SPIDER-MAN star Tom Holland: Sobriety is ‘liberating’

Published: October 23, 2024

SPIDER-MAN star Tom Holland: Sobriety is ‘liberating’

By a Movieguide® contributor

Tom Holland loves his sober life and recently opened up about why he gave up alcohol.

“When I realized that alcohol wasn’t masking my insecurity or bringing out the best in me – it was actually doing the opposite – then I started to feel this freedom to say to myself, ‘Oh, I can just be myself and I don’t have to be anything.’ I’m not sure about that,'” the SPIDER-MAN star said on Rich Roll’s podcast. “That’s when things started to get easier and I started to really feel the benefit of not being tied to that drink anymore.”

He recalled how, as a young actor, he used alcohol to “try to fit into the world of Los Angeles.”

“And now that I’ve grown up a little bit – and I know it’s not where I belong – I don’t try as hard to go to parties in LA and be around celebrities that I don’t like. I don’t know,” he continued. “But I used to go to these parties and be like, ‘I can’t talk to anyone until I’m drunk. ‘ Like, I have to go. And now that I’ve let go of that and found replacements that make me feel like I’m part of the process without sacrificing my morning, my afternoon, my next few days, it’s been so liberating.

The turning point for Holland came in 2022 when he took part in Dry January, a campaign launched in 2013 by the British charity Alcohol Change UK, in which people sign up to abstain from drinking alcohol. ‘alcohol during the month of January’, according to the Straits Times. reported.

“Dry January was really tough, so I ended up spilling over into February,” the actor told Forbes in an interview. “February wasn’t any easier. Then I did March, and I said to myself, listen, if I can go six months without drinking, I get to June 1st, which is my birthday, and I would have proven to myself that I don’t have any issue .”

“After six months, I started to feel good,” he added. “It was very difficult; it was the hardest thing I have ever done and arguably the greatest achievement of my life. I am very proud to be sober today.

READ MORE: WHY SPIDER-MAN STAR TOM HOLLAND LOVES SOBRIETY

To help himself and others on their sobriety journey, Holland just announced his new non-alcoholic beer company.

“BERO was born from a personal journey and I couldn’t be more proud to launch it today,” he shared on Instagram last week.