HENRY I live in Harlem, and I’ve lived there for seven years. There’s this dude who lives upstairs, and I’ve seen him all the time on the elevator. All the time. Never speak. And then all of a sudden, he’s like: “You live here? That’s really great — congratulations!” And then I find out that he posted on Facebook: “Just found out that Paper Boi lives downstairs from me.” I’ve lived here for seven years! And don’t tell everybody!
Season 1 ended up being this great poaching ground for the actors — you have Marvel movies, Disney movies.
BEETZ We all sold out. [Laughter]
Does making that leap from underground sensation give you a different understanding of this more intimate project, where you have your fingerprints on everything?
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DONALD GLOVER For me, it’s about understanding death. Those big things are not trying to die. They’re fighting tooth and nail to stay alive and be relevant. I’m not saying they’re bad — sometimes they are. But they’re not sitting there like, “Is this movie good?” They’re like, “Is this movie going to sell blankets?”
That’s a lot of what this season is about — survival. Me and Hiro never talk about how we’re going to get to Season 7. We’re never worried. If FX canceled us tomorrow, I would be like, “Dope.” I really wouldn’t be sad at all. All these people would still be my friends. And we made good things.
Black popular culture is thriving right now, with “Black Panther,” “Get Out,” shows like “black-ish,” “The Chi,” “Insecure.” How do you make sure to sustain the momentum of this moment for black creators?
STANFIELD We don’t have to worry about that.
DONALD GLOVER That is not our problem. That is not our job. Our job is to make great things and happen to be black. That’s it.
Is it a moment of actual, lasting change?
HENRY When people say “moment,” that makes me twitch a little. I don’t want anything to be a moment. I want to be here and have our place in the pantheon. Avenues are finally open.
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Because so many people latched onto the surrealist moments in “Atlanta,” did you feel the need to live up to them?
STEPHEN GLOVER Instead of chasing the idea of what the people want — the same thing — we thought of it as, people were receptive to these crazy ideas, so now we know anything is possible. Our ideas can be even more crazy.
You’ve had a run of great cameos — Migos, Jaleel White, Katt Williams in the new season. How many people did you have to turn down this time around?
STEPHEN GLOVER [Laughs] There were a lot of people who wanted to be in this season, of course. But it’s also one of those things where everybody’s saying, “Oh yeah, I’ll do it.” And then you’re like, “All right, be here at this time.” And it’s: “Oh, actually …” I remember Chris Rock told me, once people like him start asking to be on the show, don’t let anybody do it.
You also touched on a lot of sensitive debates in Season 1 — transgender issues, obviously race, police brutality, gun culture. In this moment, where even someone like Dave Chappelle is getting dragged for certain jokes, did you ever worry about what you can or can’t say?
STEPHEN GLOVER With our show, we talk about being real. With the Montague episode [a debate over race and gender on a Charlie Rose-like talk show], we were just trying to show a real thing, and it wasn’t about being preachy. It’s just reflecting the world we live in.
DONALD GLOVER To pretend like there is not racism, colorism, sexism, killing, all the worst parts of humanity in that area is doing a disservice to black people and humanity. If you don’t like some of the [expletive] that’s in the show, stop taking music out of our schools, stop making money out of our areas.
I just think that’s a problem millennials have — things should be this way. [Holds up iPhone] In order for you to even have this phone, a slave had to make it. Confront that. Deal with that. Don’t sit here and be like, we should censor it and make everything beautiful. Because it’s not beautiful out here.
That’s a white problem, to be honest. I don’t think any black person is watching the show being like, “You can’t do that.” It’s: “Yeah, that’s my uncle.” Or: “Yeah, that’s some real [expletive].” I don’t have to clean that up for you. You have to deal with the fact that that’s out there. I can’t change that, really. I can just show you.
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Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/arts/television/atlanta-fx-season-2.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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