Tom Hollander Admits He’s Often Mistaken For Tom Holland: “I’m Introduced To Somebody’s Very, Very Excited, Then Confused, Then Disappointed Children”

It turns out that Tom Hollander and Tom Holland‘s uniquely esteemed careers are no match for their nearly identical names.

During the former’s Monday night (Jan. 22) appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, host Seth Meyers acknowledged the “elephant in the room” that is the actor’s similar names, per The Daily Mail.

“Do people ever make that error?” Meyers asked.

The 56-year-old Hollander revealed that he and 27-year-old Holland have indeed been mistaken for each other, quipping, it’s “been very difficult.”

“‘Cause you know, I was here first,” he added. “But he’s enormously famous.”

Hollander clarified that he and the Marvel star only get mixed up in “non-visual contexts,” such as “talking to utility companies” over the phone.

“Or I’m introduced to somebody’s very, very excited, then confused, then disappointed children,” he joked. “They go, ‘My children are so excited to meet you.’ And I go, ‘Are they though?'”

However, what really took the cake was Hollander recalling the confusion that ensued when he and Holland used to share the same talent agency.

Hollander, noting that he and the Marvel star were “briefly” with the same agency, went on to discuss a “terrible moment” related to the name mix-up.

While supporting his friend, who was earning a mere “£300 a week” performing in a play in England at the time, Hollander said he sat “smugly” in the audience, “having just done a BBC show for 30 grand or something” in contrast to his friend’s play paycheck.

While the actor teased that he planned to “slightly patronize” his friend, his whole outlook shifted when he checked his email during intermission and saw an email from his agency with Holland’s first box office bonus from The Avengers, in which he played Spider-Man.

“And I thought, ‘I don’t think I’m in The Avengers,'” he recalled. “And it was an astonishing amount of money. It was not his salary. It was his first box office bonus. Not the whole box office, the first one. It was a seven-figure sum.”

Highlighting that Holland “was 20 or something” at the time, Hollander admitted his previous “feeling of smugness… disappeared very quickly.”

“But that’s showbiz,” he quipped. “It’s up, it’s down. Its hero, it’s zero.”

This isn’t the first time that similar celeb names have made way for hilarious Hollywood stories. Just ask Dylan McDermott and Dermot Mulroney, who (jokingly) couldn’t even get their own names right this summer.

Late Night with Seth Meyers airs weeknights at 12:35/11:35c on NBC.