Ever notice that Hollywood is starting to go back to the old practice of putting the big guy in as the main character’s best friend or a character that’s important but will almost never become anything but the sidekick? Jacob Batalon seems to fit that role since he is a big guy but he also seems to be the best-friend material that gets tossed into roles where he is well-suited but are still basically there to help out the main character and humanize them in a way that might not otherwise be possible. For Peter Parker he’s kind of like the sidekick best friend that finds out about his powers but is more than willing to at least not go blabbing around to the press or anyone else about how his buddy is Spider-Man. Jacob has other parts coming up, but so far he’s been kind of easy to identify thanks to his part in the MCU.
Here are a few things you might not have known about him.
10. He dropped out of community college.
He was studying music theory but it seems that this wasn’t quite enough or perhaps wasn’t the course he wanted to go down so he dropped out in favor of finding something else. He’s not exactly the first person to do it and obviously it was a good call.
9. He can’t speak Filipino but he understands it.
If anyone tells you that listening to a language is just like practicing it then feel free to call them out and claim that this is false. Jacob understands his family’s language quite well but he can’t really speak a lick of it.
8. He started acting in 2016.
Aside from anyone that might have started their career this year he’s about as green as you can get without being brand new to the business. His debut came in another movie but people really started recognizing him when he entered the MCU.
7. He was in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Here’s where the part of Ned the best friend comes in since he’s pretty much the guy that Peter relies on all the time when he needs help with something. This is a different side of Spider-Man that a lot of people don’t remember but Ned is a good friend and is actually pretty helpful.
6. He had a small part in Avengers: Infinity War.
One thought that never seems to get asked is that out of all the people that Thanos wiped out with that single snap of his fingers, was Ned one of them? There are so many secondary characters in the MCU and peripheral characters that a diligent fan can’t help but think about them and what might have happened.
5. He’s going to be in the upcoming film Night School.
You can just imagine what it’s like to have to get your GED when you’re already an adult and have established a life for yourself. This would probably be one of the hardest things that anyone would ever have to do simply because no one really wants to go back to school in this kind of circumstance.
4. He’ll be in the next Spider-Man movie.
Since just about anyone that got nixed in the Infinity War movie will probably be coming back you know that Ned will be back, but if he’ll have the same amount of screen time as he did in the first movie is something that’s still up for debate.
3. He has a pretty impressive presence on social media.
For being a secondary character he has a huge following. But if you’re surprised by this then you never got the significance of the Barb craze from Stranger Things. Secondary characters that have proven themselves in a short amount of time, or have been axed before a lot of people thought their time was due have been getting a lot more credit as of late. People are digging on the secondary characters these days since they don’t hog the spotlight as much as the stars.
2. He took a 2-year acting course at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts.
It would seem that this was the right course for him to take since it did manage to help him get a career going. Now all he has to do is continue to prove that he belongs there and he should be able to look back one day and say that for all the stuff he did early in life he did something extremely right and made a great career out of it.
1. He was born in Hawaii.
He was born to Filipino parents and spent much of his life in Hawaii. In his own words he’s lived a pretty good life and his family has always been close, doing pretty much everything together and giving him a lot of great opportunities to advance.
Let’s hope his career keeps going, because so far he’s an engaging personality.
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