Sam Claflin didn’t win a Golden Globe for his role on Daisy Jones & the Six, but he did earn the approval of Stevie Nicks, which felt even more special.
“Stevie Nicks reached out personally, which to me, is [like] I’ve won already,” the 37-year-old told E! News at the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, on Sunday, January 7. “I don’t care about winning tonight. I feel like that recognition, to me, means the world.”
Claflin revealed that Nicks, 75, praised his “heartbreaking” performance on the Prime Video series, which debuted in March 2023. “She sent me a bunch of flowers,” he added. “I arrived to L.A. with this note. … So I feel very smug right now, very, very blessed.”
In the adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid‘s novel of the same name, Claflin starred as Billy Dunne, lead singer of Daisy Jones & the Six. The series followed the group’s rocky rise to becoming one of the biggest rock bands of the ’70s and their dramatic falling out. Riley Keough starred as Daisy Jones, with Suki Waterhouse, Will Harrison, Josh Whitehouse and Sebastian Chacon rounding out the rest of the band. Camila Morrone starred as Camila Alvarez, Billy’s wife and the band’s photographer.
Reid’s book is loosely inspired by Fleetwood Mac and the recording of their hit record Rumours. The comparisons continued when Keough and Claflin brought Daisy and Billy to life on screen, their relationship somewhat echoing that of Nicks and bandmate Lindsey Buckingham.
Nicks has been outspoken in her praise of the show. “Just finished watching Daisy Jones + the 6 for the 2nd time. In the beginning, it wasn’t really my story, but Riley seamlessly, soon became my story,” she wrote via Instagram in August 2023. “It brought back memories that made me feel like a ghost watching my own story. It was very emotional for me. … Hopefully it will continue.”
Nicks noted at the time that her late friend and fellow Fleetwood Mac member Christine McVie “would have loved” the series. (McVie died in November 2022 at age 79.)
In October 2023, Nicks pointed out the “simple” detail in Keough and Claflin’s chemistry that reminded her so much of herself and Buckingham. “It was the kind of snappy sarcasm between Daisy and Billy, who in my mind was like me and Lindsey,” she told Vulture. “It was the back-and-forth between the two of them. It was so good. It was so real, and it was really so right on.”
She added: “When two people capture the essence of something that reminds you of your life, it’s not like you go, ‘They look just like us,’ or ‘They dress just like us.’ It’s something else. It’s a certain feeling that they got when they would look at each other after being in an argument, and then they’d start to sing. It would blow your mind.”
Daisy Jones & The Six was nominated for Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film at Sunday’s Golden Globes, ultimately losing to Beef. Claflin and Keough lost their respective nods to lead actors from the Netflix series, Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, who became the first Asian American stars to win in the limited series categories.