Tom Holland fans defend star from homophobic backlash after gay sex scene in The Crowded Room
Tom Holland’s NSFW gay sex scene in The Crowded Room sparked a huge reaction on social media. (Apple TV+)
Tom Holland has faced a wave of homophobic backlash after his NSFW gay sex scene in the latest episode of The Crowded Room.
Tom Holland has been at the centre of internet discourse for years. Whether he’s stealing audiences’ hearts with his adorable relationship with Euphoria icon Zendaya or his incredibly camp performance of “Umbrella” on Lip-Sync Battle, fascination with the 27-year-old Spider-Man star is showing no signs of slowing down.
Now, just weeks after Zendaya went viral for her steamy scenes in new film Challengers, her long-term partner Holland has done the same after starring in an explicit queer sex scene in Apple TV+’s new psychological thriller The Crowded Room.
Based on the true story of Billy Milligan, the first person acquitted of a crime due to dissociative identity disorder (DID), the 10-episode series follows suspected violent criminal Danny Sullivan (Holland) whose complicated past is uncovered by interrogator Rya Goodwin (Amanda Seyfried).
In the eighth episode of the show, titled “Reunion”, Danny goes to a nightclub and dances with a stranger, before heading to the bathroom for a hook-up.
Unfortunately, the scene instantly sparked backlash from trolls on social media, with many claiming that it’s “absolutely heinous” for Holland to depict gay sex since he plays a superhero in Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise, and is therefore a role model for young children.
Luckily, many of Holland’s fans instantly leapt to his defence.
“It only took Tom Holland doing one gay scene for Twitter to explode into homophobic rants, fragile masculinity and toxic behaviour. People need to find some peace, that hate is pathetic and quite literally killing young men,” one person wrote.
“Watching fragile cishet men have breakdowns over the reason Tom Holland is trending is sweet wine to me,” another tweeted. “Oh honey, you realise that he’s an ACTOR, right? He’s not ACTUALLY Spider-Man. He can take any roles he wants, yes, including queer ones. Now breathe deeply and touch some grass.”
“Straight men on the internet’s reaction to that Tom Holland clip just proves y’all see gay sex as nasty and degrading or a joke cus there is no way y’all should be acting like traumatised like this over a sex scene,” added a third.
Many others pointed out that Holland is not the only Spider-Man actor to play a gay role. Tobey Maguire starred in Wonder Boys (2000) opposite Robert Downey Jr, where the two play lovers, while Andrew Garfield played gay man Prior Walter in the production Angels in America.
Elsewhere, some viewers joked that the scene is the perfect revenge against Zendaya for her portrayal of a sexy love affair with tennis players Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor) in Challengers.
However, many are pointing out it is not a competition, and both actors are simply doing their jobs.
Mostly, people are raving about the brilliant scene, and Holland’s all-round award-worthy acting throughout the twisted psychological crime series.
The first eight episodes of The Crowded Room are available to stream on Apple TV+. Episode nine drops on Friday 21 July.
