Tom Holland Is Taking a Year Off After Draining ‘The Crowded Room’ Role (Exclusive)

Tom Holland’s newest role is an intense one. The actor stars in “The Crowded Room,” a dark psychological thriller that explores themes around trauma and mental health.

“Extra’s” Terri Seymour recently spoke with Tom about the new Apple TV+ series, which he revealed led him to take a year off because it was so “difficult.”

He elaborated on what he's been doing during his downtime. "I've been seeing my family. I've been seeing my friends. I've been playing golf. I've been, you know, going to the garden center and buying plants and doing my best to keep them alive and all that sort of stuff. I've just been trying to be, you know, regular bloke from Kingston and just relax."

“I just was terrified by the idea of playing this character, and for me that’s a really good thing, so I said yes,” Tom shared on what drew him to the role of Danny Sullivan, which is loosely based on infamous real-life criminal Billy Milligan.

“I just was really excited by the challenge of bringing him to life. You know, understanding the responsibility of telling a story like this, hearing the message from Akiva [Goldsman], hearing what he wanted to try and achieve, and just feeling really aligned with him,” he said.

“I just really agreed that it was time to tell the story about mental health — mental health that is brought on by trauma. And educate some people into how crazy it can be and how your mind is so powerful — it can work for good, and it can work for bad — and it just really resonated with me.”

Inspired by Daniel Keyes’ nonfiction book “The Minds of Billy Milligan,” “The Crowded Room” tells the story of a young man’s arrest for a shocking crime (Holland’s character), and the unlikely investigator who must solve the mystery behind the crime.

Tom was also an executive producer on the drama. While it was a challenge that he “really enjoyed,” coupled with the emotionally taxing role, the experience ultimately led him to decide to take a year off from working.

“It was it was a tough time for sure. We were exploring certain emotions that I have definitely never experienced before, and then on top of that being a producer dealing with the day-to-day kind of problems that come with any film set added that extra level of pressure,” the actor said.

“I love the learning curve of becoming a producer,” Tom continued. “I’m no stranger to hard work. I’ve always sort of lived by this idea that hard work is good work. I really enjoyed it, but then again, the show did break me. There did come a time where I was sort of like, ‘I need to have a break.’ I disappeared. I went to Mexico for a week and had some time on a beach. And I’m now taking a year off, and that is a result of how difficult this show was.”

While audiences are used to seeing Tom swing from building to building as Spider-Man, he told Terri he is excited to see the fan reactions to this role and story that is so different from anything he has ever done and hopes fans “enjoy the roller coaster.”

“I hope that like me they can get the same education I got into how impressive the human mind is and to how far we can go in order to survive. I hope the fans come along for the ride we’ve laid out for them. There is a mystery with puzzle pieces. You can put it together yourself or you can just be along for the ride,” Tom said, adding that he looks forward to engaging with audiences as they watch.

“I’m going to be very present online. I’m going to speak to fans and ask them what they think and see if they figured it out.”

Tom went on to say that he hopes the show sparks more conversations about mental health.

“Most importantly, I’m hoping that [audiences] feel like they are somewhat educated in a topic that has this stigma, that we do need to change, we do need to talk about the powers of mental health. And hopefully this show can be a stepping stone in the right direction.”

Holland also shared how the experience of playing Danny Sullivan helped him evolve as a person in a way that no other part has.

“I feel very confident in my capabilities as an actor. I feel like I can handle confrontation better. I feel like I can deal with certain situations that I think before would have really set me off and now I just take it in my stride. I feel like I’ve grown up a lot, perhaps more so in the 10 months of making this show than I have in my entire career,” Tom explained.

“It definitely feels like the beginning of the next chapter, and I feel really good. I’m really happy.”

As for whether that next chapter will include him slipping back into the Spider-Man suit anytime soon, Tom says he hasn’t hung it up yet.

“I don’t think it’ll be soon, but there is definitely a possibility.”