Tom Holland has been sober for 16 months after having a “meltdown” and learning how to care for his mental health in therapy.
The 26-year-old Spiderman actor revealed that doing research for his new film The Crowded Room – in which he plays an antisocial character, Danny Sullivan – took such a toll on him that it took a “long time” for him to recover.
Referring to an incident that occured nine months after filming, he said: “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.’
“And, obviously, we were mid-shooting, so I decided not to… It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.”
The actor explained that the 10-part drama series “really beat me up”, but he’s come out of it with a better self-awareness thanks to counselling.
“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 said.
"I’m no stranger to the physical aspects of the job, doing the whole action-movie thing," he added to Entertainment Weekly.
“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.”
Holland has now learned to “recognise triggers” and to avoid regular consumption of things like social media and alcohol as they “stress [him] out”.
He is now one year and four months sober as a result.
Last year Holland, who is dating Hollywood star Zendaya, announced he was taking a break from social media, citing mental health-related reasons.
He explained at the time that he had deleted Instagram and Twitter from his phone, calling the apps “overstimulating” and “overwhelming”.
