Tom Holland Talks About Becoming An Opioid-Addicted Bank Robber For New Movie Cherry

Actor Tom Holland takes on one of his darker and more serious roles to date with the new Russo brothers movie Cherry, and now the Spider-Man actor has spoken about how acting in this movie helped him learn new things about himself.

Holland plays Nico AKA Cherry, a former soldier who returns home with PTSD and an addiction to pain pills so he robs banks and commits crimes to pay for his habit. He told EW that he wasn't sure he had what it took to play the role, which is based on the life of a real person.

Holland spoke with military veterans and studied PTSD and substance abuse, and he also lost weight to look more believable for the role.

"I [found] places and emotions in me that I didn't know I had and quite frankly would never want to see again. There was no going too far with playing Cherry," he said.

Also in the interview, Holland reflected on one particularly intense scene in Cherry that was difficult to to film because of the subject and content.

"The scene in the car where we were robbing the bank [on] pills and coke was one of the most intense days of filmmaking I have ever had," he said. "It was just a free-for-all…all of us absolutely losing our mind, just going mental. I couldn't speak for about a week [after]…I watch that scene and it just stresses me out so much. I watch that scene and I'm like, oh my god I can't think about what it was like shooting that."

Holland also praised his directors, Joe and Anthony Russo, who Holland said demonstrated serious skill on the set of a much smaller production relative to the Avengers films.

"Making a $500 million box office movie and making a small independent movie is so different, but the way they approach making them is exactly the same," he said.

Nico Walker, the real-life soldier who inspired the movie, wrote the book "Cherry" about his experiences from prison. Holland said he was going to meet with Nico but it did not work out.

The movie Cherry premieres March 12 on Apple TV+.