Tom Holland's Avengers bonus sent to Tom Hollander in error

It is not every day a million dollars shows up in your account by accident.

But The White Lotus star Tom Hollander has revealed it happened to him when he received a paycheque intended for Spider-Man actor Tom Holland.

Speaking to Late Night host Seth Meyers, Hollander said: "We were with the same agents briefly and people in the accounts department got confused.

"It's been very difficult, because you know I was here first but he's enormously famous," he added jokingly.

Explaining how he discovered the accidental payment, Hollander said he was watching a friend in the theatre who was being paid £300.

"I sat smugly in the audience having just done a BBC show for £30,000 or something which was going to get me through the next year or so, and I was thinking, 'Well, this is marvellous, I'm very prosperous.'"

At the interval, he checked his emails and saw one containing a payslip labelled as "Box office bonus for The Avengers".

"It was an astonishing amount of money," the 56-year-old told Meyers. "It was not his salary. It was his first box office bonus. Not the whole box office bonus, the first one. And it was more money than I'd ever [seen]. It was a seven-figure sum."

"My feeling of smugness disappeared," he added.

Holland, who is dating Euphoria star Zendaya, has played Spider-Man in six Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

Hollander said: "I obviously don't actually get mistaken for him, but in non-visual contexts, I'm mistaken for him all the time.

"Talking to utility companies... or when I'm introduced to somebody's very excited, then confused, then disappointed children."

While similar names can cause confusion, even more mix-ups have occurred when two celebrities have the same name.

In November 2022, physicist Brian Cox and actor Brian Cox told the BBC how their identical names have caused confusion.

The pair said they each often arrive somewhere to find that people were expecting "the other" Brian Cox.

Physicist Cox even said he had to use a different name when a hotel told him that their system couldn't handle two separate bookings under the same name.

Have you been mistaken for a well known person because you have the same or a similar sounding name? Share your experiences by emailing [email protected].

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:

If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at [email protected]. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.

You may also be interested in: