‘Spider-Man’ star Tom Holland is all set to appear in his game-changing new role as a heroin addict in ‘Cherry’, an indie film directed by the Russo Brothers. But the journey to get here wasn’t easy, the actor revealed in a tell-all interview with GQ.
“Have you ever taken heroin before?” Holland said in the interview. “Because I have not. I couldn’t sit there on set and inject heroin into my chest — that’s not how it is done. I had to get it right. This role took me to some of the darkest places I have ever been, emotionally, physically, anythingly... I would never go back there again, not for anyone. I am pleased I did it, but that door is now closed and locked.”
The actor also reportedly had to lose a lot of weight for the role, and immediately gain it back.
“It was awful. Truly. It was only about ten weeks out of shooting that I realised what I was getting into and what I need to do to transform into the role. So I sat down with my trainer, George Ashwell, and he told me, ‘Right, you need to eat only 500 calories a day and run ten miles. Go.’ Great. It was brutal. And then bulking up, going from a drug addict to shooting scenes as a marine? I got very sick, actually. And it’s changed my relationship with food completely. I think I would find it very difficult to find a role that would warrant that sort of abuse on my body again,” he said.
In ‘Cherry’, an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Nico Walker, Holland plays an army veteran with PTSD who resorts to petty bank robberies to fund his addiction.
“This character makes bad choices,” said Joe Russo, one half of the formidable Russo brothers, in the same interview. “We knew the audience would have difficulty with the lead, so we needed someone who was charming and empathetic to carry them through. The mission with ‘Cherry’ was to make people have an emotional response to the material, not an intellectual response.”
‘Cherry’ releases on Apple TV+ on March 9. Holland also stars in the upcoming film ‘Chaos Walking’, featuring Daisy Ridley and Mads Mikkelsen, out in UAE cinemas on March 4.