Zendaya set to make her Met Gala comeback on May 6 — but that doesn’t mean she isn’t nervous about it.
Appearing on “Live with Kelly and Mark” on Tuesday, the actress, 27, said that while she’s excited for Vogue’s big fashion event — which she hasn’t attend since 2019 — she also finds the whole experience to be somewhat “terrifying.”
“Going up the steps is very daunting, and I haven’t been back for maybe four or five years,” she revealed on the show. “So this is, like, my first time back at the Met in quite a while.”
Still, it’ll be quite the triumphant return for the “Euphoria” star.
Zendaya honors Venus and Serena Williams’ 1998 Vogue photoshoot with beaded braids and black-and-white gown
All of Zendaya’s tennis-themed ‘Challengers’ red carpet looks that serve
Serving style: All of Zendaya’s tennis-themed ‘Challengers’ red carpet looks
This year, she’s set to serve as Met Gala co-chair alongside the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, and Chris Hemsworth, meaning that she’s one of the faces of the event and will be among the first to arrive at the Anna Wintour event, greeting other A-listers on the museum steps.
She also scored the May cover of Vogue magazine ahead of the big day, posing in a series of stunning photos that incorporated this year’s “garden of time” dress code with fantastical floral looks.
Zendaya made her debut on the Met steps in 2015, showing up on the carpet in a red and black Fausto Puglisi dress that featured embellished sun motifs throughout for the “China: Through the Looking Glass”-themed event.
She’s continued to top her looks year after year — including her memorable ode to Joan of Arc for 2018’s “Heavenly Bodies” theme — and in 2019, the former Disney star wowed the crowd in transforming, light-up Cinderella gown, which nailed the night’s theme, “Camp: Notes on Fashion.”
Speaking about Zendaya’s impeccable sense of style, Ripa noted that “designers must fight to the death” to dress her, since “everybody” wants their dress on the star.
And, although Zendaya stayed tight-lipped on what she’ll be wearing for 2024’s theme, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” she did shout out her longtime stylist, Law Roach, with whom she’s been working with since she was 14.
“You’ll have to talk to Law about that,” she told Ripa in response, as the host insisted that she already knew it was true due to “inside sources.”
“It’s fun in the sense that I like to look at fashion as creativity. Even in press tours, it’s a way to continue the creativity from the film or from the whatever,” she said.
“And I like to just create characters, because ultimately sometimes, doing this for a living feels a little weird and awkward and I’m more of a shy, introverted person, so I get to create these characters.
I’m like, ‘I’m this woman today who wears a green suit.’ And you get to embody this character for a day and clothes can do that for you,” the star concluded.
In recent weeks, Zendaya has been channeling her character from her new movie “Challengers,” which premieres this Friday, paying tribute to the tennis theme with a variety of sporty ensembles, including racquet-embellished dresses and heels with tennis balls on them.
