Earlier this year, Spider-Man: No Way Home star Tom Holland revealed that he'd been sober for over 12 months after deciding to give up alcohol completely, and the actor has now elaborated on his struggles with booze and what ultimately led to him cutting it out of his life.
During an appearance on the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast (via Variety), Holland candidly spoke about coming to the realization that he may have become reliant in alcohol after doing "Dry January" (a tradition in the UK and Ireland) following a "very boozy" December.
“All I could think about was having a drink. It really scared me,” he said about giving up the sauce for one month. “I just was like, ‘Wow, maybe I have a little bit of an alcohol thing.'”
“I felt like I couldn’t be social,” Holland continued. “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. I started to really worry that maybe I had an alcohol problem.”
Holland then decided to keep going, extending his dry spell for another few months until his birthday, but by the time the date arrived, he felt he no longer needed to go back on the drink.
“[I was] the happiest I’ve 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 such better mental clarity. I felt healthier, I felt fitter… I just sort of said to myself, like, ‘Why? Why am I enslaved to this drink? Why am I so obsessed by the idea of having this drink?'”
Holland recently announced his plan to take some time off after a particular intense time filming Apple TV+ drama The Crowded Room, but he is expected to reprise the role of Peter Parker in the MCU at some point, and has confirmed that Spider-Man 4 discussions did take place prior to the WGA strike putting everything on pause.
You can check out Holland's interview for yourselves below.