Spider-Man star Tom Holland opens up about living with ADHD and dyslexia

Tom Holland explains how dyslexia and ADHD shape his creative journey on and off screen. Photo / Getty Images

Tom Holland has admitted having dyslexia and ADHD can make new acting roles “intimidating”.

The 29-year-old actor has previously revealed he has the learning condition but mentioned attention deficit hyperactivity disorder for the first time as he discussed how play “really does help” him with creative pursuits.

He told IGN: “I have ADHD and I’m dyslexic, and I find sometimes when someone gives me a blank canvas that it can be slightly intimidating.

“Sometimes you are met with those challenges when developing a character.

“So any way that you can, as a young person or as an adult, interact with something that forces you to be creative and forces you to think outside the box and make changes that might be in an instruction manual or might not be in an instruction manual that just promotes healthy creativity. And I think that the more we do that sort of stuff, the better.”

Tom stars in a new LEGO short film, Never Stop Playing, about the importance of playtime and he recalled how he and his Spider-Man: Homecoming co-star Jacob Batalon, who plays Peter Parker’s classmate Ned, bonded while making a 3803-brick LEGO Death Star together to be used in the film.

He said: “I think my favourite memory of LEGO would be Spider-Man: Homecoming.

“Jacob and I were becoming fast friends and our lives were being flipped upside down. And there’s that fantastic scene where Ned drops the LEGO Death Star and we were tasked by the studio to build one ourselves.

“I just remember having really fond memories of sitting down with Jacob in my house, getting to know each other at the very beginning of this crazy journey.

“And it was rooted in making this LEGO Death Star, and we finished it. Our friend’s mom ended up helping us at one point, and I don’t think it is the one in the movie because they needed it to break in a certain way – so they built it without some of its infrastructure so that it would shatter better. But I remember that being a very, very poignant and fantastic time in that process.”

Holland spoke about having dyslexia in a 2023 interview.

He told Jay Shetty in an appearance on the On Purpose podcast: “My dyslexia, it’s really just my spelling.”