How you doing?
Good, I'm very well. How are you?
I'm doing well, thank you.
And I want to say I saw--
it was a rough cut of the movie.
But it is easily the best Spider-Man movie
and a great movie. - Thank you.
Thank you.
[cheering]
JIMMY KIMMEL: And we were all knocked out by it.
Thank you so much.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Have you guys seen the movie yet?
I have, I have. I saw it about a month ago.
You did. And what did you think?
You know, you know when you revise for an exam
and you feel like you crushed it but the longer
you wait for the results, the more you think you kind of--
ROBERT DOWNEY JR: He's British, by the way.
--ruined it?
He means a test or a--
A test or something.
Thank God you brought your translator.
Exactly, yes.
Thanks, Pops.
But, yeah.
So walking into the screening I was like,
this is going to be awful.
I'm going to hate it.
And, leaving, I was over the moon.
JIMMY KIMMEL: You were? Great.
- Yeah, I loved it. - OK.
So you're not overly critical of yourself and your performance
and all that stuff? - No, I loved it.
Robert, you have not seen it yet?
I have personally yet to see it.
When can I--
You will see it when I'm ready for you
to see it, Robert, all right?
Just take a minute.
He's the new blood.
Get used to it.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Robert, how much are you involved
in casting Tom in this movie?
I would assume that there's some kind of--
that you play some kind of role in that.
Uh, yeah.
Well, when we were doing "Civil War" was when--
right at the beginning of that, they were casting.
And so they brought in all the finalists for the exam.
Yes, the exam that I--
And Tom nailed.
I mean, what I-- what I had to do, they were like, he's great,
isn't he?
I was like, yeah, he is. JIMMY KIMMEL: And that was it.
- Three words. - Nice.
Yeah.
Did they say "he's great, isn't he"
about any of the other guys that they brought in?
The-- everybody was good.
And then there was just this other element of, like--
you saw it.
And I was there.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Yeah.
It feels like the Spider-Man that I
read about in the comic books when
I was, like, eight years old.
That's the Spider-Man that you played in this movie.
The "Spider-Man Homecoming," a coming home to the OG--
I never went to homecoming, so that I didn't really relate to.
I was left-- I was at home crying during homecoming.
What do you call homecoming over across the pond?
JIMMY KIMMEL: Yeah.
We call it prom.
JIMMY KIMMEL: You call it prom?
What do you call prom?
[laughter]
That was the whole thing.
We got halfway through shooting the movie.
I was like, by the way, what's homecoming?
JIMMY KIMMEL: Really? - Yeah.
I had no-- we don't do that.
Our proms are very different, though.
JIMMY KIMMEL: In what way?
Well, they serve booze at the prom.
- They do? - Yeah.
[cheering and applause]
Yeah, because we're 18.
We have to drink ours in the parking lot before we get in.
Exactly.
That was half the fun.
Yeah, my prom was a disaster.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Oh, I bet it was.
You've got a bunch of 18-year-olds drunk and throwing
up on each other, yeah.
Did you know about, like, what American schools are like?
Because you have to play Peter Parker,
who is a student-- a high school student.
Yeah, I think that was probably the most daunting part
of taking on this character.
So, as a joke, I suggested to Marvel that I should
go to a high school undercover.
And it was completely a joke.
And Marvel took it completely seriously.
I guess they didn't get my British sarcasm.
- Yeah, they do that. - And yeah.
So, the next thing I know, I was like--
had a backpack with a pencil case on my way
to Bronx School of Science.
Oh, boy.
JIMMY KIMMEL: They let you go actual class?
Yes, yeah.
I went to school with a fake name and a fake accent.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Did you have a fake mother drop you off at--
[laughter]
Yeah.
No, they brought Marisa Tomei in just for that weekend.
[laughter]
But yeah.
And Bronx School of Science is a school for genius kids.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Genius kids, right.
And I am no genius.
You're not?
No, I-- even the teachers didn't know
that I was not a real student.
So they would bring me up to the front of the class
and be like, what do you think, new kid?
I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about.
So it was-- it was very embarrassing.
You're like the worst narc there is.
Like, you're like a very bad narc.
Is-- did they ever figure out that it was you,
like, when the movie came out?
Or did you ever tell them that it was you?
Well, I had--
I had one funny experience.
I was sat in the back of a classroom
next to quite a pretty girl.
And eventually she was like, so, dude, what's your deal, man?
I was like, well, do you want to know my secret?
She's like, OK.
So I'm actually Spider-Man.
She was like, dude, you're not Spider-Man.
You are nuts.
I was like, no, seriously, I'm actually an actor.
I'm British and I'm playing Spider-Man.
And she didn't believe me.
Of course she didn't believe you.
That's a ridiculous story.
Because "Civil War" wasn't out yet.
Yes.
But the fact that you were allowed to just suddenly go
to Bronx Science in the middle of the year
with no explanation-- that breach, that was believable.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Yeah, that was--
it indicates we've got a problem with our public education
system.