Donald Glover Reveals ‘Exact Moment’ He Understood ‘Atlanta Meant Something’ in Handwritten Note on Script Up for Auction
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As the collective WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike enters its second month—with the WGA now at 137 days—the shutdown has caused a ripple effect, impacting the lives of just about everyone in the entertainment industry.
Hollywood writers and directors founded the Union Solidarity Coalition to help crew members in danger of losing their healthcare benefits due to the work stoppage. The organization is auctioning off a number of items and experiences through eBay, including the pilot script for Atlanta, 2016’s “The Big Bang,” written and signed by Donald Glover.
The cover of the April 2015-dated script, which got direction from Hiro Murai, features a handwritten note from Glover, 39. He recalls the moment he knew Atlanta “meant something because the crew took the time to say ‘this is important, but more importantly, it’s funny.'” This moment came when Darius, played by LaKeith Stanfield, puts his actual foot into food he had been preparing after deploying the phrase “I’ma put my foot in this.”
“I remember the crew being like ‘That’s it. That’s the show,’” Donald reflects. “Very few moments come along where the people around you aren’t responsible for your success or failure. But to be able to pinpoint the exact moment I personally knew Atlanta meant something because the crew took the time to say, ‘This is important. But more importantly, it’s funny.’ I’ll always be grateful. They’re always your first real audience and they tend to be the most honest.”
He signs off, “Anyway, enjoy. And thanks for helping out the most honest people in the business.”
It appears Glover is referencing the episode “Woods,” where Darius is making pasta and put his foot in the flour, on the counter.
“It did not feel good. I didn’t know I was going to do that, but it just happened randomly,” Stanfield said about the improvised scene in 2018 to IndieWire. “They let me go for a long time, so I had put my foot in it and I was like, ‘Alright, I’m done.’ And it just kept rolling and my foot’s staying in it far too long. Finally, I was like, ‘Fuck it. Cut.’ I just said ‘cut” and then [Hiro Murai] said ‘cut’ and I got out. It was a mess.”
Glover said the crew made it clear to him that this is what Atlanta could be.
“They’re always your first real audience and they tend to be the most honest,” Glover wrote of production crews. “Anyway, enjoy. And thanks for helping out the most honest people in the business.”
