Spider-Man star Tom Holland recently announced that he will be taking a year off from acting after his leading role in the psychological crime drama The Crowded Room took him to some “tough” emotional places. And now he’s reflecting on his experiences in the entertainment industry as a whole.
“Look, I really am a massive fan of making movies but I really do not like Hollywood, it is not for me,” Holland said during a conversation with author and life coach Jay Shetty on his podcast. “The business really scares me. I understand that I’m a part of that business, and I enjoy my kind of interactions with it… But that said, I am always looking for ways to kind of remove myself from it, to kind of just live as normal a life as possible.”
Holland began his career on the stage, starring in the title role in the musical Billy Elliott before getting parts in movies like The Impossible, How I Live Now and In the Heart of the Sea and the historical TV drama Wolf Hall. He then broke into the international mainstream when he was cast as Peter Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, making his debut in a cameo appearance in Captain America: Civil War before leading his own movie in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Since then, Holland has become a household name, starring opposite Mark Wahlberg in the action adventure movie Uncharted and dating Euphoria and Dune star Zendaya—but he has tried his best to maintain a healthy perspective on his success.
“I definitely think it has been an ongoing thought, which is don’t lose yourself,” he continued. “I’ve seen so many people come before me and lose themselves, and I’ve had friends that I’ve grown up with that aren’t friends of mine anymore, because they’ve lost themselves to this business.”
“I just am really, really keen to focus on what makes me happy, which is my family, it’s my friends. It’s my carpentry, my golf, the charity that my mom runs… That is the stuff that makes me really happy, and that’s the stuff that I should protect.”
Philip Ellis is a freelance writer and journalist from the United Kingdom covering pop culture, relationships and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV.
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