Tom Holland has said that the negative reception of his new show The Crowded Room has been “a kick in the teeth”.
The actor plays Danny Sullivan, a man with dissociative identity disorder who gets arrested for attempted murder, in the new Apple TV+ series.
He spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the critical panning of his series, which he executively produced, and how he is trying to manage the poor response.
“It was a kick in the teeth,” Holland said. “Rolling over, looking up the reviews, and then all of a sudden I was like, ‘Wow. That’s a bad review.’ Sometimes there’s a redeeming quality in there. There was nothing.”
Tom Holland at the premiere of “The Crowded Room” held at the Museum of Modern Art on June 1, 2023 in New York City. Credit: Nina Westervelt/GETTY
Much of the criticism of the show has little to do with Holland’s performance and instead is focused on its repetitive nature and the absence of intense drama given the premise.
Ben Travers of IndieWire wrote that the series is “far too long and visually repetitive…nor is its narrative crafted carefully enough to build proper momentum”, while The Independent‘s Nick Hilton said: “The generic muddle is abetted by a script that struggles with cliché, both in the plot and the dialogue.” Check out more reviews here.
“There will be good ones,” he said of future reviews. “There will be. I try to have a healthy outlook on all that sort of stuff and respect everyone’s opinion.”
Holland revealed recently that he’s taking a year off from acting following The Crowded Room.
Speaking to ExtraTV about taking on the role and serving as an executive producer, Holland explained that the show made him hit a breaking point.
“I loved the learning curve of becoming a producer,” Holland said. “I’m no stranger to hard work, I’ve always lived by this idea that hard work is good work. I really enjoyed it but then again, the show did break me.
“There did come a time when I was sort of, ‘I need to have a break’. I disappeared. I went to Mexico for a week and had some time on a beach and lay low. And I’m now taking a year off, and that is a result of how difficult this show was.”
Asked what he’s planning to do with his year off, Holland said: “I’ve done a little bit of traveling. I had an amazing time. I’ve been seeing my family, seeing my friends. I’ve been playing golf. I’ve been going to the garden centre and buying plants and doing my best to keep them alive. I’ve just been trying to be a regular bloke from Kingston and just relax.”
As for whether he’ll return to play Spider-Man anytime soon, the actor replied: “I don’t think it’ll be soon. But there is definitely a possibility.”
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