American actor, rapper and filmmaker Donald Glover and several of the FX series ‘Atlanta’ writers experienced race-based harassment while shooting season three of the show in London.
According to Deadline, during a TCA press conference, Stefani Robinson and Stephen Glover (Donald’s brother), spoke about the incident and how they began to process what happened.
“It was the first night there. This group of people walks up. And maybe one of them kind of notices Donald or recognises 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 other guys,” Stephen said.
The writer also mentioned that the man who initially harassed them stated they could all break into the bar they were shooting in front of because “you guys all carry hammers,” as in guns.
He continued: “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.”
Robinson added how he felt about the situation by saying the situation was “so insulting, but not insulting at the same time because it took us five minutes to fully understand.” Unfortunately, things didn’t stop there.
Once that situation was resolved, the ‘Atlanta’ set experienced another incident of harassment as another man made a racially-charged comment as the group conversed with a woman.
“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’. The girl was literally, like, ‘I’m sorry,’ as she’s being taken away. So, it was pretty bad,” Stephen said.
The group was shocked. “We are just standing there, like, ‘What just happened?’” Donald said.
According to Deadline, season 3 of FX’s ‘Atlanta’ will premiere with a two-parter on March 24. The new episodes come four years after season 2 aired in 2018.
