Tom Holland has revealed how much input he had into crafting his performance as video game icon Nathan Drake in blockbuster adaptation Uncharted, which is now playing in domestic theaters.
As the lead character of the massively popular console series of the same name, there’s a lot of expectation and pressure that comes with taking top billing in a big budget Uncharted movie. In an interview with ComicBook, Holland explained how he approached the role of Drake for the big screen.
“When we were developing this character and this film, we were kind of trying to figure out how I would play him. And there was a discussion at one point where they wanted me to just mimic Nolan North, and I started doing a little bit of work into it and I think we all came to the conclusion that we needed to make this film unique.”
Once the creative team realized that simply mimicking North’s style of playing Drake within the games wasn’t really going to work, Holland said he was told “it needed to have something new about it. So, they then gave me free rein to kind of go away and develop this character in my own way.”
The major difference between the Uncharted film and the game is that Holland is playing a much younger version of the character, which is an origin story of sorts. Drake is 31 when we meet him in the first game, and given that Holland is 25 in real life, we have to imagine that this version of is somewhere in his early twenties.
“Obviously, the differences are that he’s younger. I think one of the traits that he has is he’s very trustworthy, which ultimately is something that he definitely shouldn’t be in the world of treasure hunting which isn’t something that he is necessarily very, he’s not very trustworthy in the games. But no, there are a lot of similarities but lots of differences.”
Holland stars opposite Mark Wahlberg, Antonio Banderas and Sophia Ali in Ruben Fleischer’s globetrotting blockbuster, with Uncharted on course to enjoy a solid opening weekend at the box office.