Why Tom Holland Is Taking a Break From Acting

Ahead of the debut of his latest project, The Crowded Room, Tom Holland announced that he will be taking a year-long break from acting. The news may be surprising to some, considering that fans were getting excited to see the actor spread his wings after the end of the Spider-Man trilogy. Holland is best known for starring as Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and has played character in six films (so far). While he’s dabbled in voice acting and explored more mature roles in Cherry and The Devil All the Time during that same period, Spider-Man has dominated his career for the past few years.

Which is why it isn’t surprising that Holland opted to try something new once the MCU’s demand for his time eased. Holland’s latest post-Spider-Man project is the Apple TV+ series The Crowded Room, which premiered on June 9, 2023. Holland stars opposite Amanda Seyfried in the psychological thriller based on The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes. He portrays Danny Sullivan, a character inspired by Milligan, who was the first American acquitted of major crimes due to his diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder (DID). The show does a deep dive into mental health, as well as the fact that trauma often underlies a condition like DID.

While Holland is accustomed to the physically demanding aspects of acting, Sullivan is a more intense role that requires him to get into someone else’s mindset. He has been open about how difficult it was to portray Sullivan. Having to get into Sullivan’s mental state took a toll on Holland, and resulted in him feeling like he couldn’t separate himself from the character, even after filming ended. Holland admitted to Entertainment Weekly that he had a “meltdown,” and believed he needed to shave his head at one point to further separate Sullivan from his personal life. Now, further acknowledging the toll The Crowded Room took on him, Holland is looking forward to some time off.

Tom Holland explains why he’s taking a year off from acting

In an interview with Extra, Holland confirmed that he is taking a year-long break from acting, largely because of how difficult and demanding The Crowded Room was. It wasn’t just that he had to push himself into a darker frame of mine to embody the role of Sullivan, but also that his workload was further increased because he also served as a producer on the show. Holland mentioned that there was a “learning curve of becoming a producer” and that it added extra pressure to an already difficult job.

Even though Holland enjoyed his time as a producer, he had to admit he reached his limit on The Crowded Room:

I’m no stranger to hard work. I’ve always lived by the idea that hard work is good work. Then again, the show did break me. There did come a time where I needed a break and disappeared and went to Mexico for a week and had time on a beach and laid low. I’m now taking a year off, and that is a result of how difficult this show was. I am excited to see how it turns out. I feel like our hard work wasn’t in vain.

If anyone is deserving of a break, it is Holland considering how many blockbusters he has starred in on top of The Crowded Room. Additionally, prioritizing mental health after a particularly grueling role is also understandable. However, it does raise questions about his upcoming projects. At the premiere of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Amy Pascal teased that a fourth Spider-Man film with Holland is already in the works. The actor is also set to portray Fred Astaire in an upcoming biopic.

It’s unclear if Holland’s break started when The Crowded Room wrapped filming in September of 2022 or if it will begin after press for the show concludes. If it is the latter, it may mean that Spider-Man 4 and the Fred Astaire biopic aren’t looking to begin production until 2024, which is reasonable considering the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike.

(featured image: Apple TV+)