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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Tom Murray

Tom Holland compares ‘horribly reviewed’ Crowded Room to supporting Tottenham: ‘I’m resilient’

Getty Images/Apple TV+

Tom Holland is speaking candidly about the unfavourable reviews his new Apple TV+ series, The Crowded Room, has received.

The British actor, best known for playing Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), plays the series lead, Danny Sullivan – a man who is arrested for his involvement in a shooting in 1979.

During a recent mock job interview video for Unilad, Holland was asked how being a fan of Tottenham Hotspur FC contributed to his character.

“I think being a Tottenham fan is somewhat like being in The Crowded Room. It has taught me resilience,” Holland answered.

“Tottenham has never won anything and supporting them is incredibly difficult. It’s no secret my show has been so horribly reviewed, but I’m here today to promote the show and I’m still here. I’m very resilient. It’s a good quality,” he said.

The series, which debuted earlier this month, has been lampooned by critics. It currently holds an average critics score of 33 per cent on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.

In his two-star review for The Independent, Nick Hilton wrote that the “generic muddle” of the show “is abetted by a script that struggles with cliché, both in the plot and the dialogue”.

Tom Holland stars in ‘The Crowded Room’
— (Getty Images/Apple TV+)

Despite the paltry critics’ score, fans of Holland, 27, were surprised to see the show’s audience score surpassing 90 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Speaking on the US talk show Live With Kelly and Mark recently, Holland thanked his fans for boosting the show’s ratings.

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“I would like to say a massive thank you to my fans, and the people that have seen the show because we’re at 94 per cent [user rating] on Rotten Tomatoes,” Holland said at the time.

“I feel so grateful that I have a wonderful community of people that support me and are there for me, so I’m honoured and really excited for the rest of the show to come out.”

The Crowded Room is based on Daniel Keyes’ 1981 novel The Minds of Billy Milligan and also stars Amanda Seyfried, Emmy Rossum and Sasha Lane.

Through a series of interviews with his interrogator (Seyfried), Danny is forced to come to terms with a mystery surrounding his life.

Holland revealed recently that he has decided to take a break from acting after his role on the show “broke” him.

New episodes of The Crowded Room will be released weekly on Apple TV+ until 28 July.

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