Tom Holland says he's over one year sober after working on his mental health

10 May 2023, 12:47

Tom Holland opens up about his mental health on Instagram

By Katie Louise Smith

"Learning about mental health and the power of it, and speaking to psychiatrists about Danny and Billy's struggles, has been something that has been so informative to my own life."

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Over the past year, Tom Holland has been busy filming his new TV series, The Crowded Room, and now he's getting ready to premiere the show for everyone to watch.

The Crowded Room follows Danny Sullivan after he was arrested for his involvement in a New York City shooting in 1979. Tom stars as Danny opposite Amanda Seyfried who plays investigator Rya Goodwin. Through those interviews, Danny comes to better understand his own mental health, the people in his life, and the tragic events that led up to the incident.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Tom described the series as "an insight into the power of the human mind" and "the ways in which we can deal with trauma."

He also opened up about how working on the series helped him better his own mental health, and encouraged him to go sober.

Tom Holland shares how his latest role had a huge effect on his own mental health. Picture: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for SiriusXM, AppleTV+ via YouTube

While The Crowded Room is inspired by a true story, and based on the 1981 novel The Minds of Billy Milligan, the series approaches the whole thing from a fictional angle. But the fictional nature of it still took a huge personal toll on Tom himself.

"I'm no stranger to the physical aspects of the job doing the whole action-movie thing," he says. "But the mental aspect, it really beat me up and it took a long time for me to recover afterwards, to sort of get back to reality."

In the interview, Tom recounts one particular moment during filming where he found himself unable to detach from his character, Danny: "I was seeing myself in him, but in my personal life. I remember having a bit of a meltdown at home and thinking, like, 'I'm going to shave my head. I need to shave my head because I need to get rid of this character.' And, obviously, we were mid-shooting, so I decided not to…"

"It was unlike anything I've ever experienced before."

Tom Holland has been filming The Crowded Room since 2022. Picture: Getty

As a result of working on the production, Tom shared that he is now one year and four months sober, and has started to view his mental health differently. He also credits his co-star Sasha Lane for her help, guidance and support: "She would take me aside and was really open and willing to share some of her experiences that were so helpful in the moment."

"Learning about mental health and the power of it, and speaking to psychiatrists about Danny and Billy's struggles, has been something that has been so informative to my own life," he said, adding that he’s able to now 'recognise triggers' and "things that stress me out" like social media.

Back in August 2022, Tom shared that he would be stepping back from social media in order to protect his mental health. "I find Instagram and Twitter to be over-stimulating, to be overwhelming, I get caught up and I spiral when I read things about me online… Ultimately it's very detrimental to my mental state,” he told his fans in an Instagram Story.

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At the end of the interview, Tom shared that he hoped viewers of The Crowded Room will come away from the show with "more respect and more sympathy for people who are going through mental health issues."

"I hope that people will feel educated about the powers of mental health, the struggles, [and] our incredible abilities to survive," he concluded.

The Crowded Room will premiere on Apple TV+ on June 9th, and will run for 10 episodes.