Tom Holland Says His ‘Lip Sync Battle’ Fishnets Were ‘My Granny’s, Actually’ — and Shares What His Dad Thought of His Performance

Tom Holland is reflecting on his iconic Lip Sync Battle performance from 2017.

In a recent cooking segment with Gordon Ramsay from July 31, Holland, 29, made mention of his famous performance on the show, to the tune of Rihanna’s “Umbrella” — specifically, the fishnets he wore for it.

When Ramsay, 58, asked the actor of his costume: “Were they mum’s fishnets?” Holland responded, “They were my granny’s, actually.”

As the pair bonded over preparing a spicy fried chicken sandwich at the Gordon Ramsay Academy, Holland looked back fondly on the viral moment, during which he and his now-fiancée Zendaya appeared on the competition. The couple, who were co-starring in Spider-Man: Homecoming at the time, got engaged in January.

“What was really great about that is people didn’t know that I could dance,” Holland said of the performance, which began with a fake-out intro featuring “Singin’ in the Rain” before jumping into Rihanna’s 2007 song. “I kept that quiet, I don’t know why. And I came out with a bang.”

“It’s so funny, Zendaya and I, we were chatting at the time about what we were gonna do, and we had agreed that we would take it easy,” he explained. “That was the agreement, that it was like, ‘I’m not gonna do anything crazy, you’re not gonna do anything crazy, we’re just gonna keep it nice and easy breezy.’ ”

The “easy breezy” goal quickly evolved into a multi-layered performance, Holland revealed.

“When I was working with the creative team coming up with the ideas, they kind of pitched this ‘Umbrella’ thing, and as we were rehearsing, it got crazier and crazier,” he told Ramsay. “And then the rain machine came in. And then I was like, ‘F— it, I wanna wear fishnets and do this, and I want a wig and a quick-change.’ ”

The actor also said that his father, director Dominic Holland, was apprehensive of the idea for the performance at the time. “When I told my dad, he was like, ‘Son, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t think you should do that,’ ” Holland explained.

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The actor continued, “I think he was just, at that time in my career, he was very worried about me becoming too famous too quickly. So he was really keen for me to not do extra TV shows that I didn’t have to do to try and maintain that part of my childhood.”

Holland finds the LSB video’s continued viral success “ridiculous.”

“Honestly, of all the pieces of work I’ve done, that I’ve put my heart and soul into, blood, sweat, and tears, the Lip Sync Battle is the thing that everyone brings up,” the actor said, laughing. “It’s never Spider-Man, it’s never any of my other movies, it’s always Lip Sync Battle. It haunts me.”

The actor recently stepped back into the suit as Spider-Man for Marvel’s upcoming film Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The film is in theaters on July 31, 2026.