Donald Glover Archives

Review: ‘Mufasa: The Lion King,’ starring the voices of Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tiffany Boone, Mads Mikkelsen, John Kani, Preston Nyman, Thandiwe Newton and Lennie James

December 21, 2024

by Carla Hay

Mufasa (voiced by Aaron Pierre) and Taka (voiced by Kelvin Harrison Jr.) in “Mufasa: The Lion King” (Image courtesy of Disney Enterprises Inc.)

Directed by Barry Jenkins

Culture Representation: Taking place in Africa, the animated film “Mufasa: The Lion King” (a prequel to “The Lion King” movies) features a cast of characters portraying talking animals.

Culture Clash: The origin story of future lion king patriarch Mufasa is told, including how he battled a pride of lion invaders and was betrayed by his adoptive brother.

Culture Audience: “Mufasa: The Lion King” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of “The Lion King” franchise and animated films that are formulaic and don’t do anything innovative.

Kiros (voiced by Mads Mikkelsen) in “Mufasa: The Lion King” (Image courtesy of Disney Enterprises Inc.)

The animated musical “Mufasa: The Lion King” delivers the expected eye-catching visuals, but the story, dialogue and songs are underwhelming and tedious. This disappointing prequel lazily copies the formula of other “Lion King” films. Considering the large production budget and award-winning talent involved for “Mufasa: The Lion King,” this hollow film is an example of too many wasted and missed opportunities.

Directed by Barry Jenkins and written by Jeff Nathanson, “Mufasa: The Lion King” tells the origin story of royal lion Mufasa, who is a stereotypical heroic character. Mufasa died near the beginning of “The Lion King” movies, as seen in the 1994 original “The Lion King” movie and 2019 remake. Mufasa’s unexpected death (by falling down a gorge) made his son/only child Simba a runaway because Simba blamed himself for Mufasa’s death. Mufasa was actually murdered, and the killer went on the hunt to murder Simba. It’s assumed that most people watching “Mufasa: The Lion King” saw a “Lion King” movie that told Simba’s origin story. Anyone unfamiliar with Simba’s story will feel a bit lost and confused by the beginning of “Mufasa: The Lion King.”

“Mufasa: The Lion King” begins with a caption announcing that the movie is dedicated to actor James Earl Jones, the original voice of Mufasa in the previous “Lion King” movies. (Jones died in September 2024, at the age of 93.) “Mufasa: The Lion King” then has an opening scene showing that adult Simba (voiced by Donald Glover), his love partner Nala (voiced by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter) and their cub daughter Kiara (voiced by Blue Ivy Carter) are living as a happy family somewhere in Africa. An elderly, wise mandrill named Rafiki (voiced by John Kani), who was a trusted ally of Mufasa, notices that Kiara is afraid of an expected rainstorm.

Rafiki tries to comfort Kiara by telling her that Kiara’s legendary grandfather king Mufasa used to be afraid of storms too, when Mufasa was about Kiara’s age. Rafiki then tells Kiara the story of Mufasa when Mufasa was a child and a young adult. This story and flashback scenes are the basis of much of “Mufasa: The Lion King.” Returning characters from “The Lion King” movies are two of Simba’s wisecracking friends: goofy warthog Pumbaa (voiced by Seth Rogen) and sarcastic meerkat Timon (voiced by Billy Eichner), who hang around to listen to Rafiki’s storytelling about Mufasa.

Mufasa’s origin story is almost an exact replica of Simba’s origin story. Mufasa as a cub (voiced by Braelyn Rankins) had a happy childhood and was his parents’ only child, until he was separated from his biological family for years and had to find his own identity as a young adult. “Mufasa: The Lion King” has one of the same villains as the original “Lion King” story, but “Mufasa: The Lion King” adds another villain to elongate the already predictable plot. The main difference between the two origin stories is that Mufasa was separated from his family because of a natural disaster, while Simba was separated from his family because Simba ran away after Simba’s father Mufasa died.

In “Mufasa: The Lion King,” cub Mufasa was living in bliss with his parents Masego (voiced by Keith David) and Afia (voiced by Anika Noni Rose), whose goal was to find the promised land of Milele, so the family could live in Milele. Mufasa’s parents describe Milele as a paradise-like place where resources are plentiful and animals live in harmony in “the circle of life.” Milele is a place that some animals believe is real, while others think Milele is a mythical place that doesn’t exist.

The family’s plans to find Milele are interrupted during a flash flood that causes Mufasa to nearly drown in a cascading river. As a result of this flood, Mufasa is separated from his parents and can’t find them. A crocodile almost attacks Mufasa, but he is rescued by another cub named Taka (voiced by Theo Somolu), who is a prince of his pride of lions. Mufasa doesn’t know how to find his parents, so Taka (who is about the same age as Mufasa) takes Mufasa back to Taka’s home, which is a place called Pride Lands.

Taka’s parents—stern father Obasi (voiced by Lennie James) and compassionate mother Eshe (voiced by Thandiwe Newton)—have very different reactions to Mufasa. Obasi, who is very distrustful of outsiders, is reluctant to accept Mufasa into the pride. Eshe is more open to accepting Mufasa, especially when Taka openly expresses that he has always wanted a brother. (The utterly bland song “I Always Wanted a Brother” is performed in this part of the movie.)

Obasi tells Mufasa that Mufasa can only live with this pride of lions if Mufasa wins in a speed race against Taka. Mufasa wins the race because Taka deliberately lets Mufasa win—and Taka doesn’t let Mufasa forget it. Obasi also tells Taka never to trust Mufasa because Taka is Obasi’s rightful heir. It’s the first indication that although Taka wants Mufasa as a brother, Taka expects to inherit the kingdom from Obasi. Even with this “victory,” Mufasa s still treated with suspicion by Obasi, who orders that Mufasa has to spend time with the females of the pride.

“Mufasa: The Lion King” then has a series scenes showing that despite Obasi’s wariness of Mufasa, Taka went against his father’s wishes and became very close to Mufasa, who became just like a brother to Taka. The movie then abruptly segues to the young-adult phase of Mufasa (voiced by Aaron Pierre) and Taka (voiced by Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who are still the best of friends at this point in the story. They hunt together and protect each other.

However, there is some tension in the relationship because Mufasa has been outshining Taka because Mufasa has an extraordinary sense of smell, and Mufasa is overall more courageous than Taka. Mufasa is also considered more physically attractive than Taka: Mufasa has a full mane and is muscular, while Taka has a scraggly mane and is somewhat scrawny.

Mufasa’s keen senses are why he can detect the impending invasion of a group of villainous white lions called the Outsiders, led by the ruthless Kiros (voiced by Mads Mikkelsen), who want to take over the land occupied by Obasi’s pride of lions. Kiros has two sisters who are his warrior sidekicks: Akua (voiced by Joanna Jones) and Amara (voiced by Folake Olowofoyeku), who both have personalities that are indistinguishable from the other. You know what happens next: Mufasa and Taka join forces with the rest of their pride to fight against the Outsiders.

Meanwhile, a bit of a love triangle develops when Mufasa and Taka meet a young adult lioness named Sarabi (voiced by Tiffany Boone), who has two sidekick friends: young Rafiki (voiced by Kagiso Lediga) and a talkative hornbill named Zazu (voiced by Preston Nyman), who is Sarabi’s scout. Sarabi becomes a warrior ally to Mufasa and Taka. And even if you’ve never seen the original “Lion King” movie, it’s very easy to predict which lion brother will eventually win Sarabi’s love. Rafiki also has a special friend: a baboon named Junia (voiced by Thuso Mbedu), who will be forgotten by most viewers by the time the movie is over.

If the introduction of all these new characters sounds a bit overcrowded, that’s because it is. Sarabi’s brave-but-gentle personality is almost identical to Nala’s personality. Zazu is an utterly generic chatterbox. Kiros is every single cliché of a cartoon animal villain. Mikkelsen tries to give the Kiros character some sort of charisma, but his performance is hampered by drab dialogue.

One of the biggest problems with “Mufasa: The Lion King” is that even if you never saw any “Lion King” movie, it’s common knowledge in pop culture that Mufasa had a brother named Scar, who betrayed Mufasa and became a villain because Scar was jealous of Mufasa. In “Mufasa: The Lion King,” Taka is obviously the original name of Scar, although the movie tries to pay coy about it, as if it’s some big secret. Most viewers already know that Taka is a duplicitous villain, so there is no real surprise when the moment comes in “Mufasa: The Lion King” when Taka is revealed to be a villain.

“Mufasa: The Lion King” eventually shows how and why Taka’s name was changed to Scar, but this tidbit of information does not change the monotony of the story. The action scenes aren’t as thrilling as they could be. And the movie just can’t overcome the clunky and boring conversations. Pumbaa and Timon, the only “Lion King” characters with a lively rapport, are sidelined in “Mufasa: The Lion King,” which makes Pumbaa and Timon more annoying than amusing.

And unlike many other Disney animated musicals, “Mufasa: The Lion King” has absolutely no songs that are destined to be classics or winners of major awards. Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Hamilton,” “Moana,” “Encanto”) wrote the six original songs in “Mufasa: The Lion King” that have lyrics: “Milele”; “I Always Wanted a Brother” (co-written by Nicholas Britell, the composer of “Mufasa: The Lion King”); “Bye Bye”; “We Go Together”; “Tell Me It’s You”; and “Brother Betrayed.” None of these songs comes close to being as memorable as the Oscar-winning 1994 “Lion King” song: “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” written by Elton John and Tim Rice. Britell’s musical score for “Mufasa: The Lion King” is serviceable but not outstanding, compared to Hans Zimmer’s score for the original “Lion King” movie.

Here’s an example of why “Mufasa: The Lion King” has a poorly written screenplay: When elder Rafiki is telling the origin story of Mufasa, the movie cuts to interludes showing Rafiki being interrupted by Pumbaa and Timon, who complain and don’t understand why they aren’t part of the story too—even though Pumbaa and Timon didn’t even know Mufasa. Pumbaa also weirdly keeps guessing out loud if Taka is really going to be revealed as a young Pumbaa. It makes absolutely no sense. “Mufasa: The Lion King” director Jenkins won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for 2016’s “Moonlight.” We’ll never know how “Mufasa: The Lion King” would have been like if Jenkins also wrote the screenplay for “Mufasa: The Lion King.”

“Mufasa: The Lion King” is a prequel that expects viewers to know a lot about Simba’s “Lion King” story, which is why the beginning of “Mufasa: The Lion King” is so jumbled when re-introducing familiar characters. But at the same time, “Mufasa: The Lion King” also drags out the obvious “reveal” that Taka is really Scar, the villain lion who became an enemy of Mufasa and Simba. Everything else in “Mufasa: The Lion King” is really just a distraction that leads up to this reveal. The voice cast members are talented and do the best they can, but “Mufasa: The Lion King” is ultimately a shallow retread of 1994’s vastly superior “The Lion King.”

Walt Disney Pictures released “Mufasa: The Lion King” in U.S. cinemas on December 20, 2024.

Review: ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,’ starring the voices of Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac, Issa Rae, Jake Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry and Luna Lauren Velez

May 31, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”

Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Power and Justin K. Thompson

Some language in Spanish with no subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City and in the fictional multiverse called the Spider-Verse, the superhero animated film “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” features a racially diverse cast of characters (black, white and Latino) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: American teenager Miles Morales, who is one of many spider characters in the Spider-Verse, encounters various heroes and villains in the Spider-Verse.

Culture Audience: Besides appealing to the obvious target audience of comic book movie fans, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching animated movies that have an inconsistent visual style and a very muddled plot.

Jessica Drew (voiced by Issa Rae), Gwen Stacy (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld), Peter B. Parker (voiced by Jake Johnson) and his daughter Mayday in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation)

Just like a tangled web from a scatterbrained spider, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is a convoluted mess. This overstuffed movie takes too long to define the plot. It’s a barrage of inconsistent visuals that often look like ugly comic-book graffiti. And it’s a huge disappointment as a sequel to 2018’s Oscar-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (based on characters from Marvel Comics), a visually stunning, highly entertaining film that showed tremendous potential as the next great “Spider-Man” movie series. Superhero movies are supposed to tell viewers within the first 30 minutes what the story is going to be about and who the villain is, but the 140-minute “Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse” fails to deliver those basic elements until the movie is more than halfway done.

“Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse” (directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Power and Justin K. Thompson) also commits one of the worst sins of a movie sequel: It’s very unwelcoming to newcomers. People who didn’t see or don’t know what happened in “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” will be confused from the very first scene of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” And even if viewers saw and remember “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” they will have their patience tested by how the overly long “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” jumps from one subplot to the next without much explanation or resolution. Characters appear, disappear for long stretches of time, and then might or might not reappear with any meaningful context on what they’re really supposed to be doing in this movie.

In “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” Miles Morales, also known as web-slinging superhero Spider-Man (voiced by Shameik Moore), is a student in his last year of high school. Miles is the movie’s central character, and he seems to be just as confused by what’s going on in his world as many viewers will be. Miles (who lives in New York City’s Brooklyn borough) is one of several people or creatures who have a Spider superhero alter ego. In the Spider-Verse, these various Spider iterations can time jump and appear in other universes, depending on if they have the power to do so, or are sent there by someone else. Unlike the teenage Peter Parker in the “Spider-Man” franchise, or even the Miles Morales in “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” the Miles in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is barely shown in school or interacting with his schoolmates.

That’s not what’s irritating about this movie. What’s irritating about “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is that it’s so enamored with the concept of various Spider beings, it overloads in introducing these characters but doesn’t have much real character development for them. There are moments of wisecracking jokes (the movie’s comedy is best appreciated by teenagers and adults), but these quips don’t make up for the rest of the uninspired plot and dialogue. And the movie’s big climax just drags on and on, like a rambling stand-up comedian who doesn’t know when to get off the stage.

Miles’ main ally in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is Gwen Stacy (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld), a teenager who’s close to Miles’ age and who might or might not be his love interest. Gwen has a superhero alter ego named Spider-Gwen, who was the last person known to see the adult Peter Parker (voiced by Jake Johnson), also known as the most famous Spider-Man, before Peter died. (This death scene is shown as a flashback of Spider-Gwen at Peter’s side when he dies in a massive urban wreckage.) Gwen’s widower father George Stacy (voiced by Shea Whigham), who’s had a rocky relationship with Gwen, is determined to arrest Spider-Gwen, not knowing that his daughter is really Spider-Gwen.

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” has such a poorly constructed narrative, the only backstory that viewers get about Gwen is her vague voiceover narration in the movie’s opening scene: “I didn’t want to hurt him, but I did. He’s not the only one.” After the flashback of Parker Parker dying in the wreckage, Gwen says in a voiceover: “I never really made another friend after that—except one, but he’s not here.” That other friend, of course, is Miles Morales. But only Spider-Man experts or people who saw “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” will know what Gwen is babbling about in this opening scene.

Gwen is the drummer for an all-female rock trio called the Mary Janes. (The band’s name is a cheeky nod to Mary Jane Watson, who is Peter Parker’s girlfriend in other “Spider-Man” stories.) The beginning of the movie shows the band rehearsing and then Gwen quitting in anger. Why? Don’t expect a good explanation, except she appears to be angry over Peter’s death but she can’t talk to anyone about it. It’s a scene that’s ultimately pointless, like many other scenes in this long-winded film.

After her temper tantrum, Gwen goes home, where she has a bratty attitude with her father, who tells her that the police have gotten a break in the Peter Parker/Spider-Man death case. George says to Gwen: “Too punk rock to hug your old man?” She then quickly hugs him, and all seems to be forgiven. But as soon as you know that George and his police colleagues have made progression in their Peter Parker death investigation, you know what’s eventually going to happen.

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” also shows that Miles’ home life is affected by his superhero antics. A lot of time in this movie is spent on repetitive and not-very-interesting subplots about Miles’ parents—Jefferson Davis (voiced by Brian Tyree Henry) and Rio Morales (played by Luna Lauren Velez, previously known as Lauren Velez)—getting annoyed and worried because Miles is constantly tardy or absent from places where he needs to be. A running “joke” in the movie is that Miles’ parents keep adding to the number of months that they say Miles is grounded.

Miles pops in and out of a meeting that he’s supposed to have with his parents and his school principal (voiced by Rachel Dratch) to discuss his plans after high school. The principal is worried that Miles might be squandering his potential, since he’s been skipping classes. And there are some racist overtones when the principal says she wants to fabricate a narrative for Miles’ college applications by saying on the applications that Miles (who is Afro-Latino) is a poor, underprivileged kid with a rough childhood. (He’s not. Miles actually comes from a stable middle-class family.) Fortunately, the principal’s awful idea is nixed.

In the meeting, it’s mentioned that Miles wants to go to Princeton University to study physics. Rio gets upset because she thinks New Jersey is too far away from Brooklyn. (It’s not.) And then, Miles is out the door before the meeting is over because he has to attend to some secretive Spider-Man superhero business. His plans for what he wants to do after graduating from high school are never mentioned again in the movie. It’s just a time-wasting scene.

n “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” Miles’ relationship with his parents looks authentic. In “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” Miles’ relationship with his parents looks fake and rushed. There’s a very disjointed sequence where Miles is late for a rooftop party that his family is having to celebrate Jefferson getting promoted from lieutenant to captain at the New York Police Department. The death of Jefferson’s thieving criminal brother Aaron, which was shown in “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” is treated as an quick afterthought in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” Miles introduces Gwen to his parents in this rooftop party sequence, which keeps getting interrupted by Gwen and Miles going in and out of the Spider-Verse.

During this very sloppily told and often visually unappealing movie, other characters show up, disappear, then show up again, and might disappear again, with the movie never clearly defining who some of them are and what is purpose of these characters. A villain who comes and goes with no real significance is Adrian Toomes, also known as The Vulture (voiced by Jorma Taccone), who gets into a battle with Spider-Gwen. Don’t expect the movie to give an explanation of who The Vulture is and where he came from, because it’s never mentioned in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”

Miles later thwarts a convenience store robbery by Jonathan Ohnn, also known as The Spot (voiced by Jason Schartzman), a portal-jumping villain character with a black hole for a face and who looks like he’s wearing a white full body suit with Dalmatian patterns. The Spot appears and disappears into portal holes, with no explanation for viewers who aren’t familiar with this character from Marvel comic books. The only clue offered is when The Spot tells Miles, “I’m from your past.”

Other characters who are dropped in and out of scenes are Miguel O’Hara (voiced by Oscar Isaac), a mysterious motorcycle-riding character dressed in a Spider-Man costume; Jessica Drew (voiced by Issa Rae), a no-nonsense, highly trained fighter who happens to be pregnant; and Lyla (voiced by Greta Lee), who is Miguel’s artificial-intelligence assistant. A version of the adult Peter Parker shows up, as a married father of a baby daughter named Mayday, who seems to fill the movie’s quota to have a cute kid character in the movie. A LEGO universe is briefly shown as nothing more than product placement for LEGO.

There are also international versions of Spider superheroes. Hobart “Hobie Brown,” also known as Spider-Punk (voiced by Daniel Kaluuya), is a snarling, sarcastic Brit who seems to be influenced by a 1980s-era Billy Idol. Spider-Punk is the only character who does not have a non-generic personality. Margo Kess, also known as Spider-Byte (voiced by Amandla Stenberg), is an American, openly queer computer expert, whose presence in the movie barely makes a difference to the story. Ben Reilly, also known as Scarlet Spider (voiced by Andy Samberg), is a clone designed to look like Peter Parker. Spider-Man India (voiced by Karan Soni) doesn’t even get his own birth name in the movie, which gives him a brief, goofy appearance that reeks of tokenism.

Some of the movie’s animation is deliberately made to look like unfinished sketches from a comic book. There might be some people who like this visual style, but most viewers of superhero movies want to see consistency in the animation style of movies in the same series. “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” have almost entirely different teams of screenwriters and directors—and these difference show to the movie’s detriment. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman directed “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” which was written by Rothman and Phil Lord. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” was written by Lord, Christopher Miller and Dave Callaham.

There are huge parts of the “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” that look like an experimental art project gone wrong. The animation sometimes look jagged, unpolished and blurry. As for the movie’s unfocused plot, it looks like it was made only for the type of people who know Spider-Man inside jokes or who religiously look for Easter Eggs in “Spider-Man” visual content. A typical family with children under the age of 10 who see this movie will probably feel alienated by how so much of the film is cluttered and unclear. And it begs the question: “Why mess up such a good thing?”

Not all of the visuals in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” consists of animation. There are a few Spiderverse scenes where people appear as cameos in live-action visuals. Donald Glover has one of these cameos. (In real life, Glover famously campaigned to get the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the early 2010s. Andrew Garfield ended up getting the role.) Another cameo is from sassy convenience store owner Mrs. Chen (played by Peggy Lu), who is a minor character in the “Venom” movies, which are connected to the “Spider-Man” franchise. People who haven’t seen the “Venom” movies just won’t know or care about this Mrs. Chen cameo. These cameos are nothing more than stunt casting and add nothing to the plot.

It seems like “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is trying to be an artsy superhero animated film. The problem is that the “Spider-Man” movie brand was made for a wide variety of people, not just comic-book enthusiasts who are obsessive about Spider-Man “canon,” which in comic-book terms means the story as it was originally presented in the comic books. The movie has an annoying tendency to assume all viewers are going to be Spider-Man experts.

And speaking of “canon,” expect to hear a lot of about “canon disruption” in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” Pity any viewer of this steaming pile of pretentiousness who doesn’t have encylopedic knowledge of what is and what is not “canon” in the Spider-Verse. Because yes, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is a very pretentious animated film that is sure to baffle and disappoint many people who think they’re going to see a continuation of what made “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” so special.

Anyone who’s letting children under the age of 10 watch the very messy “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” should be warned that these children will most likely be bored and/or confused, unless all they care about is seeing bright, splashy visuals on screen. The voice cast members for “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” do what they’re supposed to do. But the plot is so jumbled and smug with its fan-service pandering, by the time the end of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” announces that the story continues in “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse” (due out in 2024), many viewers will be thinking to themselves: “No, thank you.”

Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Animation will release “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” in U.S. cinemas on June 2, 2023.

Donald Glover backstage at the 2017 Golden Globe Awards

January 9, 2017

by Carla Hay

The 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards took place on January 8, 2017, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California.

“ATLANTA”

Golden Globe wins:

Best Television Series – Comedy or Musicalhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0hBEpG4jLQ
Best Actor in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical (Donald Glover)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-k39j9g27E

Here is what this Golden Globe winner said backstage in the Golden Globe Awards press room.

Donald Glover at the 2017 Golden Globe Awards — Donald Glover at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 8, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW

Long before it went on the air, “Atlanta” was one of those shows that was predicted to catch on. Did that scare you? Did that encourage you? And then as it became accepted, how did that encourage you?

I always when I heard that kind of stuff, it was just my instinct was to pull back. I guess my instinct is always to under-promise over-deliver. I think the last lens that we have as artist is people’s expectations we’ve done so many things there’s been so many great things already made you know that it’s important to just think about how it’s getting to people, whether it’s through their phones or how they’re hearing about it. My instinct was just kind of pull back. I suppose I was really excited.

I’ve been trying to make the show for a long time. I only cared about what people in Atlanta act like I was like if I can’t walk through a lens like you can name a show “Detroit” and then have Detroit people hate it you know so I really was just only caring about if my parents thought it was cool, my cousins thought it was cool, everybody who lived in Atlanta. If I could go to a Chick-fil-A and have people be like, “Have you seen that Donald Glover show?”

Can you talk about your shout-out to Migos?

I think they’re the Beatles of this generation and they don’t get a lot of respect outside of like Atlanta. Not that they don’t get a lot of respect, but it’s like there’s a generation—sort of like the YouTube generation—there’s a generation of kids that are growing up on something that’s completely separate from a whole group of people. And honestly, that song is just fly—like it there’s no better song to have sex to.

How are you preparing for the role of being the young Lando Calrissian?

Not getting to eat anything enjoyable for the rest of my life. Lando’s a big deal to me. It was just literally the first toy I ever got. It’s interesting when you have something that’s kind of iconic in a range where like people pay attention to it, it’s hard because you want to live up to their expectations but all you really do is live up to your own.

“Star Wars” is really high. I know the directors Chris [Miller] and Phil [Lord] they’re amazing. I love the guy playing Han [Solo]. Like it’s going to be a good time. Emily Clark. It’s going to be fun, so like I’m just getting ready to just have fun with those guys. That’s pretty much it.

You said you’ve been trying to make “Atlanta” for a long time. Did you have a struggle to explain your vision for the show and how you would tackle comedy in a different way than the sitcoms that we have become accustomed to?

I think the best things just can’t be explained … I just kind of Trojan-horsed it. I told FX it was something that it wasn’t, and I then hoped it would be enjoyable when it got there. Thank God like you know John Landgraf and the FX team and everybody was rooting for us and pushed for us.

I went home I guess like two years ago, a year-and-a-half ago after I did Bonnaroo … and my mom was clearing out my room and she handed my brother a box of just stuff. I’m just talking to my mom, and he pulls out this letter, and it was a letter I forgot I wrote that he that I sent to him from college. I was like, “Yo, I had this dream where we write a show together and we do this and we do that.”

So I guess it’s been in my head for a long time. Like I said on the stage before, I truly do believe in magic and dreams. We’ve kind of forgotten that, so I feel like that’s the kind of dreamy part of my show. It’s like you’ve got to believe in kind of human magic a little bit, if that made any sense at all.

What do you think we all can do to make a little bit more magic in the world make it a little bit better?

I think honestly right now we live in a time where things are very divisive. I think Meryl Streep was speaking on this a lot of where it’s like we all have a lot of responsibility. And I remember going to school because I wasn’t allowed to talk about magic and I wasn’t allowed.

I knew Santa Claus was fake, but I was around a lot of kids who didn’t know that, so you have that responsibility to keep that going and understand why you’re doing it because of joy. So I think human joy is super-important. It doesn’t come from computers. It just comes from belief.

Acting, making music all that stuff is believing in something that maybe someone older doesn’t truly believe that like when you see it in a child and makes you kind of believe it again, because we forget how innocent and beautiful we were. So I think it’s our responsibility to make magic again because I think a lot of the shit that’s happening now is bullshit.