Rose Byrne is looking back at her Golden Globe speech with a mix of humor and mild regret—especially when it comes to one very specific detail involving Bobby Cannavale and a reptile expo.
The Australian actress won her first Golden Globe last month for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and surprised viewers when she revealed that Cannavale skipped the ceremony to attend a reptile expo in New Jersey to buy a bearded dragon. The comment instantly went viral, with many assuming the outing was purely his personal hobby.
Now, Byrne says that wasn’t the full story.
“Never in my life will I announce something like that on a major awards show again,” she told The New York Times in an interview published Feb. 22. According to Byrne, Cannavale wasn’t indulging his own reptile fascination—he was keeping a promise to their children. “Everyone was thinking it’s for Bobby. It’s not! It’s for our children,” she clarified.
Before the Globes, Byrne had even joked on The Tonight Show about the unfortunate scheduling conflict between the ceremony and the reptile expo, saying it would feel like a “parent fail” if they didn’t follow through on getting the lizard for their sons. “So we’re doing it,” she said at the time. “I’m on board for the dragon. It’s gonna be great.”
As for the speech itself, Byrne admitted she was completely unprepared after her surprise win. She later felt she had forgotten to properly thank several people involved in the A24 film, which she quipped was shot in just 25 days “for like $8.50.” She described herself as “totally out of my depth and inarticulate,” texting friends afterward to apologize for missed shoutouts.
Thankfully, she had some reassurance from co-star Conan O’Brien, who told her the speech was just right. “No one wants to hear someone bang on for hours,” Byrne recalled him saying, adding that he’s since become something of an “unofficial life coach.”
