Tom Holland has so much respect for Robert Downey Jr. that he actually saw Dolittle

The SAG-AFTRA strike is over, meaning actors are now free to go back and promote the things they made that came out during the strike, and The Hollywood Reporter is taking advantage of that by having Tom Holland sit down for a chat about Apple TV+’s The Crowded Room—a story inspired by the 1981 non-fiction book The Minds Of Billy Milligan. The production required Holland to embody multiple different personalities and touched on creator Akiva Goldsman’s real experience with sexual abuse as a child, all of which could’ve made a for a difficult filming process. Luckily, as Holland noted in the chat, he has a couple of deeply trusted acting friends who he can talk to about work and get their honest opinions.

One of those people is Zendaya, of course (check out this dude who loves his girlfriend, everybody), but Holland says that he also gets a lot of honest feedback from Robert Downey Jr.—his mentor in the MCU and in real life, apparently. In fact, Holland says that he has so much love for Downey and respects him so much that he actually saw Dolittle.

For those who don’t recall, Dolittle was Downey’s first movie after Tony Stark died and his first time playing anyone but Tony Stark in six years, and it was a huge passion project for him. Unfortunately, nobody cared and it ended up being a critical and commercial flop. Well, nobody cared but Tom Holland, who had no choice but to show up for his buddy.

Unfortunately there’s another unfortunately, because Holland is clearly bringing up Dolittle as a little dig at Downey (who said that he had to fully reconsider how he chooses projects after it bombed). In the video version of the interview, he laughs when he brings it up and then jokingly asks the interviewer to cut it, but he does say that he loves Downey and will “always sing his praises.”