Some of the crewmembers on Lip Sync Battle were terrified by Tom Holland‘s iconic performance on the show. The Spider-Man star tore the house down on the show a few years ago, and that thrilled audiences. Insider‘s Ashley Spencer did an oral history of the performance and noted that the crew members weren’t exactly thrilled with the whole deal. Basically, these things need to get cleared before they air, and no one knew if Rihanna would give her blessing in time. In fact, a backup performance of “Oops I Did It Again” was prepared just in case the entire thing fell through. Jeanie Cheek, a costume designer on the show said, “We actually created two different sets of costumes for him and all of the dancers. Just in case “Umbrella” didn’t go through, we had a backup performance.”
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itโs really been 4 years since we saw tom holland’s iconic lip sync battle. pic.twitter.com/5R6hUWFlaB
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But, the clearest indication of the production panic was choreographer Danielle Flora. She captured the mood well, “I don’t remember [the backup Britney song] at all. I’m sure I choreographed it. And I’m sure that it was traumatic for me at the moment, choreographing two numbers and not knowing which one. I think we always wanted it to be ‘Umbrella.’”
She added, “I was concerned about the fact that the light pole [used in the “Singin’ in the Rain” opener] was not fixed. He couldn’t really swing on it, so I was worried about his adrenaline and what that would do.”
There was also some concern about him slipping and falling along with that quick change. If anyone is expecting an encore, they might be a little crestfallen. About two years ago at ACE Comic-Con, he actually talked about the prospect of putting on his dancing shoes again.
Holland explained, “I don’t know. I don’t know. I feel like me and Zendaya got the first one pretty good. But, maybe? Who knows? You never know. Probably not, if I’m honest. It was the most stressful week of my lifeโฆWell, maybe that Disney and Sony thing. Yeah, that happened, it was a bit of a stressful week.”
Would you love to see Holland give it another go? Let us know in the comments.