Tom Holland‘s “Lip Sync Battle” performance was a family affair.
On a recent episode of Gordon Ramsay’s “Scrambled,” the “Spider-Man” star went behind the scenes on his 2017 rendition of Rihanna’s “Umbrella” on the Spike competition show.
Holland’s performance was a bait and switch for the audience, starting as a performance of “Singin’ in the Rain” before quickly switching to “Umbrella.” During the transition, Holland trades his suit for a dress, fishnets and a wig. He appeared on the episode with his fiancée Zendaya.
“It’s so funny, Zendaya and I, we were chatting at the time about what we were gonna do, and we had agreed that we would take it easy,” he said. “That was the agreement, that it was like, ‘I’m not gonna do anything crazy, you’re not gonna do anything crazy, we’re just gonna keep it nice and easy breezy.’”
However, as Holland prepared for the show, the idea to surprise the audience with “Umbrella” started to develop.
“When I was working with the creative team coming up with the ideas, they kind of pitched this ‘Umbrella’ thing, and as we were rehearsing, it got crazier and crazier,” he explained. “And then the rain machine came in. And then I was like, ‘Fuck it, I wanna wear fishnets and do this, and I want a wig and a quick-change.’”
Ramsay then asked if he was wearing “mum’s fishnets.” Holland replied, “They were my granny’s, actually.”
Holland added that when he told his father about the performance, he didn’t think it was such a good idea. However, the “Uncharted” star explained his dad was just looking out for him in the long run.
“When I told my dad, he was like, ‘Son, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t think you should do that,’” Holland said. “I think he was just, at that time in my career, he was very worried about me becoming too famous too quickly. So he was really keen for me to not do extra TV shows that I didn’t have to do to try and maintain that part of my childhood.”