The Rich Roll Podcast - Tom Holland Is More Than Spider-Man: On Living Alcohol-Free, Acting With Authenticity, & Launching A Second Career
Episode Date: October 17, 2024Tom Holland is the star of Spider-Man, a nascent entrepreneur, and one of Hollywood’s most grounded young actors. This conversation traverses the nexus of fame, personal growth, and Tom’s journey... toward sobriety, which catalyzed his foray into the non-alcoholic beverage industry. We explore his evolution from child actor to global superstar, his therapeutic relationship with golf, and how he’s remained attuned to his authentic self amidst Hollywood’s gilded chaos. Tom candidly reflects on navigating the intricacies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and his recent return to the verité of Shakespearean theatre. Tom’s infectious enthusiasm is palpable. Enjoy! Show notes + MORE Watch on YouTube Newsletter Sign-Up Today’s Sponsors: Bon Charge: Use code RICHROLL to save 15% OFF 👉boncharge.com AG1: Get a FREE bottle of Vitamin D3+K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs 👉drinkAG1.com/richroll Momentous: 20% OFF all of my favorite products 👉livemomentous.com/richroll Birch: For 25% off ALL mattresses and 2 free eco-rest pillows 👉BirchLiving.com/richroll On: High-performance shoes & apparel crafted for comfort and style 👉on.com/richroll Peak Design: Get 20% OFF thoughtfully crafted carry solutions 👉PeakDesign.com/RICHROLL. Check out all of the amazing discounts from our Sponsors 👉 richroll.com/sponsors Find out more about Voicing Change Media at voicingchange.media and follow us @voicingchange
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I'm a very confident person,
but I'm more confident when I'm pretending to be someone else because the ramifications of your actions aren't real.
The Spider-Man of it all, that was the big turning point
of where, like, everything changed.
But it definitely was a steep learning curve, for sure.
I think it's quite rare for a young superstar,
a talent who has been in the public eye before even reaching his teens,
to be as mature, as grounded, and self-aware as Tom Holland.
A generation-defining actor,
globally renowned for his turns as Peter Parker in Spider-Man,
who's now exploring a different role himself.
I think we all work too hard,
and we should put our lives first.
I've always lived by the idea that I work to live.
I don't live to work.
Pressure is a privilege to a certain degree,
but sometimes too much pressure is too much pressure.
From his West End stage debut at 11
to headlining mega blockbuster franchises,
Tom's journey offers insights into fame,
into mental health, into creative growth,
and most importantly, into what matters most.
Recently, Tom took a year-long break.
He opened up about his sobriety,
and he even returned to the stage.
Tom Holland is a guy who knows who he is
and who he isn't. And this conversation
covers all of it. People think a life of sobriety is sacrificing the fun, but it really isn't.
You'll never wake up the next day and say, I wish I had a drink last night. Never.
So nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
Yeah, thank you for taking the time.
Of course, my pleasure.
You've done a few podcasts, but not a lot.
I'm honored you would carve out the time.
Yeah, no, honestly, it's my pleasure.
I like doing podcasts because it feels more organic.
I think when you do an interview, I feel very guarded.
Yeah.
And, you know, we just spoke earlier about this is a safe space to talk and stuff.
So I really enjoy doing a podcast.
Yeah.
I think over the course of however long we talk, people are going to get a feel for the real you.
Yeah.
And I would suspect as somebody who's got, I don't know, like 65 million Instagram followers.
And basically every time you walk out your front door,
you have to worry about somebody taking a photo of you.
And these things turn into news cycles
and it's very much out of your control.
Like there's a sense of like vulnerability
that must come with that, that makes you,
of course you're going to be guarded.
Yeah, I think it's like, you know,
when surfers talk about when they crash
or get hit by a big wave,
the worst thing you can do is tense up.
You just have to kind of roll with the punches and let it happen.
I always find that if I go out in public and I try and resist the request for photos,
I end up having a worse day.
So if I just sort of go, you know, it's part of the job,
lucky to be doing it, happy to take the pictures. I always have a better day.
And I think that for me is just an example of like rolling with the punches rather than trying to fight back.
It's like swimming upstream.
Like you're never going to be able to convince everyone to be nice about it and to say please or whatever it is you're looking for.
But yeah, it's just part of the job, I guess.
Yeah, it's that's what they're paying you for.
Yeah, exactly.
To have to like deal with all that bullshit, right?
And to kind of be in a place of surrender and peace with it
rather than like confrontational Alec Baldwin vibe.
Yeah.
But after, you know, decades of that, you know,
maybe it just gets under your skin.
I mean, how could it not?
Yeah, and I think as well, like, I mean, I don't know where Alec is from, but I know being a Londoner in London, if anyone speaks
to you on the street as a Londoner, the first thought in your mind is like, why are you talking
to me? If someone asks you the time, it's like, why do you want to know the time? London is so
antisocial when it comes to like stranger to stranger. So I think as a true Londoner growing up and then becoming famous,
it took me a really long time
to adjust to being approached on the street.
I've got used to it now.
It's like part of my life now.
But when people used to ask me for photos really early on,
especially after Spider-Man 1 had come out,
I still couldn't quite understand
why people wanted to take pictures with me.
I used to find it really odd. And my reaction was like, no, I don't want to take a picture with you.
But now I have like, I've ironed that out a little bit.
Well, the interesting kind of ripple to that is that you didn't have, you know, a normal childhood
or a maturation period where you could kind of figure out who you are and what's important
in advance of all of that.
Like this has been your experience, you know, since you were a young kid. So you've had to
learn how to deal with this before your brain was fully formed. You know what I mean?
Still ain't fully formed. I'll tell you that much for free.
Yeah. You and me both, my friend.
I was really lucky that like my life changed slowly.
Like I started when I was really young and then I had about 10 years
before the Spider-Man thing happened.
The Spider-Man of it all was the,
that was the big turning point
of where like everything changed.
And I was lucky that I had those formative years
to sort of grow up, make mistakes,
learn about set life,
learn about the world of movie making. And then Spider-Man happened. But it definitely was a steep learning
curve for sure. But you seem like, first of all, you seem like a happy person. You strike me as
somebody who's really grounded, who understands what's important, who doesn't get caught up in
a lot of the nonsense.
Maybe part of that is keeping an arm's length with, you know, Hollywood, quote unquote Hollywood,
and, you know, living in the UK and having this strong family unit and surrounding yourself with friends. But it seems to have kept you sane. Do you still live in a house with like all your buddies?
I do. Yeah, I do. And that is changing. My brother and my best friend are in a house with like all your buddies? I do. Yeah, I do. And that is changing.
My brother and my best friend are in a transitional period of moving out. We're sort of at that stage
in our twenties now where we're like, we should all live by ourselves. It might be time. Yeah.
But it's been great. And like my best friend, Harrison, who I live with, I really admire. He
set up this fantastic rum company
called Hammer that he's been promoting and working on and stuff. And seeing him kind of build that
from the ground up in the house has been such a pleasure because he's so driven and he's up every
morning. He's out selling it. He's doing all this great stuff. And he's been a real inspiration for
me for what we'll talk about later
with Biro
so yeah
so I love living with them
and they're really great guys
to live with
they're very tidy
they keep the house nice
because I'm away a lot
it's nice to have people
in the house
it's like a
reverse entourage
narrative
right
you guys are like
healthy
eating well
we all go to the gym
supporting each other
yeah
it would make for a very different HBO series series very boring tv show yeah yeah like wow they're so
productive but yeah i like living with my with harry and harrison is great because they are so
productive and the thing with acting that i've always found quite difficult
is that it's either a hundred percent or nothing so if you're on set, you're working flat out, you're exhausted.
And if you're not working, you really don't have anything to do.
Yeah, the only time that you get to practice your craft
is when you're on set and getting paid to do it.
Right.
Like I'm not at home saying to Harrison,
like, do you want to jump up and just run some lines quickly?
You don't do that.
I mean, I'm sure some people do.
So what's been really
nice working with him on this Biro stuff is having stuff to do outside of the acting world that keeps
my mind engaged and gives me a reason to be getting up and working and getting that training
session in early in the morning. Because otherwise I just become really lazy. Yeah. And I play golf
too much. You have three brothers?
Three brothers, yeah.
And two of them are twins, right?
Two of them are twins.
Sam is a chef.
He's a great chef,
which is awesome for us.
He lives down the road,
so whenever he's trying out new recipes,
we always get a text.
And he'll just deliver us great food.
Harry's an aspiring filmmaker.
He's just written a great script.
Is he the one that had a short at Tribeca?
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, that's Harry.
And then Paddy, our youngest, he's acting.
He's doing really well.
But he's still just a kid.
It's really nice. He's now at the stage where he can come on our lads' holidays with us.
So, like, we used to go away, me and my mates, and play golf or whatever.
And Paddy would stay at home because he was only young.
But now he's started coming with us.
He's great.
He fits in really well.
Everyone loves him.
And his golf is getting much better.
His golf was a little shitty for a while, but he's getting there.
Your parents seem like great people.
Like your dad's a comedian.
So he's able to kind of help guide you and avoid some of the pitfalls.
Like I'm sure he's seen every color
of the entertainment business from top to bottom. And it just seems like you're a good group of
people. You know what I mean? Like, like just grounded, like I said, healthy, the relationship,
they all seem like solid. Like you're very lucky in that regard.
Super lucky, super lucky. lucky and my dad especially having my
dad because working in the film industry is one thing but being a part of the the comic circuit
i mean that's got to be the toughest form of entertainment and dealing with that on a daily
basis and i one of the things i really admire about my dad is when we were kids, if he had a bad gig,
we would never know about it. He never wore it on his sleeve the next day. Dad was always as if
every gig he did, he absolutely ripped the roof off. And then obviously as you grow up and your
relationship with your dad changes and it becomes a little bit more honest and open, I'll call him
up and he'll be driving back from a gig and he'll
be telling me about he had a rough gig or something. And I've always just really admired
his ability to shake that off. And I think as a younger actor, I learned a lot from him when I
would go for auditions that I really wanted and not got the gig. And he would sort of, you know,
son, you can't do all the jobs. Yeah. Having a healthy relationship with rejection in a business where rejection is the norm. Exactly. Yeah. That for me has been such a
valuable lesson I've learned from him. But your relationship with rejection is a little unique.
Let's go to the origin story here because it all seems like it was predestined. It happened
pretty quickly at a very young age. I mean, you were dancing as a young
kid, nine, 10. We're in a hip hop class. Walk us through like how that led to the first gig.
Well, this is a really interesting question actually, because only recently did I find
my yearbook from my primary school. And I've always had this kind of narrative that I never
wanted to be an actor. I love
performing. I love being on stage. I loved dancing, but acting was never something I wanted to do.
I have a hard time believing that. I want to press you on that a little bit.
Yeah. And I'm happy to get into it because I found this book, which predates any acting that
I had done. So I basically used to go to this dance school.
We did a show every year at the Royal Ballet School and the headmaster asked me to audition
for Billy Elliot on the West End. Long story short, I went through the audition process. They
sent trainers to my school, which was really tough because it was a rugby school. And all of a sudden,
I was the one boy in the all boys school doing ballet in the gym at lunch. And that came
with its own set of challenges. But I got the part and it wasn't until I sort of got through
Billy Elliot, I've been cast in The Impossible and I was working on set with Naomi that I really
started to think like, oh, I could be like an actor, like this is what I could do. But in this
yearbook, I must be like six or seven when I answered these questions. And the questions are like, what do you want to be when you grow up? What's your favorite color? What's your favorite food that gets served in the canteen? It's like kids questions. And I wrote, what do you want to be when you grow up? I wrote actor, which I think is really weird because I don't remember ever wanting to be an actor,
but clearly I did. On an unconscious level. Yeah. I mean, just to clarify. So when you did that
performance and were noticed by that Billy Elliot choreographer, you were like 11? No, I would have
been, I would have been nine. Nine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then there were two years where that
choreographer kind of helped you out with training and tried, saw something in you essentially, right?
And tried to help you out so that two years later when you auditioned for Billy Elliot, you were like up to speed, right?
And so were you 11 then?
Like when did the West End production begin?
How old were you then?
So I started auditioning when I was nine.
West End production began? How old were you then? So I started auditioning when I was nine.
And throughout the process of auditioning, they were training me in the interim. So it was a huge investment on their part because they were sending dancers to my house every day. I would go to these
intensive summer schools where I would live in this house for six weeks in the summer and train every day. I still hadn't got
the part yet. And then it wasn't until, yeah, you're right. It was probably a two-year audition
period. And then when I turned 11, I got the part. And because I was really small and young for my
age, I was really, really underdeveloped. They put me on as Billy's best friend first to get some like theater experience and
stage experience. And then while I was doing that character, I then trained and learned
the Billy track and then did the show as Billy. If you had to guess or estimate,
what do you think that choreographer saw in you when you were nine that led her to making that
investment? I mean, clearly there was something, there was some quality about when you were nine that led her to making that investment? I mean, clearly there
was something. There was some quality about what you were doing as such a young person where she
thought there's something special here worth exploring. I'm not sure what it is off the jump.
I couldn't tell you that it was like an overwhelming sense of talent or anything
like that. I think sometimes with acting,
being very authentic is something that comes natural to people. And I've always been a very genuine person. When I went to my first audition, I was by far the worst dancer in the room,
but I was the last kid there. They would like cull kids. So we would be there for five hours
and every hour they'd say like, if you're between numbers five and 25, you can go home.
Everyone else gets to stay.
And I was the last kid there.
I did no singing, no dancing, just acting stuff with the director.
So maybe he just thought that I was very honest
and was quite open and emotionally ready.
The dancing and that sort of stuff came later.
And I think I've always been very driven. And if you put the work in front of me, I'm really good at getting
it done. I'm not very good at putting the work in front of me myself. I need someone to help me do
that. Whereas my brother, Harry or Harrison, with what he's done with Hammer, like the way he's built
his little company and driven it from the ground up
and he gets up and does it every day is amazing. I couldn't do that. You're a team player. I'm like,
tell me what you need me to do and I'll do it. But don't ask me to like come up with the strategy.
So Billy Elliot becomes this thing. You get a lot of attention. You're doing some press and TV.
This leads to this audition for The Impossible,
which you book, like basically the first movie that's on your radar that gets sent your way.
You get it and you're in it. And you're how old at this point? This is the tsunami movie with Naomi
Watts and Ewan McGregor, your first movie. I would have maybe been 13. And then we maybe
shot the film when I was 14.
I did a few auditions in town. My granny Tess took me to my first audition.
It went really well. And I remember the director, Juan Antonio Bayona, he basically asked me to
just improvise a scene where I had to say goodbye to my mum. There was no context. I didn't know
the stakes. I didn't know that it was like a life or death situation.
But just being a very vulnerable, honest and open kid, I just started talking about saying
goodbye to my mom and burst into tears.
And I guess that's what they were looking for.
They were like, yeah, he can cry.
Get him.
But even being so young, you must be thinking, well, I don't know about like dad and all
this rejection stuff.
Like this is going pretty good. Like, is this going to be this way going forward?
Yeah. So the interesting period of any young actor's career is when you're too old to play
a kid and you're not quite old enough to play an adult.
And not many are able to traverse that canyon.
It's a very, very tricky journey. And that's why I've been so blessed that Spider-Man came along.
And you still have this boyish face.
Yeah, right. I still, especially when I cut my hair, I just did this play in London
and I had really long hair, similar to yourself. And I cut it all off with the hopes that like,
it would make me look tougher. And I looked in the mirror and was like, I look like a 12 year old.
Right.
And I went to rehearsals the next day and everyone's like, oh, you look so young. I was
like, fuck, that is not what I was going for. Boyish looks and then having to navigate
that canyon to manhood and the roles that come with that. Yeah. There's a fallow period for
most actors, even the best when they're in that in-between stage. Yeah. I remember my dad had a
talk with me and sat me down. I was auditioning for this film
called November Criminals. I would have been maybe 15 or something. Sure. Sasha Gervasi.
Yes. Who's a buddy of mine. I was with him yesterday. I really wanted that job. I thought
it was a really fun script. I really liked the character. There was loads of dialogue,
which I really liked. With The Impossible, it was more of a reactionary performance.
I didn't really have much to say.
So I really, really wanted this job.
And I remember being in my mum and dad's old kitchen,
and I might have thrown something on the floor out of frustration
because I'd found out I hadn't got it.
And my dad really put me in check.
Like, you're a kid.
This is the first audition you've gone for that you didn't get.
Get over yourself.
Right.
I think that part went to Ansel Elgort.
I think it did.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he did a good job, too.
Yeah, yeah.
I liked the film.
So your first taste with rejection.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You mentioned that you just did, you were just on the West End.
You did Romeo and Juliet, which is pretty cool. And that came on the heels of taking a year off
after you did The Crowded Room.
Yeah, yeah, correct.
Which, as I understand,
was a very intense experience for you.
But one I also feel like was misrepresented in the press.
Like I listened to some interviews and I read some stuff
and my sense was that there was this narrative
that was being imposed upon you,
that it was so exhausting
that you needed to take this break.
And they wanted to kind of portray it
as some kind of mental health crisis
that you were going through
when you were consistently clear throughout,
like, hey, I'd already planned this.
I was gonna take this time off. And I think as a young person to have the sense of self and
the awareness to say, hey, like I need breaks from time to time rather than to just be on this
constant, you know, hamster wheel more and more and more, bigger, bigger, bigger,
I think speaks to your maturity and your perspective.
Thank you. I was actually very disappointed with how the press ran with it. But then,
like I said earlier, you can't fight with the press. You're swimming up upstream.
And I kind of just rolled with the punches and let it happen. I think it's really disappointing
that a young person in my decision who's lucky enough to have the power to say,
I'm going to take some time off for myself, gets painted as, you know, something negative. I think we all work too hard and we
should put our lives first. I've always lived by the idea that I work to live. I don't live to work.
And I think that it's really unfortunate that that's what people took from the idea of me taking a break.
It's additionally ironic given that we're kind of in this discourse or dialogue around mental
health right now from a mainstream awareness perspective, even with, you know, as I mentioned
to you beforehand, like I was in Paris for the Olympics and, you know, mental health is something
everybody's talking about, whether it's Simone Biles or Michael
Phelps and all these athletes who have made a point of saying that this is an important thing
and there seems to be a respect around that but maybe not so much in in your world yeah you know
I think it's very it's very different and it's very obvious to see how someone like Simone Biles
would be affected by mental health,
the pressure that she's under to perform at the level that she performs at.
She's absolutely incredible.
We sat down and watched her this year, and I can totally see how that pressure would
get to anyone.
You know, pressure is only natural and pressure is a privilege to a certain degree, but sometimes
too much pressure is too much pressure.
And I
think mental health, you know, I took a break from social media once and felt the need to kind
of announce it because I didn't want to, I didn't want people to worry that, you know, I had
disappeared or something. I don't know. And that also was met with a negative reaction of like,
oh, you can't hack it. Like you can't handle social media. And I just think that sometimes
it's important to look up and engage with what's around you. And I find for me with social media,
I can easily sit on the couch for four hours and scroll. And I haven't had Instagram on my phone.
I'll download it to post something or download it if a friend of mine's post something and I want to
like it for them. But 99% of the time I don't have it on my phone. And my life is so much better
for not being completely glued to this felt false world that we have on our phones.
But it's a shame. And I really hope it changes because I think self-preservation is so important. And only a fool would say to you, you should work until you crack.
Because if you crack, it's going to take you longer to get back to full fitness and work
at your top capacity.
So for me, like taking these strategic little breaks where you can rest and recoup and come
back your best self is really important and something that should be
heralded rather than chastised. Sure. If you want to have longevity in your career, it doesn't make
any sense that you would play all out and leave everything on the field with a performance,
whether it's the crowded room or Romeo and Juliet, and then immediately go into something
else. Like there's a manic kind of attitude around that, or maybe a fear response.
Like I have to always be booking because maybe the phone's not going to call that comes from
an insecurity or a place of fear, but having like a healthy, strong sense of, of yourself and knowing
like, Hey, you know, I, I bring something to the table table it's not going to disappear if i take a
minute off like i'm thinking of like a great example would be like if you're great there's
always going to be a demand right look at oasis how long it's been 25 years or whatever and like
they're going to make 400 million dollars because finally they got their shit together
crazy they'll make more money on this tour than they did over the course of all of their albums.
You know what I mean? The point being like, if you have the goods, you don't need to be in a hurry,
you know, but to be, what are you, 28? 28, yeah. 28, to be that young and to like own that,
I think also speaks to character because I can imagine myself at 28 or most 28 year olds who
are just so hungry to, you know, be climbing all
the time. And there's a kind of a hustle porn culture out there where, where it is frowned
upon. If you take a minute, take a beat to like reassess and reboot the operating system. So the
next time out, you can give the best of what you have. A hundred percent. I don't operate well
or as well as I would when I'm tired. If I don't sleep well, or this is the thing I struggle with the most is sleep when I'm working. So for me to be able to have some time to recoup and come to set or come to work or whatever I'm doing, a hundred percent, it makes a world of a difference.
Romeo and Juliet, was that your first time back on stage since Billy Elliot?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. First time. And my sense is that like stage is your jam, right? Like fundamentally,
setting aside all this other stuff, there is kind of like a love for that.
Yeah, it's definitely like the birthplace of my career. And it's been so long since I'd done it
that it felt like the first time. And it was an amazing experience. You know, I wasn't
And it was an amazing experience. I wasn't planning on doing theater. I just kind of was,
I was at home. I had taken my year off. There's obviously been a whole load of things that have happened in our industry that kind of put a pause on a bunch of things. And I was like itching to
find something to do. I've always been really scared of going back on stage because it just
feels so exposing.
Yeah. Nowhere to hide.
There's nowhere to hide. And, and.
It's different from mocap.
Yeah. It's different. Yeah. When you can change something or say,
could you just move my arm a little bit further out? And I think that's what really excites me.
Like when something stresses me out, I was chatting to my friend yesterday about this,
stresses me out. I was chatting to my friend yesterday about this, actually. I work really well when I don't think about whether or not I should do it or not. Like with the play,
they called me up and they said, look, if you want to do this, you need to let us know today
because we got to book the theater. And we'd been speaking about doing this for maybe five days.
Hadn't spoken to my family about it. I hadn't really spoken to my girlfriend about it.
And on the phone, I was like, fuck it, I'll do it. I'm happy to do it. And then I started to
panic because I was like, what have I done? Like, why am I doing this? But when I put myself under
that kind of pressure, that's when I do my best work. When I start feeling really uncomfortable,
because that level of uncomfortableness drives me to do the work and be focused and learn my lines and break
it down and understand the language and try and do something different and unique to what's been
done before. But I loved it. I really loved it. There's two things here. First, you're tackling
Shakespeare. Yeah. So it's no small. And I've never done that in the UK, in the UK, in London.
For UK audiences. So, so you know the degree of difficulty
just goes like through the roof right and then secondarily how long was the run the run was three
months it was eight shows a week and it was that is an endurance yeah like having to do that every
day sometimes twice a day right I was I was inon last summer and uh i was with my youngest daughter who's 17 now
and we went to go see paul mescal in streetcar and it's such a visceral performance right and he's
you know and he has the legacy of brando on his shoulders like the pressure that would come with
that and then i was just imagining like this guy's got to do this every day sometimes twice a day
yeah it was intense.
Like, that's super intense. And then you do the backstage thing and like, you have to go greet all your fans every night. Did you do that? Open up the back door and sign the autographs and do
all that on top of the whole thing? Well, I guess a bit of a blessing was that
we had loads of people show up and backstage was really like a red carpet every night.
So what I would do is I
would sign cards in my dressing room. I signed like a hundred cards and then the security outside
the theater would hand them out because I wouldn't have been able to get to everyone.
It would have been too crazy.
So I kind of came out and did a smile and a wave and said thank you and stuff and then got in the
car. But the keen fans that got out first got a little signed card. But it was an amazing experience. I mean, trying to stay mentally focused and not
allow the show to kind of run on autopilot was really a real challenge. Trying to stay engaged
and make sure that you're constantly listening. And, you know, we'd have understudies come on at
certain times and they would change the tone of a scene or the speed of a scene and you had to be able to pivot live
which i found really difficult but by the end a skill that i didn't know i needed that i've really
kind of improved upon because you know when you work with Downey on set, what's great about him is he'll improvise. And if it lands, he'll do that again. But what's quite nice for you is you know that, oh, he's going to say that again. So I have some time to prepare. He's so quick that even if I write a joke that he has no idea about, and then I improvise a line, he'll use my joke to set up a punchline of his own joke somehow. He's like
so good like that. You're never going to match wits with that guy. No. Yeah. And I think that
having done the play and being, being able to pivot in the ways that we had to pivot when things
would go wrong or someone would skip a speech or, or, you know, an audience member's phone went off
and you'd have to kind of keep going and not let that distract you. I'm really excited to see how I've improved as a performer the next time I go on set,
because it really feels like a great place to sharpen the tools and try some new things out.
And you get a little bit more freedom because, you know, once the director leaves,
it's kind of your show and you're working with the actors at warmup saying like,
tonight I want to try a little bit like this.
Do you mind if we just, can you set me up with this line,
change the rhythm slightly so I can land this joke?
And it was such a pleasure.
It was such a pleasure.
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How do you make decisions about the projects that you want to get involved with?
I'm saying that thinking about, you know, somebody who's, you know, steeped in the MCU.
Yeah.
And with that, there's expectations and pressures and a certain kind of preset trajectory for an actor of your stature.
But when I look at the choices that you've made, you're making all kinds of, you know,
interesting, different choices that are challenging you. And some of them work out and some of them don't. But it all feels like an experiment and you trying to find
new ways to express yourself. I think that's perfectly put. It's an experiment. And like,
I try not to think about what will this do for my career? Is this an awards piece or is this
a box office bonus movie? I just, is it something I'd like to watch is really my biggest indicator
as to whether I would do it or not. And I just love being challenged. My favorite thing about my job is that I get to try new things and sort of live in different skins
every now and then and become these different characters. And I just love the idea of being
told, right, you're going to Nebraska for four months to shoot a movie. I'm like, okay, great.
I would never go there normally. So it'd be great to go and spend some time somewhere. So I just, I love everything that comes with it. And it's less for me about,
is this going to be good for my career? And more just, am I going to enjoy making this?
I read a script a few days ago, which I won't talk about because it's still being shopped around
town. But it was like, it's the first time in my career that I've read something and gone,
I just don't have the energy to shoot that right now. It was too intense and it was a lot of action and all that sort of stuff. And,
and I, um, it's the first time I've gone, cool. Do you know what reading those sequences? I don't
want to make those right now. When you're thinking about the choices that you're making, in addition
to like kind of just what lights you up generally, is it the script? Is it the director? I'm sure you have
a list of directors you want to work with, ambitions about, you know, maybe long-term,
like what you want your career to look like and the various roles that you want to explore. But
do you have a sense of what you want to do next or even what that is?
Sounds like you haven't decided yet.
No, I have like three or four things that I'm kind of juggling with right now. The biggest
of which is my sort of re-entry into the MCU and what that looks like. It's been a really
fantastic experience that Tom and Kevin have allowed me into the kind of creative bubble of
Marvel. And I've got to see firsthand how these films are
built from the ground up. It's been so fun to just sort of sit in the room and see these guys
pitching ideas back and forth. And every now and then I'll chime in with something.
And first and foremost with Marvel, I'm a fan. I grew up loving those movies. So to sit in the
boardroom with them and they've got this great mural on the wall of all the heroes and to kind
of hear them talk about the movies and I'll come up with an idea and they'll say no you
can't do that because we're doing that in the new captain america movie it's all mapped out
it's really cool to just see how they've got this vision for the future and um i just love being a
part of that but in terms of what i want to do next i just love working on set i love the camaraderie
i love the community and you have akiva goldsman and we have akiva who was fantastic and to be
honest wrote the best scripts i've ever read it was so easy to say yes to that job when i started
reading his work i was like wow this would be such a pleasure he's the gold standard he is the gold
standard he's fantastic and he did a great job he was so, he was very brave to tackle that subject matter in the way that he did,
considering his past and his background, to touch on some of the personal things that
have happened to him in his life, I think is something that we should celebrate and
admire because I'm sure he's helped a lot of people that have been through similar
things through that show. So I'm really proud of him that he tackled it in the way he did.
Yeah. Well, I'm sure he's proud of you.
I'd hope so.
For how you acquitted yourself in that role.
Yeah, it was a tough one.
Yeah, yeah.
The haircut alone was a tough one.
I kind of liked it. I thought it was cool. I thought, I didn't know that that was a wig.
I was like, you should grow your hair long.
It was my real hair.
That was my hair.
Oh, they colored it.
Yeah, they'd made it darker.
And then the studio were really against the idea of me having bangs.
And I just really thought that it was like the icing on the cake that would set the character apart.
A good tip I got from Jake Gyllenhaal, actually, when we worked together, who I love,
was that you can do so much of your performance in hair and makeup. So much of it can be done before you've
even opened your mouth or opened your eyes. And I've really taken that to heart, you know, like
subtle nods to different characters here and there, or slightly changing the color of your hair,
or even something like changing the color of your eyebrows ever so slightly, I think really helps disconnect the audience from who you are, especially when you
play a character as high profile as Spider-Man. You're so recognizable as that character.
So the studio were like, no, you can't cut your hair like that. We're not allowing it. We don't
want you to do it. And I went straight to my trailer and sat down with Rachel and was like,
right, let's fucking cut my hair off then.
Oh, no. How'd that go over when they became aware of that?
I remember walking into the camera test and the cinematographer was not happy.
But I actually think it was brings a level of authenticity to the character. And it's so different and unique to that time that it works.
But bless Zendaya, she always talks about it.
She's like, no, I thought you were handsome with it.
But I know she's just being kind.
It was a rough look.
What do people not understand about being part of this MCU universe?
I mean, this isn't just a series of movies. This isn't just its own cottage industry. This is almost like a nation state. Like it's so massive. There are so
many team members and people that contribute to these movies. So many moving pieces. It's bigger
than any actor. It's bigger than Robert Downey Jr. You know, it's just so gigantic.
Do you find that disorienting?
It sounds like you found it nourishing.
And all the actors that are in these movies
always talk about how much they love making these movies.
I think firstly, what sets it apart from anything else
is the community and the sense of ownership over the characters from the fans to the studio.
I feel like it's the only studio that is working in unison with the fan group.
You know, like fan service is a really big thing at Marvel.
Right. And you have to walk this delicate balance between
fan service and moving the story forward in new and different ways.
Yeah. And I just think that what's so beautiful about the entire thing as an entity is its community.
And when I say community, it goes from Kevin Feige to the most diehard fan and everyone in between.
And for me, I really love being a part of that.
But then in terms of like making the films, I think what Marvel have done so well,
and Sony, I mean, I always have to give my credit to Tom Rossman at Sony,
because he's been like my American dad since I've moved over here and started working over here.
Like work stuff, personal stuff, like he's always the guy I call.
I had a meeting with him the other day where I took my dog to his
office. He won't mind me telling me this story. So I took him to the office and Tom's like,
oh, I love dogs. Dogs are great. You can bring the dog. It's fine. And I'm sitting in his beautiful
office in Sony and we're chatting, catching up, talking about golf, talking about projects that
we'd love to do together. And my dog is like trying to get up on the couch.
And I'm obviously trying to be mindful.
I don't know what Tom's like leniency is with dog behavior.
So eventually he's like, he can go on the couch.
Don't worry about it.
It's fine.
So the noon jumps up on the couch and it's this beautiful, like white couch.
You know, the ones with like the, they're like ever so slightly fluffy, expensive.
Yeah.
There's a box office bonus couch for sure and noon just starts digging in the couch like you know when
dogs do that thing where they like dig in and i'm trying to be like no noon noon stop it and you can
tell tom is like through gritted teeth like it's fine don't worry about it it's fine it's absolutely
fine don't worry about it but back to what i It's absolutely fine. Don't worry about it. But back to what I was saying. Sorry. I think that they just...
Sorry.
I just have this flash.
I'm imagining Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder playing Les Grossman, the studio exec, like
throwing an absolute fit at something like that.
He was very gracious about it.
But I could tell that in the back of his mind, he was like, can you please get your dog to
stop digging up my couch?
But I love Tom.
I owe him a lot. He's
been very, very kind to me and a great mentor and someone I've learned a lot from. But again,
sorry, what I was saying is that when you're on set of a Marvel movie, they're big, there's green
screens, there's crews of a few hundred people. But again, that community that Marvel and Sony
build is so strong that it doesn't feel like a $200 million movie.
It feels like this really small, intimate little character piece. And that's what I think works so
well with the movies is that the fans feel like they can connect to the characters on a personal
level rather than it being a just kind of Joe Blow action movie. What have you learned other
than what you already shared about working with people like
Downey?
Because you're surrounded by so many great actors when you're, I mean, I'm imagining
Avengers.
You're just like, they're all there.
Yeah, it's awesome.
Yeah.
Especially when I was like really young, I think I was 20 or maybe I was even 19 when
I was shooting Civil War.
or maybe I was even 19 when I was shooting Civil War. And, you know, I was a diehard, well, I am a diehard fan of the studio. I felt like I sort of won some competition and was allowed to like be
on set for the day. But then when I had to take my mark and do my scene with Downey, it was a really
overwhelming experience. And I'm very grateful to Downey because I think I've told this story
before. When I did my audition,
my audition was like eight pages of dialogue. It was a long scene. Typically an audition will be
two pages. Your original Spider-Man audition. My screen test with Downey. So this was kind of like
the final step. Although they did add another step, which was like a physical test where we
had to do some fight scenes and stuff. And the scene with Downey was great. The audition went really well. I was told by my agents to learn the lines exactly.
And that was kind of like a bit of advice, but also because I'd been really lazy earlier in
self-tapes and I would rewrite things and change it so it fit my mouth better.
But they said, in this instance, you have to learn it perfectly.
And then when we did my first take with Downey,
he just started improvising and changing everything in the script,
which kind of gave me license to kind of follow him.
And I think something I learned from Downey is like,
you can't beat him, but you can ride his coattails.
And those are good coattails to ride.
So in that scene,
I just kind of followed his lead and we improvised and we did a bunch of stuff.
And I thought after that audition, I was like, oh, I've definitely got this. Like that went so well.
Is this the one where he helicoptered in?
That's the one where he helicoptered in. But what he did, which is so great and so sweet
is when I got to set after I'd got the gig and we came to set, it was me, I was meeting
Marissa Tomei for the first time. And I was now working with the Russos and Downey was there.
My scene had been cut down significantly from what I'd done in the audition to now
a page and a half, or maybe even two pages. And we start shooting the scene and Downey piped up and was like,
where's all the kids lines gone?
And the Russo sort of said,
well, look, you know,
this is already a 140 page script.
Like we can't spend too much time on this.
And Downey was the one that was like,
no, no, no, you're going to want
to spend some time on this.
Like let's shoot the whole thing
from the audition.
You can always cut it,
but you'd want to have it.
And they used all of it. Yeah. So I owe that to him. That's cool. And I think that's really cool, but you'd want to have it. And they used all of
it. So I owe that to him. And I think that's really cool. And I'd love to one day do that.
If I'd be lucky enough to somehow bring Miles Morales into my Spider-Man universe and into
the MCU, I'd love to do for a young kid what Downey did for me.
Yeah. Well, it's a way of honoring the introduction of a new character
and a certain level of respect. Like in that audition, clearly he's intentionally throwing
curveballs at you to see how you can handle it. And when you were like, all right, he's,
he's on his game. Like, you know, we're in this together. But that's, it's an interesting thing
you asked about, like, what have you learned? And it's like when you work with someone like Chris Pratt, he's so funny.
It's like, don't try and out funny him.
Try and elevate him to be funny.
Like if you're in a scene with someone and the audience is laughing, I think both people
in that scene are winning.
And I think sometimes I would really try and get hung up on like, I want to be the one
that's getting the laughs.
But I think there's just as much honor in like setting up the laugh. And when you're working
with someone like Downey or Chris, who are just so effortlessly funny, let them be funny and try
and make them funnier. And that's something I've learned. Again, don't swim upstream when you can
swim downstream. Well, that's back to the team sport aspect of the whole thing. Totally. Because
at the end of the day, it's like, there's no pictures on a scorecard.
You want the movie to be as good as it can be and as successful as it can be.
And if that means that, you know, working with Jacob on Spider-Man, his character is the funny one.
I find the humor in being stoic and his humor comes from being funny.
Right, because his humor is elevated the more stoic you
are. Exactly. If you're trying to be funny, then it destroys the whole scene. So are you in service
to the scene or are you in service to yourself? And that's the biggest part of acting is like
being able to separate yourself from your own vanity, which we all have. We all look in the
mirror before we leave work today and go, God, I'm having a bad hair day or I'm having a good day. And the moment you're thinking on camera of like, do I look good? Do I
sound good? Is this funny? The audience can subliminally pick up on that, I think. So it's
important to leave vanity at the door. Yeah. Easier said than done when you're in the biggest movies
in the world and these movies are grossing in excess of a billion dollars and your face is everywhere like and you're a young dude yeah right
so how you know how did you uh avoid the pitfalls and the common mistakes that a lot of young actors
make when their star sends quickly like that i I mean, you said you had years in advance of that,
but still you're pretty young. Many a person has fallen prey to the allures of this town.
Yeah, it's interesting. I was having a conversation about this sort of thing recently,
and I was chatting with a fellow actor of mine, and we were sort of saying,
I miss the days when getting the gig was the win.
But now the gig being successful is what is the win. But I feel like I held onto that for a really long time. Even after Spider-Man, getting a new job was just as exciting as being cast as Spider-Man.
And I think that having that kind of freedom and in some ways, ignorance to like what it was that I was doing
was really helpful for me in building confidence in my own capabilities.
So I just, I just never really give it much thought. I try not to think about the fact that
millions of people will see it and I'm going to be scrutinized. It's more that thing of like,
if I like it and I know I've done my best,
a really poignant piece of advice I got from my dad. Again, my dad is like my go-to.
If I'm struggling with something or if I need some help or a bit of a boost, like I'll call my dad.
I really admire him. He told me a story about Lee Evans, who's a really famous
comedian in the UK. He's brilliant. Very performative,
very cartoon-like, creates these fantastic characters on stage. He sweats like a pig.
He'll wear a suit and within 10 minutes of being on stage, he's dripping with sweat.
And my dad told me a story about when they were kids, they did a gig together at a pub,
maybe a couple hundred people in this pub. And Lee was backstage putting eye drops in. And my dad was a bit like,
what? They might've been in their late twenties at this point. He's like, what are you doing?
And he goes, oh, it makes my eyes glisten. And my dad kind of thought to himself, but like Lee,
there's only 200 people out there. You're not playing an arena. And I think what my dad took from that lesson, which he passed on to me was like,
whether it's a hundred thousand people or five people in the audience, your best is a minimum.
You can't half-ass anything. You can't mark through anything. And I think I've taken that
on board quite heavily. I've always given everything a hundred percent. I remember that all the time. My dad telling me
that story about, I've never met Lee and I know that they were really close when they were younger,
but that story always really stuck with me. Yeah, it's cool. The little things are the big
things. Yeah, they make a difference. And those little tiny details like Jake was talking about
with makeup, like those tiny attention to details can really be a make or break in building a convincing
character but even if no one notices like you notice you notice you know for your own relationship
with what you do nothing brings me more pride than sitting in a theater watching something i've been
a part of and seeing an idea i had come to life nothing makes makes me more happy. That's gotta be a crazy experience.
Especially when it comes to something like a Spider-Man movie where like,
had I not been in them, I'd be sat here watching them because I love them.
Right. To be given the grace and an opportunity to kind of be involved in the creative of those
films is one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. Well, to that point of being a fan, there's this iconic video of you, you know, as a young
kid, I don't know how old you were, being asked, like, if you could play a superhero,
who would you play? And you say, Spider-Man. And I can't help but think, reflecting on that, like,
either you're an incredibly powerful manifester or there's
some kind of predestiny at play here. Like the dancing, like, of course, all the dance experience
plays in perfectly to Spider-Man. You love Spider-Man and this kind of like unfolds in your
life. There's a surreal aspect to the whole thing, I guess is what I'm saying.
Do you believe in manifestation?
I do. Yeah. I do. We all have a thing, I guess is what I'm saying. Do you believe in manifestation? I do.
Yeah.
I do.
We all have a purpose, I think.
Sure.
And our job here on earth is to grow, is to evolve.
Yeah.
And to learn who we are.
We're all in a constant relationship with becoming, right?
And I think the more attuned you are to yourself, the better position you are in to kind of manifest or realize whatever that thing is that you're here
to do. And it's different for everybody, right? Totally, yeah.
I mean, you're in a very heightened situation, but not everybody can be LeBron James, but I think
everybody has a thing and our job is to kind of discover what that thing is. And so, the
manifestation piece is the kind of action oriented aspect of it but there's also
a more gentle kind of letting go and allowing that has to happen yeah in that process well
it's that knife edge isn't it it's that fine balance of even though in that interview i said
i want to be spider-man in the future i didn't just sit back and relax and then it happened like
there's manifesting but there's also
work that goes into it. So it's that fine balance of, is it the universe that's making it happen,
or is it something that you're making happen yourself? And I honestly think it's probably
a little bit of both. When you're working hard and for the right reasons, you put yourself in
a position for those synchronicities to occur and also to be
aware of them when they're occurring, I think. So it is both. It's both of those things.
Do you think you've manifested anything?
Yes and no. I've worked very hard, but also I'm very aware that I'm not in control,
that there are other forces at play. And that, I think, helps with ego and humility,
which I think is important.
Because if you start to think like,
oh, I made this whole thing happen,
you're on a crash course with disaster.
That's a downhill slope for sure.
I think that's the thing with film as well.
One of the reasons why it's important
to treat everyone with respect on set
is because without them on side, the movie's not going to work.
And I think that it's an interesting process when you make films because when you wrap on the last day, more often than not as an actor, you're not allowed in the edit.
You don't get to comment on cuts.
You might do a bit of ADR where you get to see parts of the film
and then you see it at the premiere. And I think that it's important to make sure you treat people
with respect because then they'll treat you with the same respect. And hopefully as a result of
that, the film will be the best picture it can be. And I think that, you know, you have to put a lot
of trust into other people and trust is built upon respect, I think.
When you watch any movie, but particularly these MCU movies, the credit scroll at the end is endless, right?
And you realize like there's so many people.
It's incredible.
A vital part in getting that vision realized to the screen.
And the idea that you're not even seeing it until the premiere.
Yeah.
You go to dailies, like, do you know, are you just, you just well even dailies like you're just in mocap with green screen
like you're not even really it's it's hard to even imagine how that performance is gonna get
transformed into what you ultimately see in these movies because there's so much cgi and everything
else that goes into giving it a sense of verite.
Yeah. And one of the unfortunate things about Spider-Man 3 was we shot it in like peak COVID times. So we shot everything in a studio, which meant that I think throughout the entire process
of making that film, I might've done three days on location and you can feel it in the film i think like when we're walking through new
york they sent a crew to new york to shoot the streets with a motion camera jib and then they
brought that piece of kit back to atlanta and then they would mark on the floor like there's an extra
here there's a dog here there's a sidewalk here and then i would have to try and map out what i was going to do
in a pre-existing shot yeah that's bizarre one of like this is such a weird thing and this can make
me sound really difficult but i didn't i got i got over it and we figured it out but like the camera
was moving way slower than peter parker would usually walk peter Peter Parker is very bubbly, very quick. Everything
is about getting from A to B as quickly as possible without thinking. And this shot that
they had was like this really kind of slow, meandering camera angle through New York.
And Peter is supposed to be like in a rush to get to dr strange to ask him this question and i found it really difficult
to like portray i'm stressed and in a rush but walking really slowly and i actually think that
shot isn't in the film because i don't think it works could they just speed up the background
footage but then people would be like oh i see all the yeah i got you i got you i wish it was
that simple yeah yeah but yeah usually there's a lot of trust involved
when you're making a movie like that.
Right.
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Can we talk about your sobriety please yeah yeah so in what was it january of 2022 you decided to
put the booze in the rear view i didn't decide to put the booze in the rear view to begin with
i just decided to do dry jan. And in doing dry January,
it really scared me because I had a really tough time. I couldn't quite wrap my head around how
much I was struggling without booze in that first month. And it really scared me. So I decided as a
sort of punishment to myself that I would
do February as well as January and I would do two months.
The second month was no easier. If anything, like it got a little bit harder.
So then again, I was starting to kind of panic thinking,
damn, like I have a bit of an alcohol thing. I'd had a, you know, quite an upsetting conversation
with a doctor about my
liver a year earlier. And as a young kid, I ignored the doctor as we all do. And I started
to think like, oh, wow, maybe I have a bit of an issue here. So then I started to go, I'll do March.
And I got through March and started to feel a little bit better, but was still really struggling.
So I said to myself, if I can make it to June 1st, which is my birthday, and I can do six months without booze, I will have then proved to myself
that I don't have a problem. I'm just young and enjoying a drink. And then by the time I'd done
six months sober, I really started feeling the benefits. I started sleeping better. I was
handling stressful situations better. My started sleeping better. I was handling stressful
situations better. My relationship was better. My relationship with my family was better.
My relationship with my work was better. And I just sort of said to myself, let's do a year.
Let's get through the first year. And then that will be a wonderful achievement. And then by the
time I'd crossed that annual mark, I was done. I was like,
I'm never going to drink again because this is the best version of myself.
What was your relationship with alcohol prior to that decision?
It was a complicated one because it was my go-to to celebrate and my go-to to commiserate.
to commiserate. And as an actor working at this kind of juncture, there's a lot of that.
The movie comes out, it does really well. The TV show comes out and it absolutely dies on its ass.
And then you go for a job interview that you don't get and you're constantly like this,
which means that you always have a reason to be drinking, or I felt like I always had a reason to be drinking. I was never a bad drunk or anything like that. I just, when I started, I just couldn't stop.
Right.
I wasn't the type of person that could nip to the pub for a pint. Like if I was going to the pub,
I was, I was going to the pub to close it.
You were closing it down.
Yeah. I wanted to lock the door behind me.
Not so bad that the cops aren't getting involved and you're blacking out and
waking up in weird places.
No, no, no, no. And that's where I've been so blessed
to have the people around me
that I've had my brothers,
my girlfriend, my family.
They never allowed that to happen.
But left to your own devices, maybe.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've polished off a minibar
one too many times.
So you were like 26?
It's interesting, actually.
Kevin Feige told me a story about when I did my first screen test with Downey,
the night before I polished off the minibar, and Marvel found out about that.
They know all.
Yeah.
The eye of Sauron.
Because I told Kevin.
Did I tell Kevin or did he tell me?
But whenever it came up in conversation, he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We know about that.
We asked the hotel.
I was like, oh, shit.
Still got the job though.
Have you ever talked to Downey about?
Yeah, a lot.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's been a real ally for me.
He is all in.
Yeah.
He works his program so hard and makes sure that it's always his number one priority.
Yeah. He's very generous with it always his number one priority. Yeah.
He's very generous with it.
He's really helpful.
And Amy Pascal has been really helpful.
I had quite a nasty thing happen to me this weekend where I went to a restaurant
and ordered a non-alcoholic gin and tonic and it was alcoholic.
And I took a gulp and kind of put it down and was like, wow, that's really good.
That really is a great replacement. Asked the waiters to come over to ask what non-alcoholic
gin is that? Because it's the best I've ever had. And bless him, he'd made a mistake.
And it really upset me. Like I was really quite beaten up by it. I sort of sat at the table and
it was a real storm cloud came over my head.
But I spoke to Amy. I called her up and sort of was like, this just happened. And I'm a little
stressed out about it. And she kind of tempered my nerves, which was nice.
So you make this decision, you kind of weather this discomfort over a series of months.
But you did this on your own, like you didn't go to AA. You sort of course corrected. You had this sense about yourself like this is headed in the wrong direction. Yeah. Left unchecked. This is going to go to a dark place. And what's interesting is all of the discomfort that persisted for month after month. Like there's a difference between abstinence and emotional sobriety, right? Like, as I often say, you know,
the drugs and the alcohol aren't the problem, they're the solution, right? Like, they're your
best friend because they're allowing you to divert all those uncomfortable feelings that you experience
in various situations. And then when you remove it, you're like a live wire with all these emotions.
And it's confusing because you've never really had to confront them because every time they come up, you just take a drink and they
go away. Right. So what is your relationship with that discomfort? Like how did you quell it or,
you know, what is your way of like working through whatever that is so that you could be in this
place of feeling like I'm good, I'm me, I can go anywhere and I don't have that compulsion.
feeling like I'm good, I'm me, I can go anywhere and I don't have that compulsion.
It definitely took a while to get to a place to feel comfortable going into bars and pubs and stuff like that. I think the realization for me was that I'm a very confident person,
but I'm more confident when I'm pretending to be someone else because the ramifications of
your actions aren't real because you're pretending. So I would get really uncomfortable and not
confident in social scenarios out in public. When you're just being you.
When I've just been myself. And I think that's why I really latched onto drinking
because it masked that insecurity with stupidity, I guess, a little bit.
That's why I've always had a really hard time with campaigns.
I did a Prada campaign, which I loved.
And I loved working with them.
They were great.
But I had a really hard time seeing me on a billboard sell something
because it was me, Tom Holland, not as a character. So I think that's kind of why I
latched onto it so much. And through perseverance and kind of gritted teeth and FOMO of not wanting
to miss out, I would force myself to go to bars and go to pubs and enjoy the beer garden for the football.
And when I realized that alcohol wasn't masking my insecurity or bringing out my best self,
it was actually doing the opposite. I then started to feel this freedom of like,
oh, I can just be myself and I have nothing to be insecure about. That's when it started to get easier.
And I started to really feel the benefit of not being kind of tied to this drink. I used to remember going to parties in LA when I, because at the beginning, you know, as a young kid,
you try to fit into the LA world. And now that I've grown up a little bit and I know that it
isn't my place to be, I don't try as hard to go out to the
LA parties and mix with celebrities that I don't know. But I used to go to these parties and be
like, I can't speak to someone until I'm drunk. I've got to get this going. And now that I've
kicked that and I found replacements that make me feel like I'm a part of the process without
sacrificing my morning, my afternoon, my next few days has been so liberating.
Well, the real gilded opportunity in all of this
is that it pulls the covers off
all of those emotional wounds or weaknesses
or fears or insecurities
and puts you in a position where you have to look at them.
Yeah, you gotta deal with it.
And so here is your opportunity.
Like, why is it that like, I'm in movies and I go to a party and I feel insecure when I have to be myself.
Like, what's beneath that?
Like, what's driving that?
Like, why would I feel that way?
Sure.
And I think like running towards that is the path of healing. You know, going beneath the surface, like what led me to feel this way and how can I kind of untie those knots so that I could go anywhere and just feel good in my own skin?
And I think, you know, sobriety is tricky.
Like if somebody just has an occasionally problematic relationship with alcohol, maybe there isn't some deep-seated dysfunction that really needs to be dealt with. But if you truly have a problem, to me and my experience in kind of being in this role for a very long time, like,
there's always something to look at there. And you're presented with this choice. You can either
grip the edge of the table and white-knuckle it, but that's not a great strategy. At some point,
you're going to crack, right? Instead, you have to release and like be again to what we were talking about earlier like
in this place of acceptance and and surrender that is so much harder than anything you've ever
had to do where you're using yourself well it's like a releasing of yourself well but that's the
real gift right if you have the courage to like run towards that. And so I guess I'm just curious, like, do you, did that prompt you to do some therapy or to really look at that
stuff or how have you kind of confronted yourself in those, you know, deeper ways?
I'm really lucky that I've got people around me that I'm very comfortable speaking openly with.
They're by no means like professionals and able to unpack things in the way that
a pro would be able to. But I've just been very open with my family, with my friends,
you know, my friends all drink. And, you know, we've had so many conversations about
why I'm giving up or how it's going, or they've decided to take a little break and
they're asking me for help on,
you know, what's the best way to do this. Facing those demons is just, again, something that I
sort of did by myself. The idea of like, sort of pulling my socks up and being like, your mates
are going to the pub. You're not going to not go because you want to hang out with your friends.
You've been away for six months. You haven't seen them. So you kind of just got to grit your teeth and bear it. And the more I kind of did that,
the more I could kind of let go and relax. And then the more I let go and relax,
the more I started to feel the benefits of being free and having a life enriched and enjoying
the freedom from alcohol.
So no, I didn't ever really seek professional help.
I just had great family and friends.
Yeah.
Good for you.
Thank you.
I feel like culture is shifting.
There is such a groundswell embrace of the alcohol-free lifestyle.
Like it's not like it was when I was a young person.
There's all these cool movements. Are you familiar with like One Year No Beer in the UK? Like those guys are friends of
mine. Like I know those guys. And it's just cool to see people who don't necessarily have a drinking
problem, but are like, do I need this? And they go on this journey and realize like their life
is so much better to the point they're sleeping better etc but their life just expands there's this idea like if you stop drinking like
your life is going to get really boring and small and it's actually quite the opposite and i feel
like your generation and gen z really get this like my uh my boys are your age they're musicians
trapper had a birthday and they were out like at a bar in echo park the
other night and they came back and like they were like yeah no one was drinking they're having like
mocktails yeah everybody could drive home like that just blows my mind like i can't imagine
being 28 years old and like going to a bar and and not everybody just getting absolutely smashed
sure it's an amazing thing that it's changing. And I think it's great that, you know, people shouldn't feel pressured to get wasted and drink for any other reason than being social. I love it. And, you know, with these non-alcoholic beers now, I love the idea of like my mates come over on a Tuesday night. They've all got work at five in the morning tomorrow. We can share a few beers, but there's no consequence to it. There's no attachment
to it the next day. You get to be rid of it and free and you get to live this life and rich.
You don't have to sacrifice anything because I think that's what you're right. People think
a life of sobriety is sacrificing the fun, but it really isn't. You just have to be bold enough to
like take that step to try it. And once you get across the line, you're like, wow.
The social dynamics are the trickiest because people, future trip, right? Well, how am I going
to go to this wedding? How am I going to, you know, next year, how am I going to go to this,
you know, like I can't imagine. So, so I'll drink today, you know, because that just seems impossible. And a lot of people are in social environments
where there is that pressure. It sounds like your friends are not those guys. Like they're
not the ones saying, come on, one drink. It's what's the big deal or putting pressure on you.
But a lot of people do are in environments like that. Yeah.
And I hope that can change. You know, I am so blessed.
I mean, my mates that I hang out with, that I used to drink with, they're all tradesmen, carpenters, welders.
They work on sets.
They build the sets and they love a drink.
You're a carpenter too, right?
Didn't you study carpentry?
Sort of.
Yeah.
My granddad, bless him, who only passed away a few weeks ago, he was a carpenter and he taught me carpentry? Sort of. Yeah. My granddad, bless him, who only passed away a few weeks ago,
he was a carpenter and he taught me carpentry.
So I'm going to hopefully one day,
one of my goals is to have a property where I can have a little workshop on site
and keep up that little family tradition of carpentry.
I wouldn't call myself a carpenter.
I have built things in the past.
You know your way around.
I could fix a door for you if it came off the hinges.
One of my favorite things is if something breaks in Zendaya's house,
I take huge pride in fixing it.
The other day she has this guest room, which was,
it wasn't the greatest room.
Like it needed some love.
Old school masculinity.
Yeah.
Like built her these cupboards and put a new wardrobe up for her and
like fitted it in so it looked like it was part of the wall and um i was very proud of myself yeah
yeah have you ever worked with harrison ford i haven't so you could chop it up with him
to chat to him about that yeah yeah yeah swapping notes right but you know i'd love to um i'd love
to take my carpentry to the next level and and be a situation where, you know, a friend of mine says, oh, we're looking for some new bedside tables.
And I'll say, oh, let me make you some. Right. In case this whole acting thing doesn't work out.
Well, maybe it might be my get out plan. It might be my like sail off into the sunset.
Or you just be the old codger like in the garden, like making your, you know.
Making a bench or something making a bench a flower pot
exactly absolutely let's talk about uh bureau so you're so passionate about this alcohol-free
lifestyle that you actually decided to jump all in and and create your own like non-alcoholic beer
so what was the inspiration for that i think as an actor in my position, I'd been approached loads of times by different companies
to set up something, whether it could be, you know, an alcohol, a rum, a vodka, a beer,
a clothing line, all that sort of stuff.
And I'd never come across anything that sparked any sense of passion in me.
sparked any sense of passion in me. And it wasn't until I got sober and I was dealing with the struggles of getting through that every day. And I noticed a void where there weren't good
enough replacements for people like me who wanted to go to the pub, enjoy the social aspects of it,
to the pub, enjoy the social aspects of it, share some golden juice with your friends,
and then go home. And I thought to myself, wouldn't it be a great thing if I could turn not only my sobriety into a great thing for my lifestyle, but a great thing for my future
and a tool for other people who are maybe trying to achieve the same thing that I have.
And a tool for other people who are maybe trying to achieve the same thing that I have.
But then also a product for someone like my dad.
My dad loves a beer after work or when he gets home, but sometimes he doesn't want to drink, but he just wants to crack something open and drink it.
So I just started kind of going around town and asking my agents to help me find people that were setting up these companies. I spoke to Athletic and I was a big fan of theirs. Bill Shuflet.
Yeah. I tried to kind of get involved there, but they were doing so well that they didn't
need any help, which I totally respect. And then I started speaking to my agents about like, well,
what if I set up my own one? And it's a pretty daunting task, but WME are so fantastic at putting the
right people on the table. So I met with this company called Imaginary, who are an investment
venture capital company. And we kind of had this idea of building our own product. And it's been
one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done. For me, it's felt like a school project of like, do you guys have The Apprentice in America?
Sure.
It feels like I'm on The Apprentice.
Yeah.
Remember the other president who was the head of the...
Oh shit, that's right.
He did do it, didn't he?
Because we had Alan Sugar did it in England.
Oh yes, that's right.
He did do that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I remember now.
But it's been such a joy working with the creative departments, figuring out what we want the company to represent. I think it's really important for me that Biro isn't ramming sobriety down people's throats. It's for everyone. It's for people that don't drink. It's for people that
want to drink less. And it's for people that drink a lot, but one night they need to wake up early
and be switched on the next day. And I think that it represents this void in the market.
I noticed that all non-alcoholic beers like Peroni or Heineken Zero or Guinness Zero,
they're all blue. All of their cans have like a blue connotation. So like Beck's is Beck's blue,
Peroni is Peroni blue. And I think that's really unfair because it's like you're in the bar with
a big signpost saying like, I'm drinking a non-alcoholic beer. So my goal was to come up with something that you could drink in a bar
that was as appealing, that scratched the itch as much as a real beer, but you didn't have to
pay the price for it in the morning, and something that was inclusionary rather than exclusionary.
So my hope is that Biro can represent the non-alcoholic beer market and that it can be something a smart play for anybody who's in a position like you to explore,
but to marry it with a real passion,
to be not only kind of the face of this thing,
but also an evangelist of a lifestyle
that is about community and connection.
I think it's great.
And I think that this segment,
this market is exploding and only going to continue to grow. You know, Bill at Athletic told me his whole story. Like when he started, like he couldn't find anybody to work with. He had a brewer partner and they just couldn't even find anybody to do small batches because everybody was like, there's no market for this. And the products that have always existed have been, to your point, kind of like wave the flag, you know, for the problem drinker where you're just kind of announcing.
It feels like they're just checking a box.
And it's about like the negative aspects of this rather than kind of pushing the ball forward towards like the positive lifestyle aspects of this. So, well, I think that the language
with alcohol-free drinks
is always about what they're lacking.
And what we want to promote
is what you're gaining.
That's why we're kind of coining this idea
of a life enriched.
Just because there's less alcohol in it
doesn't mean that it's less a beer.
It's brewed the same.
It's the same ingredients.
It's just ever so slightly different. So for me that it's less a beer. It's brewed the same. It's the same ingredients. It's just ever so slightly different.
So for me, it's not about what it doesn't have.
It's what about you gain from having it.
And I think that that is something
I'm really passionate about.
I think to what you asked me earlier,
like what is it about a project
that gets me excited in terms of acting?
It's like, do I believe in
the message? Do I believe in the story? Is it something I'm passionate about? If yes,
my foot's in the door, I'm ready to do it. And that's exactly what Biro has presented to me here,
an opportunity to tap into something I've never sort of understood before, but I'm really
passionate about making a difference and helping people out.
I'd love to have had a bureau in my first year of sobriety. It would have made it a lot easier
for me. And I hope that maybe in the future it can help people afterwards.
You brought some, you're going to let me taste some of it.
I just was saying, it's really interesting. Like when you're doing press for something,
like a film especially, and it's been a secret for so long when you talk about it for the first time there is this weird adjustment process of like i'm not
supposed to talk about this i've been keeping it a secret for so long and now the floodgates have
opened and this is the first time i've ever spoken to anyone about this it's been under lock and key
like even guys at my golf club are like what is this thing you keep rushing off to work on? And I haven't told anyone.
So I'm really happy today. How long have you been working on it?
I mean, the creative, we've been working on it for about a year in terms of like the liquid itself,
like what it tastes like, the flavors that we want to try and enhance, the branding and the
marketing, which is the part of the process that I was most involved with was probably what a five month process,
five to six months, seven months, which was great. It was awesome. But then the setting it up and,
and hiring the right people that was about four or five months beforehand. And we've been so lucky,
or five months beforehand. And we've been so lucky, John, our CEO, I met with two guys.
And the moment I started speaking to John, I knew that he was the guy that was going to represent what I wanted to try and create the best. He was very authentic. He was very honest and
kind and thoughtful, but also incredibly driven and successful. So I was really drawn to him. And I think how he's helped me and our team get to where we are is a testament to him as our leader,
which is great. Yeah, it's cool. So what do we got here? You got a couple for people that are
just listening and not watching on video. You got like, we have a bureau presentation here.
We have three different kinds. So SKUs is a new thing i've learned in my rapid business life we've got three
we've got um edge hill ipa which is like a hazy ipa which is my favorite edge hill is uh the hill
in which my school is on top of so that's kind of where i grew up the green is the kingston pills
it's a like a classic take on a pilsner. Kingston is where I grew up. So that kind of represents
home. And then the cream is the wheat, the noon wheat named after my little dog,
which is one of our favorites. And they're great. For me, they really scratch the itch.
It's been such a pleasure learning about the process of brewing beer, the difference between
brewing non-alcoholic beer and your full strength beer. And then also having the ability to ask Grant, our brewmaster,
I'd love to have a stronger aftertaste of hop with the hazy. And then he'll explain how he'll
go about doing that and all that sort of stuff. So being able to build a product that's tailored
for my taste that I get to share with everyone has been awesome. Which one should I try? Well,
what do you like? What's your go-to kind of beer? I mean, not too heavy. I mean, listen, first of
all, I went to treatment in 1998. Okay. So you were like, what, two years old? I would have been
two years old. Yeah. Okay. So it's been a minute. Okay. You know what I mean? So it is a weird thing because it's been so long and I didn't like
get sober and then kind of drink non-alcoholic beer that I'm of two minds with it. Like on the
one hand, I think it's fantastic these things exist, but it's also, it's a weird thing because
when I taste it, because now they're so good, right? Like I'm like, am I having a beer? And
it lights up a part of my brain that freaks me out a little bit.
One of the things I'm really excited about with Biro
is that we are never going to bring out
a full strength beer.
So you know that when you're holding that gold can,
you're safe.
There's no booze in it.
So which one?
The wheat?
That's a wheat.
So that'd be like a Hefeweizen or a blue moon.
Then your pilsner would probably be the lightest of the three.
Let me try that one.
That's kind of your standard lager.
And then this is the really juicy one.
Right.
This is the...
I'll taste both.
And by the way, I should say, this isn't like a sponsored thing.
No, no, no, no.
There's no...
I'm just doing this because
i believe i believe in what you're trying to accomplish and i think the alcohol-free lifestyle
is such an important one and to the extent that there are options and alternatives out there for
people like i'm supportive of that and that's where it ends so so if people think like there
was money that got exchanged no that's not what this is about at all well cheers so yeah it's my
first time sharing a beer there you go right one i'm honored that you would come here first
yeah man it's it's so wild there's like such a vivid sense memory like my brain immediately
goes to some party that i was at like you know like know, like when I was, you know, 25 or whatever. It's a trip. I mean,
it tastes really good, but it is, it is like, it is, it is a little freaky if I'm being totally
honest because it's so close. And again, like back to what I was saying is now that we are
getting so close and it's really difficult to discern the difference. It's so important to me
that this kind of color-coded thing for our
company becomes the gold standard of what non-alcohol is so that you know there's no sense
of doubt. My brain is like, when am I going to feel it? I can feel my brain going, okay,
just give it a minute. You'll start to feel it. Yeah. But it's not coming. Don't worry. You can
drink as many of those as you like and drive home.
That's the hazy. This is my favorite. The IPAs were my go-to. It's really juicy.
Oh yeah, I like that one. Yeah, that's nice.
I'm also reminded of several months ago, I had the guy who founded Upside Foods in here,
who is pioneering cellular meat.
So he's growing.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's growing like chicken in these like brewing.
I mean, it is a brewing process almost.
And he brought his chicken product.
So I haven't eaten meat in a very long time.
And tasting that was also like a weird.
I bet that was wild.
But it is real chicken just without the sentient animal.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Wow.
It's wild, man.
It's really interesting.
It's a crazy future.
I haven't tried it.
I'd be very interested to try it though.
I mean, it tasted exactly like it.
And he would say that it's actually, A, healthier because they can toggle down the saturated fat or they can kind of make it a little bit healthier and it's not infused with antibiotics and hormones and all the like.
It didn't grow up in some disgusting situation.
Eating shit and stuff and then also it has the texture and the flavor of what a chicken would have if it
wasn't so domesticated you know like more like before humans started to you know kind of screw
with the genome and the living conditions and what i know this might sound like people have a huge
thing they have like there's a huge resistance to it. Like there's a huge ick factor.
Like this is unnatural and I get that.
But when you consider how many billions of these animals are slaughtered and the conditions
in which they're raised, like it begs the question of what is natural.
Yeah.
And also like, look at bananas.
Like bananas aren't supposed to look like they do, but they've been genetically modified to look that way and stay riper for longer and all that sort
of stuff.
So even the things that we think are natural are not natural.
They grow the cells on like a lattice work, I guess.
I don't know exactly how they do it.
There's a lot that goes into creating the right texture, et cetera.
But, you know, they're basically like muscle cells that they're literally growing.
So they would just grow a chicken breast?
Basically, yeah.
How does it work with like growing a chicken leg?
I don't know.
Do they grow the bone in there or?
I don't know.
I don't know.
But I mean, they're working on, you know, they have beef and they can basically do whatever,
you know, and then you're like, well, could you grow human meat?
Yeah, right.
People are going to be cannibals.
It's weird.
But I guess that's one step in the direction for regenerative medicine of amputees maybe in 100 years down the line.
The future of what's possible. Yeah, I went to some conference and there were some scientists and doctors who were pioneering like growing heart tissue and lung tissue.
It's like we're entering a crazy new world.
Yeah, I think skin grafts and stuff like that will change.
And we work with a charity called Debra in the UK and their American equivalent is called EBRP.
It's a charity that helps kids with EB, which is a disease called epidermolysis bullosa. And it's essentially like,
to my understanding, we have nine layers of skin that all move over each other. That's why our skin
is so flexible. But to someone with EB, their skin is fused together, so they don't have that luxury.
So if they were to quickly close their hands, their skin would crack and it's gnarly. They
bleed and they're blistered all over their bodies. They have terrible health complications down the
line and their life expectancy is very short. The benefit to EB though is that there's only
one degenerative gene, whereas, is that there's only one
degenerative gene, whereas with cancer, there's hundreds of thousands of genes that can go wrong.
So EB is at the forefront of gene therapy. So when all these people are trying to use gene therapy
to kind of change the world, EB is the one that they're trying to solve because they know what
the defective gene is. And they've now got these topical treatments
and all sorts of different things that are working,
that are like making a difference.
And there's no cure for it yet,
but they are on the precipice of curing it.
And when they cure it and they unlock that technology,
that will change the world.
That's cool.
Yeah, it'll be crazy.
And philanthropy is a big piece of your
life too, right? You have a trust and you have your tentacles in lots of different areas with that.
So for me, what I love about the Brothers Trust, which is really the thing I'm most proud of,
is the ability to be boots on the ground and see the difference that is made by helping these
different people and
raising awareness for certain things like EB. No one knows about it.
Yeah, I've never heard of it.
No one's ever heard about it. So I love being able to bring attention to things like that and
all that sort of stuff. And I love being able to see the difference that we make as a trust.
We've traveled to see the different charities and I love it. I really find it to be
something I'm super passionate about. And my mom, God bless her, she's an absolute saint.
She runs the whole thing. This is like a family enterprise, right?
Yeah. So my brothers and I are kind of like the face of the operation. And then my mom is the
engine and she runs it and it's a full-time job for her and she's great.
We couldn't do it without her.
I'm curious about your relationship with your own potential for transformation because you've
put alcohol in the rear view, this thing that was problematic, that was challenging and
difficult for you to let go of, right?
Those experiences are transformative in and of themselves
because they give you this sense of possibility and potential when you unleash something latent
like that, right? What's currently challenging you or tripping you up now that maybe you need to
look at or address? I think the biggest thing that I'm facing right now, which is without a shadow of a doubt,
the most first world problem that anyone has ever experienced is the power of choice.
And it comes down to Spider-Man. When I signed my contract for Spider-Man 1,
I signed a six picture deal. I was 18 years old. I was more excited than I'd ever been about
anything ever. And for the last 10 years, I have been at the beck and call of Marvel and Sony.
And proudly so. It's been the best experience of my life. I'm now at a juncture where I can say no.
I'm now at a juncture where I can say no. And now that I've been afforded that power,
I am struggling to figure out what is the right thing to do.
It's meant I've had to put my foot down in certain instances, which I haven't been allowed to do in the past. And I think the learning curve that I'm on right now is dealing
with that new sense of power, making sure that I don't abuse it, but making sure that I do the
best thing for me rather than for the studio and really the best thing for the character.
I don't want to make another movie for the sake of making it.
The studio wants you to make another Spider-Man.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, they do.
And I want to make another one.
I want to make many more, but I want to do it for the right reasons.
And now, like I said to you earlier, sometimes I miss the day when getting the job was the win.
day when getting the job was the win, I am navigating and figuring out what having that kind of power means and that responsibility. And I'm figuring it out and I'm speaking to people
and asking questions. And, you know, I've been speaking to Downey a lot, especially about him
making his return, which is super exciting. He's gone on that exploration and he still
came back to do more. That was a tough secret to sit on because I have a reputation for ruining things.
And I've heard that you're a little loose lipped around MCU secrets.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I guess in terms of challenges or things that I'm dealing with, that would be it.
And I'm by no means complaining.
It's a wonderful place to be.
But it is something that keeps me up at night.
And I'm constantly thinking of like, is this the right thing to do?
Am I going to do justice to the character?
Am I going to do justice to the fans?
I definitely don't want to just make a movie for the sake of it.
Because that's not what Spider-Man represents.
So yeah, it's a complicated one.
That is.
That is complicated.
It's going really well though. Yeah, it is. This one. That is. That is complicated. It's going really well, though.
Yeah, it is.
This is what we call a high quality problem.
Yeah.
You know, it's like cry me a river.
Right.
But it's a problem nonetheless.
I'm not asking for any sympathy.
It's a huge decision that has, you know, kind of downstream implications for a lot of people.
Right.
And also interesting to me because I've heard you talk about being sort of an unrepentant people pleaser.
Yeah. I've heard you talk about being sort of an unrepentant people pleaser, right? And so it's confronting you with your innate people pleasing tendencies to try to make a decision outside of that,
that is not only in your best interest, but in the best interest of the franchise.
And, you know, what is in service to this character that's much larger than you and what you want to do.
And the fans as well.
Like, I owe everything to the fans of Marvel and myself.
They've been so kind and generous to me.
Like, after Civil War came out, I felt like Civil War was my audition to the world.
Like, I'd gotten the part of Spider-Man.
I did the film with the Russo brothers and that came out.
And that, to me, felt like my, will you embrace me as Spider-Man? And they did. And I'm so grateful that they did.
And I feel like I owe it to them to give and deliver the best version of what the next chapter
for Spider-Man looks like. And I think that's really important. And I think the creative
integrity for something like that is really important. And the studio is on board and supportive and really collaborative. And I've been so blown away by how welcoming they've been into that creative room.
the pedal is to the metal. We're trying to get it going as soon as possible. Things are looking great, but there's still a lot of moving pieces that need to come together for us to hit the
ground running. Right. So what is the ticking clock on this decision and what are the variables?
Is it the script, the team, the story? How are you going to make this decision? What are the
factors that come into play that's going to sway you one way or the other? I'm not really sure about how much I can talk about in terms of what are some of the challenges we face creatively and logistically.
No one's listening.
You know, come on.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Obviously, one of the things to like bear in mind with Marvel is that there is your film is a small cog in a large machine.
And that machine has got to keep running.
And you need to make sure that you can fit into that timeline at the right time to benefit
the bigger picture.
An infinite number of machines across the multiverse.
Yes, exactly. So, you know, that's one of the challenges we're facing and
the time in which we need to get that done is a tall order, but definitely achievable
with the fantastic people we have working on it now.
But my biggest thing is the creative.
We have a creative and a pitch and a draft,
which is excellent.
It needs work, but the writers are doing a great job.
And I read it three weeks ago
and it really like
lit a fire in me. Zendaya
and I sat down and read it together and we
at times were like bouncing around the living room
like this is a real movie
worthy of like the fans respect
but there's a few things we need to
figure out before we can get that
really going. But it's exciting and I'm really to figure out before we can get that really going.
But it's exciting. And I'm really, really excited about it.
You straddled that question well and avoided all the political pitfalls.
Every bit of media training kicked in there.
Yes. Well done.
Thank you.
Well done. It's not for me to say whether you disclosed something you shouldn't have, but, you know, it was handled beautifully.
Yeah, if this had alcohol in it, I'd be in trouble.
Yeah, I'm like, am I drunk?
No, I'm not drunk.
No, you're having a good time.
Well, why don't we close this out with just a few reflections or thoughts for somebody who's flirting with, you know, the alcohol-free lifestyle.
Maybe alcohol is a problem.
Maybe it's not.
But they've been inspired
by what you had to share about how much better your life is. And they're looking to take the
first step. Where does that person begin? How should they navigate it? What can they expect?
And maybe some tools that might be helpful. Well, I think for me, try a life of less.
And I think what we have here with Biro is a beer that does
both. You know, it scratches the itch of wanting to have that drink, but you don't have to sacrifice
the next day. I think that it's a beautiful journey, one that I've made friends for life on,
people that I've related to and built relationships with that I didn't have before. But then through sobriety,
we've become really close friends. And I just think there's no harm in giving it a go.
Because my lawyer is sober, and he's someone that has been really helpful for me,
especially in times where I've been at a bar like, oh, I want to have a drink.
And he gave me a piece of advice once, which was really helpful,
which was you'll never wake up the next day and say, God, I wish I had a drink last night.
Never. And that for me has been really helpful. And I hope that Biro can fill that void for people.
I'm really proud to be here today. And I'm really proud to have a product that I can stand 10 toes down and represent and believe in the message and know that there's more to this product than making money.
Like, I really want to make a difference in this space.
And I really want people to have something that helps them feel included.
Very cool.
So if people want to learn more about Biro and pick some up, how do they do that?
So October 16th, BiroBrewing.com.
You can get it nationwide.
And then 1st of January next year, just in time for dry January, we should be in stores
nationwide at some major retailers.
Hopefully it will grow and grow and grow and the community will grow with it.
It's a mission.
Yeah.
No, it's a mission.
And it's needed. There's a lot of people
out there suffering unnecessarily, unaware that a better experience of life is freely available.
And that's the beautiful thing is it's not even freely available. It's like cheaper.
Yeah, that's right. Right. It's not even free. It's like you're essentially pay you to do it.
Yeah. And if you're hung up about what your friends are going to say, everyone's self-obsessed. They're not thinking about you anyway. And you
can put one of these bureaus in your hand and no one will know that no one will be the wiser and
everything's going to be fine. Exactly. There you go. And I feel like with something like this in
your hand, like no one's going to be questioning whether that's got booze in it or not. Because
it's a beer. It looks like a beer can. It doesn't have less than it's brewed the same. It's a beer it looks like a beer can it doesn't have less than it's brewed the same
it's a beer it's not blue either and it's not blue when we were working with the colors
because i like the idea that the different colors are easy to remember something i don't like about
craft brewery is when you go to the bar and they're like which one do you want and you're like
well i don't know the names of them there's like seven different hazy these and hazy that
i like the idea of like, I like an IPA.
Give me the red one.
I like a Pilsner.
Give me the green one.
There you go.
Simple.
All right, man.
Well, I love what you're doing.
Thank you.
I appreciate you coming here and sharing your message.
And you're a solid young man.
Thanks very much.
I appreciate it.
I'm a fan and consider me at your service.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
It's been a pleasure.
Peace. Peace.
Fantastic.
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