On July 20, during a press interview for “The Odyssey,” Brut. journalist Camille Guinevere Smith delivered a personal message for Tom Holland in front of his co-stars, Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway.
“The associate editor-in-chief asked me to ask you this … You helped her dad stop drinking,” Guinevere Smith said.
“Oh, wow!” Holland said, leaning back in his chair, as Hathaway and Damon looked at him with surprise and pride.
“She just wants to say thank you so much,” Guinevere Smith said. “It has changed her life, it has changed his life, and she just wanted to give some love towards you.”
“Thank you so much, you’ve made my day,” Holland said, as Hathaway patted him on the shoulder.
Soon after, Brut.’s associate editor-in-chief, Jami Male, took to Instagram to express how much the moment meant to her.
“When one person shares the story of their struggle, it shows others that they are not alone,” Male said.
“By spending less than 10 minutes talking about how he came to terms with his alcoholism and worked to improve himself, Tom gave people like my dad a success story to resonate with and a little more hope during a difficult process."
Holland began his sobriety journey in 2022 after a “Dry January” challenge helped him realize how dependent he had become on alcohol.
When January ended, he decided to try a “Dry February,” too. When January rolled around again in 2023, he had gone 12 months without drinking.
“When I got through to the other side and achieved that first year marker and I felt rid of the hooks that alcohol had in me, I felt so fantastic,” he told Food & Wine in October 2024, around the release of his new non-alcoholic brand, BERO.
In the years since, Holland has been very vocal about his relationship with alcohol.
On June 2, Holland expanded on his sobriety in an episode of “Good Hang with Amy Poehler” and said that he was inspired to create BERO because he missed the social aspects of drinking.
“During that first year [of sobriety] I noticed that there were limited options for people like me that were looking for something that would scratch that itch, that would help to live or go to the bar and be a part of the social experience, but not feel like the only person with a lemonade,” Holland explained on the podcast.
He went on to say that BERO’s latest addition, a line of shandies, was added because he wanted to include his wife — and frequent co-star — Zendaya.
“The truth behind the shandies, which we’re bringing out this summer, is that Zee has never drank,” he said. “She’s never been a drinker.”
“She’s incredible,” Poehler replied instantly.
“She’s the best,” Holland agreed. “She’s never drank … which means she never found the taste for beer. She’s incredibly proud of BERO. It’s just — there is a missing link of like, she doesn’t enjoy the stuff that I'm trying to sell, right?”
“So my mom actually came up with the idea, and she said, you know, what if you did a shandy? Which is essentially half a beer and half a lemonade. Oh, and we have a grapefruit flavor, there’s lemon-lime, there’s blackberry yuzu, there’s elderflower.”
“It was a ploy to create something at the company that she could enjoy,” Holland laughed.
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Featured Image: Courtesy of Jami Male / Brut America
