Chris Hemsworth and Benjamin Walker may be the main men aboard the whaleship Essex in In the Heart of the Sea, but Tom Holland most certainly holds his own as cabin boy Thomas Nickerson. Ron Howard's film adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick's book of the same name tells the true story of a whaleship from Nantucket, Massachusetts that sank in the Pacific Ocean after being attacked by an enormous sperm whale. Walker plays the ship's captain, George Pollard, Hemsworth steps in as his first mate, Owen Chase, and then there's poor Nickerson who's the youngest member of the crew and winds up getting way more than he bargained for during his first trip out to sea.
With In the Heart of the Sea hitting theaters on December 11th, I got the opportunity to sit down with Holland to chat about his interesting, challenging and, if you like eating, somewhat horrifying experience making the film. Check out what he told me about scoring the role, his In the Heart of the Sea drinking game idea, his absolutely miserable diet and what an In the Heart of the Sea cookbook might look like in the video interview below.
Tom Holland:
- 00:40 - The process of scoring a role in a Ron Howard movie.
- 01:33 - His first impression of the script; jumping into such a big production.
- 02:10 - The importance of the whaling industry at the time.
- 02:52 - Learning to play a whaler.
- 03:29 - His expert knot-tying skills; the Tom Holland/In the Heart of the Sea drinking game.
- 04:21 - The In the Heart of the Sea diet/cookbook.
- 05:04 - The super sad story of a lost boiled egg.
- 05:53 - Did the cast have to watch the crew eat their hearty meals on set?
- 06:25 - What is hardtack and how do you eat it?
