The man of the moment
On television via the second season of his acclaimed series Atlanta, in the cinema as a young Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and through the airwaves with his Aria-chart-topping single “This Is America”, the video of which has garnered more than 233 million views on Youtube, Donald Glover, 34, dominates the current pop-culture conversation. WHO caught up with the modern-day renaissance man. In 2009, when you started playing student Troy Barnes on the sitcom Community, did you ever think you would be where you are now? No. I feel like I had to be way more confident than I ever was to be like [this] one day. I was happy to be there and I was happy to be able to watch Chevy Chase, and that person feels almost foreign to me now, and he was very innocent.
Nominated for a Grammy, winning two Emmy awards, you don’t seem to jump up and down. Are you by nature reserved?
I have just learnt that it’s a survival tactic, I think. [ Laughs] You don’t want to be the guy that goes, “Ahhh!” and then people are like, “I hate that guy.” I have just learnt to be gracious and none of this had to happen, and me winning things and making a hit song or whatever, it’s all made up. As much as it happened, it also couldn’t have happened, so it really humbles me.
Does the success of Atlanta’s Season 2 give you ideas for the third season?
The second season was darker, but it was also important to us to show that we could do that. And I think the third season will be our pop season, and I feel like that is where you go at that point and you do something new, you grow, and then you show everybody how big you can be.
One reviewer said, “Let’s see if he doesn’t get bored with Atlanta.” Are you getting bored with it?
I get bored with everything eventually. [ Laughs] I think that’s good and I think death is good. I really do. A death of passion, it allows for something else to happen. But right
now, it’s still very personal and I feel like there’s a certain chip on my shoulder to keep doing certain things, or breaking that and opening certain things. How do you keep up with your different projects? I don’t know. I don’t think I have ever been a really good multitasker. I think I give something 102 per cent when I am on it, and then I go to the next thing. In my room, I might have a laptop where I am listening to my music and working, and I also might have an outline on the wall. So they tend to influence each other. You’ve become a leading social commentator with your video and show commentaries. I feel very responsible in being a figure to speak somewhat the truth and trying to give people perspective. I don’t feel like it’s my job to rile people up only, but there is an honesty that I feel like I have to portray because otherwise I am not making art, I am just entertaining—which is fine, but I don’t want to be an entertainer. I would rather speak the truth to people. So what does “This Is America” represent for you? Now we are so connected, and rap is pop, and you go to London and we sound like that here, and we pick up on everybody’s feelings, and all these countries are going through the exact same thing at the exact same time, and this is the first time you can make a statement and say, “This is America” and everybody says, “Yeah, you’re talking about us, too,” which I think is important. So I can’t really explain the video or the song, but I love hearing what other people have to say, because I think that is what it is.