Elizabeth Olsen Taught Tom Holland to Say “No”

by Rebecca Kaplan · December 12, 2021

Long and stressful filming days, painful stunts, sleepless nights, nonstop press tours, and an endless list of obligations are all part of Peter Parker’s job. In other words, it’s stressful being Spider-Man. Recently, Spider-Man: No Way Home actor Tom Holland needed some advice from his co-star Elizabeth Olsen about how to cope with the stress of being one of the most loved superheroes in the world.

Avenging Is Stressful, Man

Marvel Blog True Believers may have noticed that for the past few weeks, on-screen and off-screen couple Holland and Zendaya have been very busy flying around the world on their Marvel Studios’ press tour to promote Spider-Man: No Way Home, arriving exclusively in theaters on December 17th, 2021.

Photo: Marvel

Recently, during one of these interviews, the the 25-year-old actor spoke candidly to a reporter about all the pressure he’s been feeling lately, saying that the anxiety almost drove him to step away from acting altogether.

Caused by the increase in stress as his celebrity grew, Holland developed sleep paralysis, a common condition when a person is between wakefulness and sleep where they cannot move or speak but are conscious.

Photo: Verywell/Brianna Gilmartin

Holland said in GQ’s Men of the Year issue that he struggles with the sleep disorder more often when his work schedule is busy. He also described his experience with sleep paralysis.

Photo: GQ

He told the reporter that he regularly awakens with the same nightmare about paparazzi:

They’re all there, and I’m looking for my publicist, like, ‘Where is the person who’s supposed to be protecting me? What’s going on?’ And then when I am able to move again, I turn the lights on, and it’s over. And I think, Oh, my God, I’m in my room, I’m fine. There’s no one here. But then I will get up and look for a recording device or something that someone has put in my room.

Holland also told GQ that along with sleep paralysis, he also struggles with sleepwalking and finds that he often undresses while he’s asleep. “Four out of 10 sleeps I wake up completely naked,” he said.

“No is a full sentence.”

Recently, Holland got some much needed advice about managing stress on set, revealing that one MCU co-star in particular gave him good mental health advice: WandaVision and Doctor Strange 2 star Olsen, who had some words of wisdom for his anxiety.

The Spider-Man actor explained that he regularly pushes his body past its limits. This makes sense to me, after all, he’s a trained dancer, which means he’s trained to push himself past the point of breaking. In fact, at his most anxious, he threw up immediately after a press conference, saying he had felt burnt out and overworked.

Photo: GQ (Unused)

He said that on the day Olsen gave him the advice he was under a lot of pressure to finish his work, and it was the first time he ever felt like giving up as Spider-Man.

Holland said, “She gave me an amazing piece of advice: ‘No’ is a full sentence. ‘No’ is enough.”

Photo: The Animated Times

So after speaking with the Scarlet Witch actress, he said that he’s made some positive changes in his working relationships. In an interview with Esquire, Holland revealed that he refused to wear a wig for No Way Home. He also voiced his concerns about a particular scene not working to director Jon Watts, which led to rewrites and a better scene.