The trailers for Spider-Man: Homecoming were just released last night, and in them we get to see our favorite web-slinger navigate the terrifying labyrinth that is high school. But Tom Holland is British and a celebrity, so he’d never been to high school in the U.S. before — until, that is, he started preparing for Homecoming. To really get into the deep, dark depths of the American teen psyche, Tom Holland did the only thing he could do: he enrolled in a real high school for three days, affected an accent, and pretended to be just a regular dude.

In a live Q&A on the Spider-Man Facebook page (via ComingSoon.net), Holland answered a few questions about how he prepared for the role, and revealed that he’d spent some time in real high school to help him out with his character.

The coolest thing I think I did for the movie was I was enrolled in a high school in New York, in the Bronx, as a secret. No one knew who I was or what I was doing. I had a fake name and a fake accent. I went to school for three days. It was really fun. It was really interesting because New York high schools are so different to schools that I went to in London. Where I went to a school where you have to wear a suit and tie and it’s all boys, and for me it was the first time that I was in a classroom with girls. It was a really strange experience, it was really fun.

As it turned out, pretending to be an American high school teen actually prepared him more for his role than he thought. Captain America: Civil War hadn’t come out yet, so there was no danger of anyone recognizing his face… and also no danger of anyone believing him when he tried to tell them who he really was.

I told one person. I told one kid at the school. I was like ‘Hey man, listen, I’m actually Spider-Man.’ He did not believe me… At the time I hadn’t made the movie, so I didn’t have any pictures to show him to prove that I was Spider-Man…. No one believed me. Which is actually a good thing, because it makes me think that if Peter Parker went up in his school and was like ‘I’m Spider-Man,’ everyone would be like ‘Nah dude, no you’re not.

Both Homecoming trailers feature a lot of fun high school scenes, and Holland seems to be our most aged-down Spidey we’ve seen yet in the movies. While Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were both in their late 20s when they portrayed the character, Holland is 20 now, so he’s much closer in age to an actual high-schooler, and looks and sounds much more believable in the role.

Spider-Man: Homecoming swings into theaters July 7, 2017.

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