Donald Glover and his fellow writers for FX series “Atlanta” recently recalled being racially harassed while shooting the show’s final season in London.
Writer and executive producer Stephen Glover — Donald’s younger brother — revealed during a TCA press conference this week that the staffers were approached by a group of blokes while filming, initially engaging them in a seemingly innocent conversation.
“This group of people walks up,” Stephen, 31, began. “And maybe one of them kind of notices Donald or recognizes him. And she stops, and they start asking if they know anywhere around here to get something to drink. I think we were talking to them for a second. It’s this girl and two or three guys.”
It was then that one of the guys in the group said the crew could probably break into a bar because “you guys all carry hammers,” with hammers being slang for guns.
A writers room including brothers Stephen and Donald Glover pen FX hit “Atlanta.” AFP via Getty Images“Mind you, all of the writers on ‘Atlanta’ are Black,” Stephen added. “So, he’s making a reference that we all have hammers, and we can just break into this place, which we kind of ignored.
“It was so insulting, but not insulting at the same time because it took us five minutes to fully understand,” he continued. “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.”
One of the guys then instructed their female friend to run away because she could be “raped”
“The girl was literally, like, ‘I’m sorry,’ as she’s being taken away,” Stephen said. “So, it was pretty bad.”
The cast of “Atlanta.” FXShow creator Donald then added, “We are just standing there, like, ‘What just happened?’”
The crew have been shooting the third and fourth seasons of “Atlanta” concurrently, and have just confirmed that the show’s fourth season will be its last.
