City AM’s Deputy Life&Style editor Adam Bloodworth spoke to the actor Tom Holland about the joys of alcohol free living
Like when David Beckham became more synonymous with sarongs and buzz cuts than football, Tom Holland has gone on to symbolise so much more than Spider-Man. A legion of young men follow his every sartorial move; earlier this year, his ‘blokecore’ short back-and-sides cut for Romeo & Juliet briefly became as much a part of the Gen Z uniform as cargo pants.
But Holland has always been laser-focused on making movies. “My fashion sense is so bad that no one would have ever bought the clothes,” he told me recently when we spoke about the idea of collaborations.
That was until 2024, twelve years into his career, when Holland found another calling. His venture into brewing has become such a significant part of his life that it’s the only thing mentioned in his social media bio. Forget the Blockbusters, all his Instagram namechecks is “@berobrewing founder.”
When he was younger, an average weekend involved “sitting in the pub and drinking myself silly,” he told me when I led a discussion at a launch event for his alcohol free beer company Bero in Wimbledon.
But Holland went sober three years ago after finding that getting tanked up didn’t help him overcome social anxiety, and was only masking insecurities. He has become a role model for the rise in people, particularly young people, who aren’t drinking alcohol. “When I got sober I was really passionate about this idea of bettering my life, self help and wellness, so it felt like a perfect fit,” he says. “People are exercising more, focusing on their health, and you know, it’s a slight contradiction to do all those things – to go to the gym, eat healthy – and then drink 25 beers in the evening.”
It’s no secret that I really struggled with alcohol
Holland didn’t want to feature on the packaging, but one of the beers – there are four currently available – is named after his hometown of Kingston, and designs on the cans incorporate the official colours of his school. “It’s no secret that I really struggled with alcohol,” he said at the event. “In my first year of sobriety I was trying all these non-alcoholic beers and alcoholic replacements and I could never really find something that scratched the itch, that made me feel included in the nightlife experience. We started going back and forth on what we thought was missing in the category of non alcoholic beers and then Bero was born.”
