“Spider-Man: No Way Home” star Tom Holland doesn’t want to be part of the Hollywood machine.
In an interview on the “Jay Shetty Podcast,” the actor explained his struggle to be a part of the business while maintaining his sense of self.
“I really am a massive fan of making movies, but I really do not like Hollywood. It is not for me,” Holland said.
“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.”
He continued, “I definitely think it has been an ongoing thought, which is ‘don’t lose yourself.’ 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, and I just am really, really keen to focus on what make me happy which is my family, my friends, my carpentry, my golf, the charity my mom runs, that is the stuff that makes me really happy and that is the stuff I should protect.”
Holland has been acting since he was nine-years-old, and rose to international fame playing Spider-Man in the “Avengers” and “Spider-Man” films.
In June, he announced he would be taking a break from Hollywood, which he says was planned after the completion of his AppleTV+ series “The Crowded Room.”
His relationship with “Spider-Man” co-star Zendaya, has also been in the spotlight, but Holland says they both work to maintain their privacy and kept any relationship details to himself during the interview.
“My relationship is the thing I keep most sacred, I don’t talk about it. I try my best to keep it as private as possible. We both feel very strongly that that is the healthiest way for us to move on as a couple,” he said.
Holland added, “Like, you’ll never see me at an award show that I don’t have to be at. I’m never going to a red-carpet event that I’m not in the film of. I don’t want the attention when I don’t need it.”
‘SPIDER-MAN’ STAR TOM HOLLAND REACHES BREAKING POINT IN HOLLYWOOD: ‘TAKING A YEAR OFF’
The actor has made other life changes, including quitting drinking alcohol, explaining he’s been sober for about a year and a half.
After trying out “Dry January” and feeling the urge to drink, Holland realized “all I could think about was having a drink. All I could think about. I would wake up thinking about it. I was checking the clock, when’s it 12, and it just really scared me. I was just like, ‘Wow, maybe I have a little bit of an alcohol thing.’”
Later in the interview, the London-born star said, “I was definitely addicted to alcohol,” but found his life improved once he stopped drinking.
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“Things that would go wrong on set that would normally set me off, I could take in my stride,” he said. “I had such better mental clarity. I felt healthier. I felt fitter and I just sort of said to myself, ‘Why am I enslaved to this drink? Why am I so obsessed by the idea of having this drink?’”
“It’s honestly been the best thing I’ve ever done,” he added of his decision to become sober.
Holland also decided to take a major step back from social media.
“I was becoming a problem. I was just obsessed with it, and I was obsessed to find out what people were saying and how people, what they thought about me. So I decided to make an announcement, which we unfortunately have to do, and say I’m taking a break from social media,” he recalled. “And I tried to position myself and say I’m taking a break from social media because I feel like my mental health will benefit from it.”