After making his debut as beloved superhero Spider-Man, aka Peter Parker, in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, Tom Holland took the world by storm with a trilogy of hit Spider-Man films, along with acclaimed performances in Uncharted, The Devil All The Time and Cherry. With awards season in full swing, Holland sat down with members of the Critics Choice Association for a virtual press conference to talk about his latest performance in the Apple TV+ series The Crowded Room, for which he just received a Critics Choice Award nomination.
“I was shooting Spider-Man: No Way Home, having the time of my life, and sent my agents off to look for whatever would be next. They told me about Akiva [Goldsman] who wanted to sit down with me and pitch this idea,” Holland said to the press. “I’d always said to my agents that my favorite film and performance, still to this day, is Primal Fear with Edward Norton, and this opportunity felt like my version of that.”
The development of an adaptation of Daniel Keyes’ non-fiction novel The Minds of Billy Milligan, the novel that The Crowded Room drew inspiration from, dates as far back to the 90s with James Cameron directing and John Cusack starring. The feature film adaptation eventually fell through and remained unmade until executive producer Akiva Goldsman set out to create the 10-episode limited series in 2021, and drew upon some of his own childhood trauma and experiences to shape the story.
“Meeting with Akiva, we immediately hit it off,” Tom explained. “We went for a meeting at like 1 o’clock in the afternoon and we left at about 11pm. We became fast friends and knew that we had this great connection that would translate onscreen and on set and it was a very easy decision for me.” After nearly ten months of production the series premiered on Apple TV+ in June 2023.
“Shooting for ten months is not something I’m used to,” he explained when speaking on challenges he faced along the way. “The movies I get to make are with some of the best people in the business. They’re very sleek and efficient so moving to television and working for ten months was also a real shock to the system. New York is also a really tough place to work. You can’t block off the streets, it’s busy, it’s loud, it’s overstimulating when you’re trying to focus.”
We asked Tom what he walked away from this ten month-long journey having learned, to which he talked about his resilience on the exhausting, yet rewarding, project. “This is a job that really promised to beat me up and it did, and I’m really proud that I never cracked or let the pressure get to me,” the star shared. “There were real times that the show was testing me emotionally, logistically, I was exhausted. I was bold enough to ask for a break when I needed it. I walked away from this experience having learned that I’m far more resilient than I’d ever thought.”
The role(s) was so taxing for Holland that he ended up taking a year off from acting altogether after working practically non-stop since 2016 between six Marvel movies, three voice roles in Spies in Disguise, Doolittle, and Onward, and films The Devil All The Time, Chaos Walking, Cherry, The Current War, and Uncharted.
When asked about a potential return to the superhero genre, Holland smiled and laughed to himself, seemingly hesitating, and chose his words carefully, “all I can say is that we’ve been actively engaged in conversations about what it could potentially look like for a fourth rendition of my character,” he explained.
“Whether or not we can do justice to the character is another thing. I feel very protective of Spider-Man. I want to protect his legacy, so I won’t make another one for the sake of making another one. It’ll have to be worthwhile. If we can figure that out, then I’d be a fool not to put the suit back on again, because I owe everything to Spider-Man. I love the character and I love the people I get to work with. I’d love to tell another story, but I’ll only tell it if we can find the right one.”
The Crowded Room is streaming now on Apple TV+.
