Tom Holland quit drinking, then social media. Now, he’s stepping back from acting.

14 months ago, Tom Holland decided to stop drinking. A little while later, he walked away from using social media too.

Now, the 26-year-old actor has said he's taking a step back from acting.

It's all because of his most recent role in the AppleTV+ miniseries The Crowded Room with Amanda Seyfried.

"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," he told Entertainment Weekly.

Watch the trailer for The Crowded Room here. Post continues below.

The series, a psychological thriller, was a far cry from his previous projects like Spiderman and Uncharted. That was exactly what Holland wanted.

They filmed the project in 130 days, back-to-back. The entire ordeal demanded the heart and soul of the actor. 

"It was an unbelievably challenging piece," he admitted, adding it often left him feeling unable to detach from the show in his personal life.

Holland said after the ninth month of shooting, he began seeing himself in his character, Danny, a man who is arrested for a shooting at Rockefeller Center in New York City in 1979. 

"I remember having a bit of a meltdown and thinking I'm going to shave my head. I need to shave my head because I need to get rid of this character," he recalled.

Since working on the TV project, Holland has been prioritising his mental health. He's even given up drinking for the time being – recently marking more than a year without alcohol.

Image: Apple TV+.

Holland credits fellow actor Sasha Lane (who plays Danny’s roommate) as a major support, helping him get through the brutal filming schedule. 

"She would take me aside and was really open and willing to share some of her experiences that were so helpful in the moment."

This isn't the first time Holland has spoken about mental health; with the actor sharing a video last year explaining why he was stepping back from social media. 

"I find Instagram and Twitter to be overstimulating, to be overwhelming," he said. 

Now a day before The Crowded Room comes out (it premieres on June 9), Holland announced he will step back from acting following its release. 

"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," he told Extra. 

"I'm now taking a year off, and that is a result of how difficult this show was."

This article was published on May 12 and has since been updated with new information.

Image: Getty/Apple TV/Mamamia.