Before Tom Holland’s Peter Parker became romantically involved with Zendaya’s MJ (with the actors themselves dating in real life too), he had eyes for Laura Harrier’s Liz, another one of his classmates at the Midtown School of Science and Technology. Spider-Man: Homecoming saw Peter and Liz going to their school’s homecoming dance together, but ahead of arriving at the event, the movie’s biggest twist came in the form of Peter learning Liz’s father was Adrian Toomes, a.k.a. The Vulture, who figured out that Peter was Spider-Man just minutes later. Six years after Homecoming’s release, Harrier recalled what it was like filming that shocking moment with Michael Keaton, as well as shared a “nauseating” fact about it that fans wouldn’t know about.
Let’s start with that second half first: what could have been “nauseating” about filming such an important scene with with Tom Holland and Michael Keaton? Well, because Liz was chewing gum in the scene when Adrian put two and two together with Peter while driving his daughter and his date to the dance, that meant Harrier had to keep gum in her mouth the entire time cameras were rolling for that portion of Spider-Man: Homecoming’s production. As she explained to THR:
It’s funny because people reference that scene a lot and how great of a scene it is, especially for being in a car, which is hard to shoot in. We shot that scene over two days, and it took a long time. I was also chewing gum the entire time, so I remember feeling pretty nauseated from having gum in my mouth for 12 hours a day, constantly.
Yeah, if I had to chew gum for as long as Laura Harrier did, I probably wouldn’t chew gum for a long time afterwards, it not swear off it entirely. That aspect aside though, the actress enjoyed her time with Michael Keaton on Homecoming, which marked his return to the comic book movie space following his time as Bruce Wayne in Batman and Batman Returns (and we’ll see him suit back up as the Caped Crusader in The Flash later this month). Harrier continued:
But more so than that, everyone knows that Michael Keaton is one of the greatest actors, and I was just so struck with the way that he brought that same intensity to every single take. No matter if it was his coverage or my coverage, he was still bringing that intensity, even if he was completely off camera. And to work with somebody who is off camera and contributing to your performance in that way, it’s the biggest gift as an actor. This was very early in my career, and to have the best of the best behave that way on set really stuck with me. He’s just a consummate professional, and that’s why he’s at the top.
Although Liz Allan has been an important supporting character in the Spider-Man mythos since its earliest years, Spider-Man: Homecoming was the first time the character was adapted in a major capacity, with Sally Livingstone having previously cameoed as the character in 2002’s Spider-Man. However, Liz being Vulture’s daughter doesn’t come from the comics, thus making that a compelling twist for both general moviegoers and longtime Marvel fans. Following Vulture’s incarceration, Liz and her mother moved to Oregon, but she could be seen on some magazine covers in Spider-Man: No Way Home, as she spoke to the press following Peter Parker being outed as Spider-Man in Far From Home’s mid-credits scene.
Disney+ subscribers can revisit Laura Harrier’s performance in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and she can also now be seeing performing opposite Sinqua Walls, Jack Harlow and the late Lance Reddick in the White Men Can’t Jump remake, which is viewable with a Hulu subscription. As far as Spider-Man 4 goes, there’s not a ton we know about it at the moment, but it is in the lineup of upcoming Marvel movies.
