Donald Glover and the writing team of hit series “Atlanta” said they were racially harassed while filming the show’s long-awaited third season. While speaking to reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour, writer and executive producer Stephen Glover recounted the disturbing incident, which occurred on their first day abroad.
According to Stephen, the “Atlanta” crew had been standing outside of a bar in London when they were approached by a group of one woman and two or three men, who asked if they knew of any bars in the area. During the chat, one of the guys in the group randomly alleged that they were carrying “hammers” aka guns and could break into the bar before making a few more racially-related assumptions.
“Mind you, all of the writers on ‘Atlanta’ are Black. So, he’s making a reference that we all have hammers, and we can just break into this place, which we kind of ignored,” said Stephen. “It was so insulting, but not insulting at the same time because it took us five minutes to fully understand. He got to a point of like if the insinuation was lost on us, he got specific and he was like, ‘You guys are Black, you’ve gone to jail and you do things like that.’ Like he kept doubling down on it.”
The man eventually grabbed the woman amid her conversation with the writers, insisting that the crew was going to rape her. “She’s talking to us. And then, after a minute, the guy just runs back down the street and grabs her and throws her over his shoulder, and he’s like, ‘Run. They are going to rape you, like, rape you,'” said Stephen. “The girl was literally, like, ‘I’m sorry,’ as she’s being taken away. So, it was pretty bad.”
“We are just standing there, like, ‘What just happened?’” Donald chimed in, concluding the conversation.
The “Atlanta” crew is promoting the forthcoming season, which will see characters “Earn (Donald Glover), Alfred / Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) and Van (Zazie Beetz) in the midst of a successful European tour,” and struggling to “adjust to the newfound success they had aspired to.” After the 10-episode run, the series will be followed by a fourth season, which will end the entire series.