“Spider-Man” star Tom Holland will be taking a year-long break from acting following his wrapping of the new Apple TV+ series “The Crowded Room”.
The ten-episode psychological thriller limited series follows a man who is arrested following his involvement in an NYC shooting in 1979. Holland plays Danny Sullivan, a character based on Billy Mulligan who was the subject of a highly publicized court case in the late 1970s.
He’s the lead of the series alongside actress Amanda Seyfried with much of the series unfolding in interview sessions between the pair. The property has been in the works for many years as a film with Leonardo DiCaprio at one point linked to the lead role.
Speaking with Extra about how difficult it was for him to play the role, 27-year-old Holland says:
“It was a tough time, for sure. We were exploring certain emotions that I have definitely never experienced before. And then on top of that, being a producer, dealing with the day-to-day problems that come with any film set just added that extra level of pressure. I’m now taking a year off, and that is a result of how difficult this show was.”
In other interviews he discussed how the role impacted his mental health and it took him time to recover. He adds that while he “really enjoyed” working on the series, he says “the show did break me,” and he had difficulties detaching himself from the character. Nevertheless, he’s “excited to see how it turns out, and I feel like our hard work wasn’t in vain.”
Holland had early solid success with films like “The Impossible,” “Locke” and “The Lost City of Z,” and outside of “Spider-Man” he did well with voice roles in “Spies In Disguise” and Pixar’s “Onward,” along with helping the “Uncharted” film adaptation to gross over $400 million worldwide for Sony despite poor reviews and a COVID spike at the time.
However, forays into more serious drama haven’t been so lucky, with mixed reviews for supporting turns in “The Devil All the Time” and “The Current War”. He had leading roles in “Cherry” and “Chaos Walking,” but were both critical flops with a 37% and 21% Rotten Tomatoes score respectively.
Unfortunately, reviews for “The Crowded Room” are overwhelmingly negative, with an almost unheard of 10% on Rotten Tomatoes (to put it in comparison, even the much-loathed “The Idol” is at 27%), and a 38/100 on Metacritic.
Apple TV+ will drop the first three episodes of “The Crowded Room” from June 9th followed by a weekly release through until July 28th.
Source: People.com
