"It took a long time for me to recover": The Crowded Room star Tom Holland gets honest about "meltdown" and wanting to shave his head post filming 

Period psychological thriller The Crowded Room will premiere on Apple TV+ on June 9, 2023. The show is based on a non-fiction novel called The Minds of Billy Milligan, which was released in 1981. The premiere of the show will involve the release of three episodes, with the next seven scheduled to release in consecutive weeks. Its finale will air on July 28, 2023.

Although the show's anticipation has surged since the launch of its trailer, its lead Tom Holland recently revealed how psychologically damaging his role was. He said that he went through extreme mental stress while filming and even wanted to shave off his head after the filming wrapped.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, he revealed:

"The mental aspect, it really beat me up, and it took a long time for me to recover afterwards, to sort of get back to reality."

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The Crowded Room on Apple TV+: Tom Holland recounts filming experience as "unlike anything I've ever experienced before"

The Crowded Room is inspired by a true story and involves a shy and antisocial teenager named Danny Sullivan, who hails from New York. He commits a horrific shooting at the Rockefeller Center in 1979 and gets arrested. The responsibility to solve his case is given to an investigator named Rya Goodwin, portrayed by Amanda Seyfried.

Over the course of the story, the teenager gradually comes face to face with his mental health condition and subsequently, the reason behind his actions.

During his recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Holland described the movie as something that will shed light upon the unimaginable power of the human mind and the ways in which a human being handles his past traumatic experiences.

As the show's filming progressed, the actor claimed that he got more and more attached to his character and after a point, he realized that it was becoming impossible to jump back to reality. He had never faced something like this before in his career:

"I was seeing myself in him but in my personal life. I remember having a bit of a meltdown at home and thinking, like, 'I'm going to shave my head. I need to shave my head because I need to get rid of this character.' And, obviously, we were mid-shooting, so I decided not to… It was unlike anything I've ever experienced before."

Thankfully costar Sasha Lane, who plays Danny's friend Ariana, helped Holland throughout his meltdown. She provided constant support and spoke to him about her own experiences. Holland said:

"She was so helpful for me, because there were moments on set where I really was struggling to understand Danny's reasoning or Danny's actions."

He further added:

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

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The Crowded Room synopsis and cast

The official synopsis of The Crowded Room reads:

"The Crowded Room follows Danny Sullivan (Tom Holland), a man who is arrested following his involvement in a shooting in New York City in 1979. A captivating thriller told through a series of interviews with curious interrogator Rya Goodwin (Amanda Seyfried), Danny’s life story unfolds, revealing elements of the mysterious past that shaped him, and the twists and turns that will lead him to a life-altering revelation."

The series stars Tom Holland, Amanda Seyfried, Emmy Rossum, Will Chase, Sasha Lane, Zachary Golinger, Christopher Abbott, Emma Laird, Jason Isaacs, Lior Raz, and several others.

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The Crowded Room will premiere on Apple TV+ on June 9, 2023