“White Lotus” actor Tom Hollander said he mistakenly received a huge bonus check meant for “Avengers” actor Tom Holland.
The 56-year-old British star recalled the incident during a recent appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” saying this case of mistaken identity made him a little more humble.
“People in the accounts department of my agency got confused. We were with the same agency, briefly,” Hollander said of the mix-up. The “Pride & Prejudice” actor explained how he received the email while watching a friend perform a Chekhov play.
“I sat smugly in the audience, having just done a BBC show for 30 grand or something, which was going to get me through the next year or so,” he told Meyers. “I got an email from the agency saying, ‘Payment advice slip: your first box-office bonus for The Avengers,”” Hollander continued.
“And I thought, ‘I don’t think I’m in The Avengers.’ It was an astonishing amount of money,” he said.
The actor was further flabbergasted to discover the check wasn’t for Holland’s regular salary but was an extra bonus that came from the film’s success.
“It was not his salary; it was his first box-office bonus. Not the whole box office, the first one,” said Hollander. “It was more money than I’ve ever… It was a 7-figure sum. He was 20 or something.”
Hollander said the incident changed his perspective. “So my feeling of smugness disappeared very quickly. But that’s showbiz,” Hollander quipped.
Hollander began his career in theater in the early nineties, earning nominations for the Olivier Award for Best Actor and a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. He rose to fame playing Mr. Collins in “Pride & Prejudice” (2005) and went on to star in several other Hollywood films including the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, “Gosford Park” (2001), “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (2007), “Valkyrie” (2008), “In the Loop” (2009), “Hanna” (2011), “About Time” (2013), “The Invisible Woman” (2013), “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” (2015), and “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2018).
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He was also in several TV shows, winning a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work on the BBC series “The Night Manager.”
Tom Holland, 27, also hails from the U.K. and also began his career in theater. The star achieved international fame for his role as Spider-Man in six Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) superhero films, starting with “Captain America: Civil War” (2016). Sequels including “Far From Home” (2019) and “No Way Home” (2021) each raked in more than $1 billion at the global box office.