Tom Holland has opened up about filming a sex scene with another man in Apple TV+'s The Crowded Room after fans went wild for it online.
The Spider-Man star, 27, plays Danny Sullivan, a man with dissociative identity disorder (DID) who is arrested following a shooting in New York City in 1979.
Details of his life are revealed in a series of interviews with interrogator Rya Goodwin, played by Amanda Seyfried, opening up on the mysterious past that led up to the fateful incident.
The lead character is loosely based on Billy Milligan, the first person to be acquitted of a major crime based on having dissociative identity disorder, spending a decade in psychiatric hospitals instead.
In 'Reunion', the eighth episode of the series, one of Danny's multiple personalities takes over his body while he is dancing in a nightclub, leading to an intimate tryst with another man in a stall in the bathroom of the venue.
The steamy moment has captured fans' attention online and Tom has opened up about the experience of filming a same-sex love scene for the first time.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: "I think it is a first [for me]. It's not a milestone, though. It's not something that I'm like, 'Oh, wow. I got to play my first character with a different sexual preference than I have.'
"It's obviously a little more complicated than that. It felt very important to tell the story authentically."
While the reaction to the scene was overwhelmingly positive, with many praising Tom for his incredible performance, some homophobic trolls took aim at the star for his choice to portray the complex character, tweeting using the hashtag #NotMySpiderMan, in reference to his iconic role.
Tom, however, did not let the small contingent of trolls get under his skin, explaining: "I try not to worry myself about what other people think.
"There's a Christian Bale quote I saw once, which really changed my life. He said, 'If you have a problem with me, text me. And if you don’t have my number, you don’t know me well enough to have a problem with me.'"
Wise advice, for sure.
The Crowded Room also stars Emmy Rossum as Danny's mother Candy, but the film received mixed reviews from critics upon release.
After completing the taxing project, Tom revealed he would be stepping away from acting for a break, after the role took it out of him mentally and emotionally.
He previously told ExtraTV: "I'm no stranger to hard work, I've always lived by this idea that hard work is good work. I really enjoyed it but then again, the show did break me.
"There did come a time when I was sort of, 'I need to have a break'. I disappeared. I went to Mexico for a week and had some time on a beach and lay low. And I'm now taking a year off, and that is a result of how difficult this show was."
The Crowded Room is available to watch on Apple TV+.