Tom Holland says ‘animosity’ on 2023 project made him consider breaking sobriety

‘It was not a very harmonious place,’ Spider-Man actor recalled

Tom Holland says there was so much “animosity” on the set of one of his projects that he considered breaking his sobriety.

The actor, who plays Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), has opened up about his back catalogue, as well as his decision to stop drinking alcohol, in a brand new interview.

One project the actor spoke about was the critically maligned 2023 Apple TV+ series The Crowded Room, in which Holland played Danny Sullivan, a man arrested for his involvement in a 1979 shooting.

According to the 28-year-old British star, the production of the show, which he previously said “broke” him, “was not a very harmonious place”.

The actor, who is in a relationship with his Spider-Man co-star Zendaya, told Men’s Health: “There was quite a lot of animosity on that set. It was not a very harmonious place. There was a lot of arguing and butting heads.”

Holland, who co-starred in the series with Amanda Seyfried and Emmy Rossum , did not say who was involved in the disagreements, but said they “were not creative debates”, which he usually “welcomes even when they’re heated”.

He started filming The Crowded Room in May 2022, just two months into his sobriety, which the outlet said was “a trial by fire for the newly sober actor”, who thought: “If I start drinking again now, with all this going on, it’s gonna get worse, right?”

The Crowded Room is based on the 1981 book The Minds of Billy Milligan. The subject of a Netflix true crime documentary, Milligan was arrested in the 1970s for raping three women at the Ohio State University.

His lawyers pleaded insanity, and Milligan became the first ever person to be acquitted of a crime due to suffering from dissociative identity disorder – previously known as multiple personality disorder.

Holland took a year-long break from acting after his particularly strenuous role in the series, telling Entertainment Weekly that the “mental aspect” of playing Danny “really beat me up” and that it took him a “long time” to recover afterwards.

Tom Holland in Apple TV+ series ‘The Crowded Room’ (Apple TV+)

He told ExtraTV: “There did come a time when I was sort of, ‘I need to have a break.’ I disappeared. I went to Mexico for a week and had some time on a beach and lay low. And I’m now taking a year off, and that is a result of how difficult this show was.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Holland said he will retire when he has children, telling the outlet: “When I have kids, you will not see me in movies anymore... I will just disappear off the face of the earth.”