Tom Holland talked about trying to overcome exhaustion and burnout during the globe-trotting press tour for Spider-Man: Homecoming

The British actor started in the entertainment industry as a child when he landed a role as the title character in “Billy Elliot the Musical” in London’s West End. He made his debut in September 2008 and starred in his first film, The Impossible, four years later.

Holland was announced as the latest Spider-Man actor in June 2015, after seven auditions and a screen test with Robert Downey Jr. He was 19 and relatively unknown in Hollywood. Holland’s MCU debut in “Captain America: Civil War” in 2016 skyrocketed his popularity, and he became a global star the following year when his first standalone Spider-Man film, Homecoming, was released. Since then, Holland has reprised his role as the iconic web-slinger for Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

In his GQ cover story, the star said that one of his biggest flaws was that he was an impossible people pleaser. For this reason, he says he often works himself to exhaustion on his projects. For his role as an army veteran and drug addict in Cherry, Holland lost and gained 30 pounds, which resulted in low energy levels. Holland revealed that the stress of those first press tours for Spider-Man: Homecoming really burnt him out.

“I was really ill… But I didn’t say no. I was like, ‘I can do it, I can do it, I can do it,’” Holland said in the new edition of GQ while discussing how hard it was to keep going during the 17-country tour. By the time they arrived in China, Holland felt so done that he walked off stage to vomit. “I was under a lot of pressure to finish the day’s work. That was the first time I was really like, ‘No, I’m done now. I’ve given you everything.’”

The actor told that he learned how to stand up for himself and say “no” thanks to a piece of advice that Avengers costar Elizabeth Olsen gave him. “She gave me incredible advice: ‘No’ is a complete sentence. ‘No’ is enough,” Holland said.

Holland will return in Spider-Man: No Way Home which will be released on December 17. Holland has repeatedly said that this film is his last in his current contract, so his future in the MCU beyond that is unclear.

Source: GQ