Tom Holland: Spider-Man star to take a year-long break from acting

Holland said working on his latest TV series The Crowded Room left him feeling broken

Tom Holland has said he will take a year-long break from acting in order to look after his mental health.

The English Spider-Man star admitted he had a "tough time" while working on his latest project, The Crowded Room, and had been left feeling broken by it.

Holland, 27, both stars in and produced the Apple TV+ thriller series.

It sees him play a character loosely based on "the campus rapist" Billy Milligan, a US man who claimed to have 24 alternate personalities.

Milligan was the first person to be found not guilty of his crimes by reason of insanity - on the basis of dissociative identity disorder - and instead of going to prison he spent a decade in psychiatric hospitals.

Holland, pictured on set during the filming of his new series, The Crowded Room, in New York last year

In an interview with Extra TV on Wednesday, Holland said the role found him "exploring certain emotions that I have definitely never experienced before", while the off-camera responsibilities had added an "extra level of pressure".

"I'm no stranger to hard work," he said. "I've lived by the idea that hard work is good work. Then again, the show did break me.

"There did come a time where I needed a break and disappeared and went to Mexico for a week and had time on a beach and laid low.

"I'm now taking a year off, and that is a result of how difficult this show was. I am excited to see how it turns out. I feel like our hard work wasn't in vain."

"It was a tough time, for sure," he added.

'A bit of a meltdown'

In a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly last month, the Bafta-winner revealed he'd had a "a bit of a meltdown" after being unable to switch the character off, and wanted to shake his head just to be rid of him.

"I was seeing myself in him, but in my personal life," he said "I remember having a bit of a meltdown at home and thinking, like, 'I'm going to shave my head. I need to shave my head because I need to get rid of this character.'

"And, obviously, we were mid-shooting, so I decided not to… It was unlike anything I've ever experienced before."

It is not the first time the London-born actor has addressed such concerns. As last year, he announced he was stepping back from social media, saying he finds it can be "detrimental" to his mental health.

The year before Holland said he was considering giving up acting, which he began aged 11, altogether in order to be able to "go and do other things".

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