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You may know Tom Holland on the big screen with his Spider-Man Home trilogy as well as the Apple TV+ series The Crowded Room, Uncharted, and Cherry to name a few. But outside of acting, Holland struggled with alcoholism. As Holland’s sobriety went from two months which turned to six months, he explains why he decided to live a sober lifestyle altogether.
Tom Holland guest-starred on British author Jay Shetty’s podcast On Purpose, talking about how he entered the path of sobriety and how his life has gotten better since then. He spoke about how the beginning of his journey started with Dry January- a challenge in the UK that involves staying away from alcohol for 31 days:
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 just was like, wow, maybe I have a little bit of an alcohol thing. So I sort of decided to punish 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. 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.
It’s interesting that sometimes it takes embarking on a challenge like Dry January to realize your dependency on alcohol and what life is like without it. I give Tom Holland a lot of credit that he was willing to tackle two months without alcohol when the challenge was just expected for one. It’s almost like the ideology from one of the best motivational films Forrest Gump where if you already ran this far, you might as well keep going.
Once Tom Holland reached two months, he was planning on having his time without alcohol end on his birthday in June. Luckily, The Impossible actor saw a true difference in himself leading a sober lifestyle:
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. 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 so much, such better mental clarity. I felt healthier. I felt fitter. And I just sort of said to myself, like, why am I enslaved to this drink? 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.
It’s truly an amazing story that Tom Holland was motivated enough to quit drinking on his own and that no one had to force him into sobriety. This is surely a better sobriety story compared to “the wildest rumor” of why he became sober. There was wild tabloid speculation that Holland’s turn to sobriety came from experiencing a meltdown on the set of The Crowded Room. He quickly debunked that rumor saying his sobriety started long before his work on the Apple TV+ subscription series.
As Tom Holland celebrated his sobriety after a year, he told Jay Shetty that he’s been living a happier life since he stopped drinking. He’s replaced alcohol with an alternative he’s found healthier like a beer that has electrolytes and carbohydrates known for helping your body recover. Holland was also glad that his friends had been supportive throughout this journey and that he was able to get to this place on his own without anyone telling him that he needed to stop drinking. The Onward actor continued to talk about being “over the moon” about sobriety:
I would drink and drink and drink and drink. And then you would just reach that moment where you’re like, wow, I shouldn’t have had that last beer. And you wake up the next day and you have a terrible headache and you’re suffering. […] I love seeing my friends on the golf course at 8am in the morning, feeling fresh and ready to go. […] And so yeah, I’m over the moon to be sober. I love it.
With a new chapter in Tom Holland’s life, he’s still got plenty of work ahead of him. He recently went back to his theater roots for the West End production of Romeo & Juliet. We also can’t forget his future as Peter Parker for a fourth Spider-Man movie. As pre-production was put on hold due to the 2023 WGA Writers Strike, news has still been slowing down with wild rumors like how horror legend James Wan may reportedly be one of the directors considered for the upcoming movie. Even if the planning process is slow for now, we can take it as a good sign that the creators are being careful about making sure Spider-Man 4 is just as much of a success as No Way Home.
Tom Holland’s sobriety journey first started out at two months which then turned to six months. As the Spider-Man actor kept himself going, he realized the sober lifestyle was the best choice for him which made him quit drinking altogether. I’m really proud of Holland for coming through to this decision on his own and sticking with it this past year.
Make sure to look into our upcoming Marvel movies so you get more Spider-Man 4 news. You can also look at our 2024 movie releases so you’re updated on Tom Holland’s latest projects.