Peyton List made her acting debut in 2008's 27 Dresses and later established herself as a name by starring in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies and Disney Channel's Jessie. In recent years, however, she's become best known for her work in Netflix's Cobra Kai.
What you may not have known, though, is that List kicked off her career with a small role in 2004's Spider-Man 2 for a scene which gave her something of a reality check when it ended up on the cutting room floor!
Talking to Mark Dohner in the video below, the actress said she was just six years old at the time and had been cast alongside her brother for a scene which didn't ask much of the siblings. The actress joked, "That was a huge platform, being the girl on the stairs, that really boosted my career."
However, there was a time when it looked like she might not make it into the movie at all.
"I asked my mom at a really young age. I knew what I wanted to do, which is so odd. I feel like I was a super mature, little kid. But yeah, I asked my mom and also these agents approached my brother, my twin brother, Spencer... They approached him on the Staten Island ferry in New York and they were like, 'This kid has it. He’s so handsome. We want to sign him.' And I was like, 'Hey, I’ve always wanted to do it!'"
"They were like, 'No, you don’t look alike. You’re like the ugly twin, so move aside.' No, I’m not kidding! So, my mom brought us both into the agents, and my brother’s just kind of always been the one that’s super chill, and I’m like, 'I would love to do this. Hi!' And they were just saying, ‘Yeah, we don’t need girls. We just want him still.’ And so my mom said, ‘You have to sign them both, because she really wants to do it. If you have to get him, you have to get her,’ and she was like, ‘or we’re walking.'"
List credited her "savage" mom for making her dreams happen and said that, after she and her brother auditioned for the same Spider-Man 2 role, they were tapped to play kids on a staircase who are "basically fighting over how to spell Spider-Man."
Admitting she "probably barely got paid," List added, "It’s pretty awesome. My part got cut, so yeah, it was a double whammy. ‘They didn’t want you, you got cut from your first film, welcome to Hollywood, kid!’ But, it was good for me. It was good for me at six. It humbled me. That’s why I have super low self-esteem. No, I’m kidding."
You can watch the full interview with List in the player below.