Tom Holland is currently on a global victory lap, but he isn’t pretending every press tour has been this enjoyable. During a July 22 appearance on the Waitrose podcast “Dish,” the actor openly admitted that he has previously been forced to drum up hype for projects he privately believed were terrible.
That candid confession arrived right in the middle of his massive summer 2026 promotional run. Holland contrasted those past grueling junkets with his current schedule. He is actively marketing Christopher Nolan’s epic The Odyssey alongside Marvel’s upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day. For these two blockbusters, he claims the enthusiasm is completely genuine.
Speaking with broadcasters Nick Grimshaw and chef Angela Hartnett, Holland detailed the mental toll of traditional Hollywood marketing. He noted that hitting the road for a film you actually believe in feels effortless. As he explained on the broadcast, actors want audiences to buy tickets when the final product is good.
But the 30-year-old actor also acknowledged the alternative. He recalled sitting through past interviews while secretly thinking audiences should stay home “because it’s shit.”
Holland did not explicitly name the poorly received projects during the episode. Fans immediately pointed to his career outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has seen a few high-profile critical misfires. His starring role in the 2023 Apple TV+ miniseries The Crowded Room was heavily panned by critics at launch. Holland still ran an intense press circuit for that show. He later admitted the production broke him to the point of needing an eight-month acting hiatus.
The Nolan Intimidation Factor
Things look very different for his 2026 slate. Holland is currently on screen playing Telemachus opposite Matt Damon’s Odysseus. He admitted to Grimshaw and Hartnett that he felt intimidated but excited to collaborate with a director of Nolan’s caliber.
The Odyssey is currently dominating the theatrical box office. The film is on track to cross $500 million globally in its second weekend. Nolan shot the project using 70mm IMAX cameras. The production required a massive $250 million budget. Holland praised the director’s ability to maintain intimate character storytelling despite the overwhelming technical scale.
Following this historical epic, Holland will pivot directly back into a spandex suit. Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters on July 31. His tenure as Peter Parker remains one of the most critically secure pillars of the modern MCU. That guaranteed success turns this back-to-back summer release window into an easy sell for the actor.
The Death of the Polished Press Tour
Holland’s comments strip away the remaining illusions of the modern Hollywood press junket. For decades, studios relied on contractual media obligations to force actors into a unified, perfectly positive marketing front. That strategy is rapidly losing its effectiveness.
Modern audiences are highly literate in PR speak. When an actor is contractually forced to praise a disastrous production, the resulting interviews often go viral for their awkwardness rather than generating ticket sales. Holland’s willingness to openly mock his own past marketing obligations points to a wider industry shift. Top-tier talent is increasingly leveraging podcast formats and long-form audio to bypass standard studio talking points.
They know that offering unscripted opinions builds long-term audience trust. When a star admits that some of their past work was terrible, you are far more likely to believe them when they tell you their next movie is actually worth your time.