Tom Holland explains how his dyslexia has prevented him hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’
Tom Holland has opened up about his struggles with dyslexia, revealing that the condition has prevented him from hosting Saturday Night Live.
The Odyssey star was diagnosed with dyslexia at age seven, and has often publicly discussed his experience with the neurodevelopmental condition that primarily impacts reading, writing and spelling.
Speaking with Saturday Night Live legend Amy Poehler on the Good Hang podcast, Holland discussed how his experience being “heavily dyslexic” doesn’t lend well to the world of live sketch comedy.
“I’m heavily dyslexic, which is one of the reasons why – and I’d love to talk to you today about it, actually – I’ve never done SNL,” he explained.
Poehler concurred that “many dyslexics” have said the same thing previously, due to the nature of swiftly reading cue cards held off-screen.
Holland went on, “I’m just so petrified at the concept of, like, trying to read something and they change.”
The Spider-Man star clarified that he can “read fine,” but the problem begins “when I have to read out loud, it just becomes, a kind of… it’s like a mental block, and I can freeze.”
The 30-year-old admitted to feeling “lucky” that he has been asked several times to do it, but he is “just really scared at the prospect”. Fellow Marvel star Mark Ruffalo has said the same thing in the past, admitting that the prospect “just scared the living shit out of me”.
Holland added, “I love the show, and I love the idea of having fun and making a fool of yourself in such a fun, creative way. It’s just that thing of the cue cards.”
The issue recurs elsewhere in his career, most notably at the start of a project, when he is doing read-throughs of the script.
“My worst day at work is the read-through,” he confessed. “At the read-through, I will really try and highlight everything and learn my lines ahead of time, so that I’m more kind of skimming it than I am reading.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, Holland singled out Janet Jackson as one of the key influences on his career, deeming the performer “electric“.
Though he’s never met Jackson, he gushed, “To be perfectly honest with you, if you ask me to list five people who have been integral in the success of my career, she would be one of them.”
The British actor has a busy summer ahead in 2026, starring as Telemachus, the son of Matt Damon’s Odysseus, in the upcoming Christopher Nolan epic The Odyssey, which is set for a July 17th release.
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