Donald Glover, who hasn’t been doing much press since the premiere of his stellar new FX series Atlanta, recently popped into The Ellen Show and discussed the legendary role he just landed in the next Star Wars.
Recalling the moment he learned that he got the part of a young Lando Calrissian, Glover reminisced to Ellen about his childhood and how the first toy he ever had was a Lando action figure. “It’s a very big deal,” he says. “There’s this thing going around the internet of me in a Star Wars t-shirt when I was in high school, so it’s been a long thing.”
Once he landed the gig, Glover says, “I told my dad immediately. He was like, ‘Aww.’” Meanwhile, his mom had the classic mom reaction to her son’s future reclamation of an iconic character made famous by Billy Dee Williams. “My mom was in the [background], she was like, ‘Don’t mess it up! Don’t mess this up.’ ‘Cause Billy Dee is like, that’s hers.”
Amid the success of Atlanta, Glover has done little to no on-camera interviews promoting the show. Here, he briefly talks to Ellen about its gestation. “I just wanted to make Twin Peaks with rappers, which at the time, people were like, ‘I don’t know what that is,’” he says.
DISCUSSION
Atlanta is just absolutely insanely good for a first-season show. It’s firing on all cylinders and feels like a show at a third season peak. It is positively crazy that he can be that good on his first try at running his own show.
And honestly I think he’ll be fantastic as Lando, though I’m a small bit concerned he may not have the smooth sensuality of Billy Dee Williams.