Tom Holland and Dwayne Johnson are opening up about mental health battles they have experienced in life.
The Spider-Man: No Way Home star has been transparent about the importance of mental health. In August 2022, Holland announced he was taking a break from social media as he “spiraled” from reading negative comments about him on digital platforms.
Most recently, Holland said that filming his new Apple TV+ series The Crowded Room took a mental toll on him.
“I’m no stranger to the physical aspects of the job doing the whole action-movie thing,” he told EW in an interview. “But the mental aspect, it really beat me up and it took a long time for me to recover afterwards, to sort of get back to reality.”
Holland said it was difficult for him to detach himself from the character he was portraying in the series which caused him to have “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.”
The actor credits his costar Sasha Lane for helping him get through some difficult moments as well as talking to professionals that have given him the tools to “recognize triggers” and “things that stress me out.”
Johnson was featured on The Pivot where he revealed when he first experienced depression citing the time he had a shoulder injury that ended his career in football.
“[I] didn’t want to go to school,” the actor said. “I was ready to leave. I left school. I didn’t take any midterms and I just left. But the interesting thing, at that time, is I just didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know what mental health was. I didn’t know what depression was. I just knew I didn’t want to be there. Wasn’t going to any of the team meetings. Wasn’t participating in anything.”
Johnson said he didn’t know he was battling depression and revealed he went through a second bout after his divorce not knowing he had it then either. It was until he sought help that made him realized what he had been going through.
The Black Adam star shared a clip from his interview on Instagram and encouraged fans in a similar situation to look for help.
“I’ve worked hard over the years to gain the emotional tools to work thru any mental pain that may come to test me. But years ago I didn’t know what mental health struggle was,” he wrote on Instagram. As men, we didn’t talk about it. We just kept our head down and worked thru it. Not healthy but it’s all we knew.”
Johnson continued, “If you’re going thru your own version of mental wellness turning into mental hell-ness, the most important thing you can do is talk to somebody. It can’t be fixed if you keep that pain inside. Having the courage to talk to someone is your superpower. I lost two friends to suicide. Talk to someone. Despite how you may feel, you’re never alone.”
