Tom Holland Reveals He's Been Sober for Over a Year

Tom Holland is about to make his debut in the Akiva Goldsman-created Apple TV+ thriller series The Crowded Room, loosely based on the life of Billy Milligan. Milligan was the first person in the United States to be acquitted of a major crime by pleading dissociative identity disorder, and would later become the subject of the 1981 nonfiction novel, The Minds of Billy Milligan.

In other words, the project is a far cry from Holland's usual action fare such as Uncharted and Spider-Man. And as such, the 26-year-old was unprepared for the heavy toll it would take on his mental health.

"I'm no stranger to the physical aspects of the job doing the whole action-movie thing," he told Entertainment Weekly, in an interview that dropped the same day as the series trailer. "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."

"I was seeing myself in him, but in my personal life," he explained of the career-changing role. "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.'"

Holland added that since that they were in the midst of shooting the series, which he also executive produces, he decided against the makeover—but that the feeling was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before.

In the same interview, Holland revealed that he's been sober for one year and four months. Though, it's unclear how much, if at all, working on the series influenced his decision as filming began on March 31, 2022.

"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 continued, admitting that it was particularly helpful when dealing with "recognizing triggers" and stressors like social media.

The Crowded Room, which also stars Amanda Seyfried, Emmy Rossum, and Sasha Lane, debuts on Apple TV+ with a three-episode premiere on June 9.