Tom Holland recently revealed why a Saturday Night Live hosting gig never happened for him. The Spider-Man star has been approached periodically about hosting SNL over the years. However, it seems the fear of stumbling on live TV in front of millions made him hold back.
Tom Holland opens up about why he has never hosted SNL
Tom Holland has broken down why Saturday Night Live’s hosting gig has always stayed just out of reach.
For all his blockbuster success, the Marvel star has never signed on to host SNL. On Tuesday’s episode of Good Hang podcast, Amy Poehler, the three-time SNL host and former cast member, got Holland to explain why.
“I’m heavily dyslexic,” Holland revealed. “Which is one of the reasons why — and I’d love to talk to you today about it, actually — is why I’ve never done SNL.”
Motioning to the handwritten cue cards SNL relies on for last-second script adjustments, he said, “I’m just so petrified at the concept of, like, trying to read something and they change [it].”
According to the Mayo Clinic, dyslexia causes difficulty reading because of individual differences in the parts of the brain that process language. The learning disorder is not related to intelligence, hearing, or vision. He explained that silent reading comes easily to him, while reading aloud is challenging for him.
Holland further said that his dyslexia makes table-read day the toughest part of filming. That’s when the cast and director go through the script aloud together. Fortunately, he has developed a strategy that helps him get through it.
“I will really try and highlight everything and learn my lines ahead of time,” the Cherry actor shared. “So that I’m more kind of skimming it than I am reading.”
Tom Holland worries hosting SNL would leave him exposed if last-minute rewrites turned into new cue card lines with no escape.
Poehler tried to boost his confidence with a funny remark, saying, “You have to remember, there have been people that have hosted that have been fully on drugs. So I think you can do it.”
