“Spider-Man” star Tom Holland has been sober for a year and a half, and he’s explaining why he continues to skip drinking. His sobriety journey started in January 2023 when, after a December of heavy drinking, he decided to partake in a “Dry January” challenge. Holland told Jay Shetty, “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 was like, wow, maybe I have a little bit of an alcohol thing.”
He continued, “So, I sort of decided to push 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 went 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.”
After February was up, Holland decided he would continue his journey through his birthday on June 1st. Holland explained, “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; I had much better mental clarity. I felt healthier. I felt fitter.” He continued, “I just sort of said to myself, like, why am I enslaved to this drink? Why am I so obsessed with 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.”
Not wanting to be enslaved any longer and also enjoying the benefits of sobriety, Holland decided to continue his life without alcohol. A year and a half later, the actor loves his new life. “I love seeing my friends on the golf course at 8 a.m. in the morning, feeling fresh and ready to go… And so yeah, I’m over the moon to be sober. I love it,” he said. Giving up drinking isn’t the only way Holland has taken care of himself in recent years. He has also gone on multiple social media fasts and even gave up Hollywood roles to refocus himself. This past February, he was cast in a stage production of Romeo & Juliet, which began its run at the West End Theater at the beginning of May.
Holland, however, does have more Hollywood roles lined up as Sony announced it has plans for three more “Spider-Man” movies, for which Holland is expected to reprise his role.