WHY SPIDER-MAN STAR TOM HOLLAND IS LOVING SOBRIETY

BY MOVIEGUIDE® CONTRIBUTOR

SPIDER-MAN star Tom Holland has been sober for over a year and a half, and he’s explaining why he continues to forgo drinking.

Holland’s sobriety journey started in January 2023 when, after a December of heavy drinking, he decided to partake in a “Dry January” challenge.

“I just wanted to do dry January. And all I could think about was having a drink. It was all I could think about. I was waking up thinking about it. I was checking the clock, when’s it 12? And it just really scared me. I was like, wow, maybe I have a little bit of an alcohol thing,” Holland told Jay Shetty.

“So, I sort of decided to push myself and say, I’ll do February as well. I’ll do two months off. If I can do two months off, then I can prove to myself I don’t have a problem,” he continued. “Two months go by and I was still really struggling. I felt like I couldn’t be social. 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. And I started to really worry that maybe I had an alcohol problem.”

After February was up, Holland decided he would continue his journey through his birthday on June 1.

“I said to myself, If I can do six months without alcohol, then I can prove to myself that I don’t have a problem. And by the time I had got to June 1st, I was the happiest I’d ever been in my life,” Holland explained. “I could sleep better. I could handle problems better… I had such better mental clarity. I felt healthier. I felt fitter.”

“I just sort of said to myself, like, why am I enslaved to this drink?” he continued. “Why am I so obsessed by the idea of having this drink? And I would look back and recognize that I would go to events for work and be like, I can’t enjoy myself until I’ve had a few beers.”

Not wanting to be a slave any longer — and also enjoying the benefits of sobriety — Holland decided to continue his life without alcohol. A year and a half later, the actor loves his new life.

“I love seeing my friends on the golf course at 8 a.m. in the morning, feeling fresh and ready to go… And so yeah, I’m over the moon to be sober. I love it,” he said.

Giving up drinking isn’t the only way Holland has taken care of himself in recent years. He has also gone on multiple social media fasts and even gave up Hollywood roles to refocus himself. This past February he was cast in a stage production of Romeo & Juliet which began its run at the West End Theater at the beginning of May.

Holland, however, does have more Hollywood roles lined up as Sony announced it has plans for three more SPIDER-MAN movies, for which Holland is expected to reprise his role.

Movieguide® previously reported:

Despite some speculation from fans on whether or not Tom Holland would reprise his role as Spider-Man after SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, Marvel President Kevin Feige recently confirmed a fourth Holland Spider-Man movie.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Feige said that Marvel is already working on the script for an upcoming SPIDER-MAN movie starring Holland.