Tom Holland has spent the summer promoting two of the biggest films of his career, and he says the experience has felt nothing like past press tours he’d rather forget.
Speaking on the Dish from Waitrose podcast, released July 22, Holland contrasted the ease of talking up “The Odyssey” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” with previous junkets where he struggled to defend movies he didn’t believe in. He told hosts Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett that promoting a film he’s proud of removes any need to stretch the truth.
Journalists ask why audiences should buy a ticket, and he can answer honestly. That hasn’t always been the case. Holland recalled facing that same question during other campaigns and privately concluding the film wasn’t worth the price of admission, phrasing his verdict in blunter terms than a typical junket allows.
Holland didn’t name the productions he was describing, but his track record includes the poorly reviewed Apple TV+ series “The Crowded Room,” which landed a 31 percent critics’ score and became a project he’s since discussed candidly, including its toll on his mental health during filming.
This year has given him a sharper contrast. “The Odyssey,” Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic, has drawn strong reviews and is closing in on $500 million globally just two weekends into release, with Holland playing Telemachus opposite Matt Damon’s Odysseus and Anne Hathaway’s Penelope. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” opens two weeks after “The Odyssey,” marking Holland’s return to the role that made him a star, this time as a Peter Parker the world has forgotten thanks to a memory-erasing spell cast in the previous film.
Holland called the run a kind of victory lap, saying he’s enjoyed nearly every stop on it. The comment lands as both films anchor his highest-profile summer yet, pairing an awards-bound prestige epic with a Marvel tentpole carrying its own box office expectations. Neither film has given him reason, he suggested, to quietly disagree with the pitch he’s making to audiences.
