Marlon Wayans explains why he mispronounced so many names during Golden Globes event

Marlon Wayans has defended himself after being slammed for mispronouncing the names of several Golden Globe nominees.

This week the actor, comedian and producer was tasked with announcing the nominations for the upcoming awards alongside Matlock actress Skye P. Marshall.

However, throughout the live broadcast he noticeably struggled – failing to pronounce the names of a string of people.

Among the names Marlon, 53, mispronounced were best male actor nominee Joel Edgerton – for the film Train Dreams – and Elle Fanning, who received a nomination for best supporting actress in Sentimental Value.

Other names he tripped over included Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson, who was nominated for his work on Sinners, and director Jafar Panahi, who picked up two nominations for his film It Was Just An Accident.

During the broadcast, Marlon also stumbled over the names of the composers to the KPop Demon Hunters song Golden – Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo, Park Hong Jun, Kim Eun-jae (Ejae) and Mark Sonnenblick.

After struggling to read that list of names he tried to lighten the mood and joked: ‘Somebody’s mama at home right now going, “What, who?”.’

A few days on Marlon – who is best known for his work on movies and shows including The Wayans Bros., the Scary Movie franchise and White Chicks – has explained why he seemed underprepared.

Speaking to Variety, the actor said he was only given ‘three minutes beforehand’ to prepare, adding of the nominees: ‘I’m not sure a lot of them know that they were nominated.’

However, those watching on at home at the time weren’t that sympathetic.

‘Sorry to all the hard-working artists and film industry people who made dreams come true today just for Marlon Wayans to slaughter and butcher all your names,’ user madrouterx posted on X.

‘Marlon Wayans butchering every single name like no matter what language,’ adnelora commented.

‘Marlon Wayans should have practiced some of the names. I love him but man some of the pronunciations were so bad. Man said “edd-garton”,’ _LOHI_ pointed out.

‘Marlon Wayans’ inability to get a single name right should be studied, _ joanissima added.

Also speaking to Variety following the announcement of nominees at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on Monday, Skye said she’d been on edge about making similar mistakes herself – so had practiced her pronunciations of top contenders ahead of the event.

‘I love the festival season, and so a lot of the buzzworthy projects and creatives were already top on my list as far as my projections, because I’m a fan,’ she said.

‘So, when the Golden Globes called to ask me to actually say the nominee names on television, I was extremely nervous.’

She continued: ‘I just don’t like not knowing people’s names. Because I value the breakthrough, I want to make sure I’m saying Lee Byung-Hun properly and with confidence. Because I know his work, not just because I learned the pronunciation.’

However, Skye went on to say that she sympathised with her co-host’s mistakes.

‘Marlon is so comfortable and so confident, and he understands that this is all for fun. And maybe I need to lighten up. He’s a veteran, right? And I’m arriving to this stage for the first time.’

Addressing the blunders, Golden Globe executive Glenn Weiss went on to share his thoughts watching it play out: ‘I was sitting there so uneasy, thinking to myself, “Wow, she got some really easy names, and he got all the hard names together!”. But, you know, that’s proof that we don’t know what the nominations are!’

Meanwhile executive producer Ricky Kirshner added: ‘That’s why I’m glad I’m not doing the announcement.’

After the nominations were announced, the Golden Globes will be hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser on Sunday, January 11.

Leading the way with nine nods is Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, followed by Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value with eight. Meanwhile, The White Lotus’ six nominations sees it leading the charge in the TV category.

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