Tom Holland took full advantage of his acrobatic training for Billy Elliott to land the role of the next Spider-Man.

The 19-year-old played Billy Elliot on London’s West End from 2008 to 2010 and admitted he used some of the dancing kid’s finest moves to set himself apart in his audition tape.

Actor Tom Holland
Tom Holland will play Spider-Man (Ian West/PA)

“I basically did a somersault into frame and a somersault out of frame and I was like, ‘They may never see this but if they do I need them to know that I’ve got some gymnastics abilities and stuff.”

“And every tape I sent in I always did a little acrobatic demo to try and convince them to give me the role,” he said, laughing.

Tom is next appearing in In The Heart of the Sea alongside Chris Hemsworth and Ben Whishaw, a Ron Howard film based on the 2000 book of the same name, and drawing from the real life tale of the crew aboard ship The Essex.

Tom Holland
Tom (right) meeting Gordon Brown in Downing Street in 2010 (Paul Rogers/The Times/PA)

Tom plays young cabin boy Thomas Nickerson who is working on a whaling ship in 1820 when it is split in half during an attack by a bull sperm whale.

When the crew is left shipwrecked for 90 days at sea, they must resort to cannibalism to survive.

The tough plot saw Chris Hemsworth have to lose vast amounts of weight on a 500-calorie a day diet, and Tom spend much of his time filming wet and covered in oil.

“I always like a challenge and I almost feel like if something’s not a challenge there’s no real point in doing it,” he said.

“The hard work we had to do was for the right reasons and pivotal for the film because we were making a film about real people.”

In the heart of the sea
Chris Hemsworth and director Ron Howard promoting In The Heart of The Sea (Rebecca Blackwell/AP/PA)

He is the latest actor to step into the boots of Marvel’s comic book hero Spider-Man, after Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

Landing the role was a fulfilment of a dream for the young actor, who was asked by an interviewer years ago which super hero he would want to play if he got the chance.

“I, of course, said Spider-Man…I always wanted to play this character and when I found out that they were re-casting the role I rang up my agent and I said, ‘Just get me a self-tape. Please let me send something so that they can see me.’”

Tom makes his debut as Peter Parker and his alter ego Spider-Man in the next Captain America: Civil War movie, out next year. He will then lead his own Spider-Man film.

Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man
Andrew Garfield plays Spidey in the most recent films (Sony Pictures UK)

But fans will have to wait for a glimpse of the young actor as the famous web-slinger: he isn’t in the new Captain America trailer and the script for his stand-alone flick isn’t yet finalised.

Until then he plans to keep busy at home in the London.

“The next six months of my year are pretty free. My mom and I are sort of debating of whether I’m going to build a saw and timber house at the end of my garden.

“My mom’s side of the family are carpenters so they’ve leaked some of their skills onto me,” he said.