Just in case anyone out there is keeping a formal list of Reasons Zendaya Is Amazing, please go ahead and add “she put up with Tom Holland having very bad hair for almost a year” to the official record.
Tom is currently making the rounds doing press to promote his new Apple TV+ series, The Crowded Room, which means new tidbits about his and Zendaya’s relationship for the rest of us. In an interview with Radio Times published earlier this month, Tom addressed the truly unfortunate hair he sports in the series, which is set in 1979.
The hair in question, in case you’ve managed to miss every single one of the billion or so ad spots Apple has been filling with the trailer, is dark brown (which was one of the things Tom liked least about it—he said in the interview that he prefers when his hair is “like my mom’s, kind of red”), with long-ish curls and a distinctly scraggly vibe that’s perfect for his “may-or-may-not-be-a-murderer” character in The Crowded Room, but isn’t an awesome style for real life. Even a beaming Tom Holland smile doesn’t really save the look:
Not only did Tom apparently actually grow and dye his hair for the role, he had to keep the look for almost a full year of filming. Which, as Tom pointed out, means his saint of a GF, Zendaya, had to look at the not-great-hair for almost a year.
“I think a large reason for that is when you make a film, it only takes four months, and that would be considered a long film. But The Crowded Room, it’s 10 months of playing this character, day in and day out. I really did find myself kind of morphing with him in certain moments. And obviously I had that crazy hairstyle,” he explained. “I had the bangs. Bless Zendaya, she had a lot to put up with; with me looking like that for 10 months, it was rough.”
Bless Zendaya indeed.
Kayleigh Roberts is the weekend editor at Cosmo, focused on celebrity news and royals. She’s a Ravenclaw who would do great things in Slytherin. To learn more about her, google “Leslie Knope eating salad GIF.”