of Odin.
No, no no no, no no.
That's definitely, no that's definitely not what we want to watch."
Holland's American accent continued coming in handy for other movies, including the 2016
thriller Edge of Winter and his new drama Cherry, and he even used it in his voice roles
in the animated films Spies in Disguise and Onward.
In fact, Holland's proficiency with an American dialect is so strong that he occasionally
turns it on without meaning to and sometimes forgets to return to his natural English accent,
even when he's appearing as himself.
"Europeans love Americans."
"Really?"
"And more than half of them are women.
Okay."
In addition to becoming such an expert on both British and American accents, Holland
has also shown some skills with an Irish accent as well.
"Brother?
Rulu says the foreigners know nothing but war.
He says it's in their blood."
In the 2017 period film Pilgrimage, Holland appeared as a medieval monk who is part of
a fraught mission to transport a holy relic to Rome amid the turmoil of the early 1200s
in Europe.
He also delivers several lines in Gaelic, so Holland had to train for six weeks to get
his accents just right for the film.
(speaking Gaelic)
Moreover, Holland revealed that working on location for the film in Belfast, Ireland
was a unique experience, as his own "granny" and other family members live in the town
of Tipperary.
So in addition to being British, he has some roots in the Emerald Isle.
Tom Holland continued to broaden his articulation skills with his stunning performance as Arvin
in Antonio Campos' 2020 American gothic drama The Devil All the Time.
The film takes place in rural Ohio and West Virginia in the '50s and '60s, and Arvin is
a man who chooses his words carefully.
"It's the best present I ever got.
Thank you, Uncle Earskell."
To prepare for the role, Holland continued to work with his dialect coach to develop
his character's voice, and Holland had a blast setting aside his chipper Peter Parker persona
to find the "lower register" and "more menacing" tones of his troubled new character, honing
in on all the little details.
Tom Holland's command of his character's voice proves to be essential in several scenes,
but he especially stands out in the big confrontation scene with Robert Pattinson's Reverend Preston
Teagardin.
"I've been watching your every move for the last couple weeks.
You can't get enough of that Reaster girl, can you?
Is that how you did my Lenora, too?"
Though Arvin lets the preacher get his own words in, too, Arvin says his piece about
how the reverend has wronged his family, and every syllable of Holland's dialogue is dripping
with pain and the desire for retribution.
It just proves how far Tom Holland's accent game has come.
Thanks for watching.
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