Tom Holland Says ADHD, Dyslexia Can Make Acting Intimidating

Tom Holland, who previously shared that he has dyslexia, said he also has ADHD — explaining that the combination can make taking on a new role “intimidating.”

“I have ADHD and I’m dyslexic, and I find sometimes when someone gives me a blank canvas that it can be slightly intimidating. And sometimes you are met with those challenges when developing a character,” the Spider-Man star, 29, told IGN while discussing his new LEGO short film, Never Stop Playing, about the importance of playtime.

Play, he said, “really does help,” and in the LEGO short film, Holland takes on multiple roles — a soccer star, a tech entrepreneur, a toupee-wearing titan of industry, a sci-fi hero — while vowing to “never” stop playing.

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“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 just promotes healthy creativity,” he told the outlet. “And I think that the more we do that sort of stuff, the better.”

Playtime has long been used as a therapy for ADHD — the abbreviation for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. It’s characterized by patterns of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. As child psychologist Dr. Carol Brady, Ph.D., told ADDitude magazine, “Children communicate metaphorically through play. As a therapeutic tool, it’s like giving a sugary pill instead of a bitter one.”

Dyslexia “disrupts how your brain processes written language. People with dyslexia have trouble with reading and related skills,” the Cleveland Clinic explains.

Holland previously talked about his dyslexia struggle during an appearance on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast in July 2023, explaining, “My dyslexia, it’s really just my spelling.”

His brothers Harry and Sam make appearances in the LEGO film, playing sports reporters. Getting to act with his siblings, he said, “was really fun and not something that happens every day. Prada weren’t as keen to have Harry and Sam as LEGO were,” Holland quipped about his role as the face of the Prada Paradigme fragrance — and added, “I’m a big fan of the LEGO Group. We grew up playing [with the sets].”