By now, you'll know that Thunderbolts* star Florence Pugh reprises her role as Yelena Belova in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and her scenes are among the movie's funniest.
Seeking help with the psychic menace plaguing New York City, the wall-crawler tracks the New Avenger down to her "office," a Russian bathhouse. She demands that Spidey strip down to his underwear, and he proceeds to join her in the baths to discuss big and small potatoes.
That left Tom Holland in just his mask and underwear, and the actor told Entertainment Weekly that he felt the pressure of delivering what was required of his physique in those scenes.
"Besides absolutely loving working with Florence and the scene going incredibly smoothly and her being the funniest person in the room, I had tried to do that stupid dehydration thing for that scene," he explained, "where I didn’t drink any water the day before and then I drank loads of water the day before that."
"I tried to see if it would make a difference, and the only thing it did is it just made me really grumpy," Holland continued. "I don’t even think it really made that much of a difference."
Asked if his co-stars, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon, were on hand that day, he replied, "It would’ve been a little bit weird, it would have been strange. We were in our underwear."
It was put to Holland that the Spider-Man video game features an unlockable costume with Spidey in just his mask and underwear, but it doesn't sound like that was necessarily the basis for this scene. "Oh yeah! You can do that [in the game]," he said, with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige later noting, "There are a lot of shots in the movie that are inspired by some of the beautiful action shots in the video game, for sure."
It's a fun moment in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but also interesting that Marvel Studios has made a point of creating a relationship between the web-slinger and Yelena. Could he eventually lend the New Avengers a helping hand with the team's "big potatoes"? We'll have to wait and see.
In related news, Scorpion actor Michael Mando has shared another round of behind-the-scenes photos from his time working on Spider-Man: Brand New Day. You can see those in the Instagram gallery below.
In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it's a Brand New Day for Peter Parker. Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn’t remember him—and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him—sparks a change in Peter he may not have the power to control.
But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves - a powerful villain no one can even see. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker, but he hasn’t forgotten them.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day's cast includes Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando, and Mark Ruffalo.
The movie is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and written by Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers. The film is produced by Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal, Avi Arad and Rachel O'Connor. Executive producers include Louis D'Esposito and David Cain.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now playing in theaters.