Within seconds of meeting Tom Holland at Wimbledon last weekend, all he wanted to talk about was my tie. “Where did you get that?” the 29-year-old actor asked me, nodding toward my neckwear, before we’d even finished shaking hands.
The reason for his curiosity? I was sporting a vintage ’80s specimen bearing the Tottenham Hotspur crest—the Premier League club we both happen to support. And so, despite our conversation taking place at a Chase Travel party where Holland was promoting his nonalcoholic beer company BERO, we spent the next several minutes shooting the shit about Spurs. (I may or may not have knotted up the tie that morning with the express hope this might unfold.)
Here’s a snippet of our conversation, where Holland talks how he watched Tottenham snap its 17-year trophy drought; his abiding love for Son Heung-min and Harry Kane; and his time working on Christopher Nolan’s hugely anticipated Odyssey adaptation with Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway, in which he’s playing Odysseus’s son Telemachus.
GQ: How did you celebrate the Europa League win?
Tom Holland: I was shooting Chris Nolan’s movie in LA. We were not allowed our phones on set, so I was not aware of the score. I kept going to the sneaky crew members who I knew always had their phones and kept asking them for updates. I went to my trailer for lunch and caught the last 10 minutes of the game, and my celebration was coming back to set full of energy and doing a really fantastic scene. So that was really fun.
Incredible. How are you feeling about Ange Postecoglou getting sacked in the aftermath?
It’s bittersweet with Ange. I’m sad to see him go. I really liked him and admired him as a manager. I think obviously we had a very rocky season, we dealt with a lot of injuries and all sorts of different stuff. But to win a trophy in his second season as he said he would, in Europe nonetheless, is a huge achievement. And I just was really proud to be a Tottenham fan.
I was incredibly happy for Sonny [Son Heung-min]. For me to see him win a trophy after years of dedication to our club… He really could have played with any club, he’s a world class player. But he stuck with his roots and he stayed with Tottenham. Whatever he decides to do now, I think that he can stay at the club or move to another club with a great sense of pride. He’ll always be a Tottenham legend.
Not to pit them against each other, but while I was happy to see Harry Kane finally lift a trophy with Bayern Munich, surely it meant more to Sonny to have stayed and finished the job here in London.
I’m sure it meant a lot to Harry, too, you know [to see Son win the Europa League]. Those guys are still incredibly close friends, and his love for Tottenham runs incredibly deep. I was always a huge supporter of him going to Munich. He is truly one of the best players in the world, and we were just so lucky to have him for the time that we did. I’m the type of person that never has any hard feelings for a player moving to a different club or moving to a better club.
I think Trent [Alexander-Arnold] going to Madrid—I’m not a Liverpool fan, but I know he got a lot of flack for that. But he grew up there [in Liverpool], he played there, he won everything there. And he’s a young kid who’s been offered the opportunity to play at arguably the biggest football club in the world. I’d be patting him on the back saying, “Thanks for your service. Have a great time. We’ll support you from here.”
For sure. Before I let you go: How was your experience working on The Odyssey?
It was amazing. The job of a lifetime, without a doubt. The best experience I’ve had on the film set. Incredible. It was exciting. It was different. And I think the movie is going to be unlike anything we’ve ever seen.