Tom Holland has starred in some of the biggest movies ever made. He has fought alongside the Avengers, swung through New York City as Spider-Man, and held his own against Hollywood legends. Yet one live stage terrifies him completely.
Saturday Night Live has asked Holland to host multiple times. Each time, he said no. On June 2, 2026, he finally explained why on Amy Poehler’s podcast Good Hang. The answer surprised a lot of people.
A superstar with stage roots
Tom Holland was born on June 1, 1996, in Kingston upon Thames, England. Before he ever put on a Spider-Man suit, he was a trained dancer and stage performer with serious theatrical credentials built from childhood.
At age ten, a choreographer spotted his talent at the 2006 Richmond Dance Festival. After eight auditions and two years of training, Holland made his West End debut in Billy Elliot the Musical. His career was already in motion.
From Billy Elliot to the MCU
Holland debuted in Billy Elliot the Musical on June 28, 2008, first playing Billy’s best friend Michael. He stepped into the title role of Billy on September 8, 2008, and earned strong critical praise for his acrobatic and emotional performance.
He made his film debut in The Impossible in 2012, playing a boy surviving a devastating tsunami. His raw performance earned critical praise and stood out even beside established stars like Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor.
The Spider-Man legacy
In 2016, Marvel cast Holland as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War. He became the youngest actor to play a title role in an MCU solo film with Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017. His career has never slowed down since then.
Holland has appeared as Spider-Man in six Marvel movies so far. His upcoming film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, wrapped production in December 2025. It is scheduled for release on July 31, 2026.
SNL keeps calling his name
Saturday Night Live is one of the most iconic television institutions in America. Hosting it is considered a career milestone. Some celebrities have done it many times. Scarlett Johansson leads all female hosts with seven appearances total. Tom Hanks has hosted ten times.
Marvel stars like Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt have both taken on SNL with ease. Robert Downey Jr. was even a cast member during the show’s eleventh season from 1985 to 1986. Holland’s situation, however, is entirely different from all of them.
The Marvel stars who never showed up
Holland is not alone in skipping SNL. His fiancée and Spider-Man co-star Zendaya has never hosted the show. Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo have also never appeared as hosts on the long-running NBC sketch comedy series.
Still, Holland’s case stands out. He has actually been invited. SNL has approached him a few times over the years. He wanted to say yes. He loves the show. But something always stopped him from agreeing to step on that stage.
The real reason he keeps saying no
On June 2, 2026, Holland joined Amy Poehler on her podcast Good Hang and finally opened up. He revealed that he has never hosted SNL because of one deeply personal and ongoing challenge he faces every single day.
Holland told Poehler he is heavily dyslexic. SNL relies heavily on hand-written cue cards that change frequently during the live broadcast. For Holland, the thought of reading those cards on live television is genuinely terrifying and overwhelming.
Diagnosed at seven years old
Holland was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of seven. His biggest struggle was spelling. His parents were supportive and encouraging throughout. They moved him to a private school that could offer better resources and individual attention for his needs.
Dyslexia affects reading, writing, and spelling. According to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, it affects roughly twenty percent of the population. It accounts for eighty to ninety percent of all people who have learning disabilities worldwide.
How he manages on set every day
Holland has developed specific strategies to cope with his dyslexia on set. Before any table read, he highlights his script thoroughly and memorizes his lines in advance. This means he is skimming the page rather than truly reading it cold.
He told Poehler that his worst day at work is always the table read. Reading aloud triggers a mental block that causes him to freeze. SNL’s constantly changing cue cards make that exact scenario unavoidable. That is what scares him most.
ADHD adds another layer
Holland also lives with ADHD and spoke publicly about it for the first time in 2025. He told IGN that having both ADHD and dyslexia can make developing a new character feel intimidating when starting from a blank canvas with no structure.
He shared that playful and creative approaches help him manage both conditions. He even uses LEGO sets during character development to stimulate lateral thinking. For Holland, working with his neurodivergent brain requires imagination and flexible problem-solving every single day.
Amy Poehler had a few words
Poehler was not about to let Holland off the hook entirely. She reminded him that SNL has seen many dyslexic hosts over its fifty-one seasons. She assured him that the show had dealt with far more difficult guests and situations before.
Then came her now-famous encouragement. She told him point-blank that people have hosted SNL while fully on drugs. So surely he could manage with dyslexia. Holland laughed and asked exactly who those people were. The internet loved every second of it.
What fans are saying
Holland’s honesty resonated deeply with fans and educators alike. People with dyslexia flooded social media praising him for speaking openly about the condition. Many noted that his candor helps break down stigma around learning differences in highly public spaces.
One commenter captured it perfectly. Holland did not say he could not read the cards. He said it makes him nervous. Speed reading under pressure is a different skill entirely. He should not have to master that skill just for a television show.
Featured Image: Photo by Gage Skidmore on Wikimedia Commons
