New York [US], July 13: Two worlds collided on Sunday when Tom Holland (a.k.a. Spider-Man) and Tom Holland (the author and historian) met face-to-face, in a union sure to torment search engines for years to come.
On a special episode of the author's The Rest Is History podcast, the two Toms unpack Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey - and also have a frank conversation about the consequences of sharing a name with someone very famous.
After a little confusion over who got to sit in the seat labeled "Tom Holland" and a brief pause to recreate the Spider-Man pointing meme, Historian Tom kicked things off by introducing his guest, who he dubbed, "the real Tom Holland."
The actor was quick to interject, correcting, "Not the real Tom Holland. The other Tom Holland."
"I know my place," the historian joked. "And were I the kind of person who regularly googled himself, I mean, you would have destroyed my ability to do that."
"I'm sorry, Tom," the Marvel alum offered, to which his counterpart replied, "Well, I don't google myself so it's absolutely fine."
The great meeting of Toms was narrowly avoided earlier this month, when both Hollands attended the London premiere of The Odyssey without actually crossing paths. But a few days later, the duo sparked some confusion when the podcast host decided to share his thoughts about the Nolan adaptation, praising its handling of Homer's epic.
"It is by some way the best cinematic adaptation of a Greek myth I have ever seen," Holland gushed on his X account. "It honours Homer while simultaneously making something new of him."
While some commenters were quick to voice their own opinion, others were caught up on the name attached to the post, wondering if it was a shameless promotional attempt.
"Bro, you're in it," replied one user.
Another user joked, "If Tom Holland meets Tom Holland the universe may implode."
To that, the historian hinted that something was in the works, teasing, "Yes, just imagine if that happened."
Bringing it to fruition with the Sunday episode, the two Hollands spend the nearly 20-minute video winding through the myth explored in The Odyssey, which sees the actor star as Telemachus, the son of Odysseus (Matt Damon).
"For anyone that's familiar with The Odyssey. turning it into a film feels like you'd have to make five films [because] it's such a vast piece of work," the actor pointed out. "But Chris's ability to tell that story in 130 pages while maintaining the heart and the soul of what makes the story so exciting, so emotional, so relevant today, I think it's just such a feat."
Elsewhere, actor Holland shared how he believes Telemachus' story is in conversation with his father's, explaining, "The way I see the film is that Telemachus and Penelope represent the reality of the story and Odysseus' side of the story - Matt's side of the story - represents the myth and this humongous game of telephone that has been played with this text."
He continued, "What I love about the creative choices that Chris has made on that side of the story is that he's kind of pushed the boundaries of what might be deemed historically accurate or reality because that is the myth."
The Odyssey his theaters July 17. Watch the Tom Hollands meet in the video above.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Corporation
