Why Zendaya Skipped the 2023 Golden Globes
The Golden Globes failed to win back Zendaya tonight, after two years of major snubs. Despite having a major nomination, Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama, the actress appeared to sit the ceremony out, not walking the red carpet. She even won the award, but as the presenters explained, she had other commitments that night. “She’s busy. She’s working, y’all,” they said when explaining why she wasn’t there to make a speech.
Zendaya won Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama for her work as Rue in season 2 of Euphoria. Her nod comes after she was infamously snubbed by the Globes for her Emmy-winning work in the show’s first season. She was also notoriously snubbed in 2021 for her performance in Malcolm & Marie and did not attend the ceremony at the time. She last attended the Globes in 2016.
Toward the show’s end, Zendaya shared a post on Instagram addressing her win an absence from the ceremony.
“I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to be there tonight, but I just wanted to say thank you to @goldenglobes for this incredible honor,” she wrote. “To my fellow nominees, it is a privilege to be named beside you, I admire you all deeply. Thank you to my Euphoria family, without you, none of this is possible. Lastly, thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has allowed Rue into theirs. I think everyone knows how much she means to me, but the fact that she can mean something to someone else is a gift. I’m honestly at a loss for words as I type this, all I can say is thank you thank you thank you. Goodnight♥️”
Prior to that post, Zendaya hadn’t commented on her decision to skip the Globes on her social media, but the actress has been shooting Dune: Part Two for months. The project wrapped production less than a month ago. She was last seen visiting her old school with her boyfriend Tom Holland in her hometown of Oakland during the holidays. Days later, she joined her Euphoria costars at a For Your Consideration event for the HBO series at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles.
Zendaya has been able to keep her personal life under the wraps when she wants, a recent change that she’s grateful for, which she discussed with Vogue Italia in a June 2022 interview.
She said, “Recently I’ve had more of a change happening in regards to reactions when I meet people or how people interact with me on a daily basis, because for so long I’ve been able to maintain a little bit of anonymity in a way where I could go off and do things and still live a pretty normal life. Of course it comes with new sets of challenges and pressures, but I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I started when I was quite young. So thankfully I’ve had a little bit of time to ease and grow my experience in a way that wasn’t just completely an overnight change. I’m always adjusting to it and trying to be grateful for it all in the end, because it means that people are clearly resonating with the work that I’m doing, and that means a lot to me.”
Senior News and Strategy Editor
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.