Tom Holland Gives Thoughtful, Inspiring Explanation Of His Recent Sobriety

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During his recent press tour to promote his new AppleTV+ series The Crowded Room, Marvel Cinematic Universe star Tom Holland has come across as an incredibly normal, well-adjusted, nice guy.

One interview, in particular, has been making headlines in recent days thanks to Holland’s thoughtful and inspiring explanation as to why he’s been sober throughout the year so far.

According to Holland, the way in which he would crave a drink began to worry him, which led to him experimenting with sobriety at the start of 2023.

“All I could think about was having a drink. It really scared me. I just was like, ‘Wow, maybe I have a little bit of an alcohol thing,’” Holland said during an interview on the On Purpose with Jay Shetty Podcast.

“I felt like I couldn’t be social,” Holland said. “I felt like I couldn’t go to the pub and have a lime soda. I couldn’t go out for dinner. I was really, really struggling. I started to really worry that maybe I had an alcohol problem.”

This led Holland to do a dry January, which then led to him staying sober in February, which turned into him not drinking until his birthday in June.

“[I was] the happiest I’ve ever been in my life,” Holland said about his recent six months of sobriety.

“I could sleep better. I could handle problems better. Things that would go wrong on set, that would normally set me off, I could take in my stride. I had such better mental clarity. I felt healthier, I felt fitter… I just sort of said to myself, like, ‘Why? Why am I enslaved to this drink? Why am I so obsessed by the idea of having this drink?’”

The Crowded Room, which Holland himself admitted is getting “horrible reviews”, is currently streaming on AppleTV+. In the coming years, Holland is attached to a fourth Spider-Man film and a Fred Astaire biopic that’s currently in pre-production at Sony. Given that Holland said he’s taking a break from acting in 2023, it’s unclear when or if that film, set to be directed by Paddington and Wonka (yikes?) filmmaker Paul King, will begin production.